End Of An Era

[Bazile]

I didn't even realise that they were still being sent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-22953657

this from the article -

//Punctuation - always spelt out in full before 1937 - was not transmitted in telegrams unless the sender specifically requested.

The exception was "stop".

OR STOP AS TELEGRAMS WERE ALWAYS WRITTEN IN CAPITAL LETTERS. //


'' as telegrams were always written in capital letters ''

I dont follow that - What is the relevance/ connection of capital letters , with the word ' stop ' ?

[emmie]

me neither..

[woofgang]

none. The only punctuation generally used was the full stop and it was used in it"s written form. The person who wrote the article has written "stop" in lower case, then used that as a link to explain that telegraphs were written in upper case.

[Sparkles62]

I thought that telegrams finished around the late 80,s early nineties and were taken over by the Telemessage, which never really seemed to take off.

[woofgang]

That was so in the UK Sparkles, the article is about India

[Kevink]

I think it should have read
' "stop." Or STOP as telegrams were always written in capital letters.'
In other words, the first quote is incorrect - a rather poor attempt at a humorous aside.

[jno]

she's saying it's normally "stop" but because telegrams were written in capital letters it was "STOP".

[Kevink]

^^^
Hmm, I seem to have read that somewhere above.

[FredPuli43]

They were written in capitals for the sake of clarity: b and d are smaller and not as distinct as B and D , for example.

When a French novelist, asking about his novel, wanted to know how sales were going he sent ? and got the reply, from his publisher, !. Evidently the French had a different practice from us with telegrams.

[jno]

some people type their answers slower than others, Kevink

[Quizmonkey]

Peccavi

[FredPuli43]

Quite, quizmonkey. There is some doubt whether our classically educated general sent that Latin pun, for it may be the work of Punch's resident wits. Still " I have sinned" and "I have Sind" was a good one, whoever wrote it.