My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office ... - Monoskop

22
DAILY LIFE IN THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE
office and the chief operator hurries a man post-haste to see what
the trouble is.
The Telegraph Age article described the Springfield Western Union office
as a fairly typical medium-sized commercial office at the turn of the
century. It was on the main line between New York and Boston, and the 120
telegraph lines that passed through the office handled a large share of the
brokerage traffic. Mrs. Cody and her staff of eleven operators, five clerks,
and fifteen messengers handled approximately one thousand messages a day.
Although Telegraph Age described Mrs. Cody’s position as “an unusual
one for a woman,” her background and training were typical for senior-level
telegraphers. Elizabeth Cody entered telegraphy after graduating from high
school in 1892; her on-the-job training and twelve years’ experience qualified
her for the top technical position. 13
Duties of Operators
Operators were responsible for transmitting and receiving messages in
Morse code. To receive a telegram, an operator would copy the text onto a
blank message form as she decoded the clicking of the sounder. After copying
the message, the operator would proofread the message and verify the
word count against a “check” value contained in the message. The time of
Figure 11. Elizabeth A.
Cody, chief operator,
Springfield,
Massachusetts, Western
Union Office, 1905.
From Telegraph Age,
May 1, 1905, 180.
Reproduced from the
Collections of the
Library of Congress.