This SARA meeting will be Hybrid: in-person at Alplaus Fire House and via Zoom
7:00—8:30 PM ………….Speaker Presentation
(Zoom link to be sent out separately prior to the meeting)
The History of Telegraph Keys
Speaker: Tom Pererra, W1TP
Abstract: The invention of the electric telegraph revolutionized communication and led to the development of all forms of digital technology and the Internet. Messages that would have taken days or months to deliver could be sent in a fraction of a second. As with all revolutionary technological advances, controversies arose about who was the first to invent this technology. Manufacturing companies competed with each other for the lucrative telegraph key market and military customers demanded specialized technology.
As time went on, the earliest telegraph keys became very valuable collectors’ items.
This presentation will trace the evolution of telegraph keys and telegraph key designs, and provide up-to-date information about their current values.
About our speaker:
Tom Perera is a retired professor of neuroscience. He has been an active ham radio operator for over 69 years. He has been collecting and researching telegraph keys since he was first licensed. His telegraph museum website: W1TP.com is the go-to website for all telegraph key information. It contains 3000 pictures and descriptions of telegraph keys most of which he has owned. His book: “Telegraph Key Collector’s Guidebook,” his “Telegraph Key Collectors” CD-ROM library, and his many lectures and demonstrations provide additional information about telegraph key history.