1878 spill writer restored by Aviodrome volunteer

A volunteer from the Aviodrome Collection Foundation has restored an 1878 morse recorder. The device was used to test the morse skills of telegraphers in training, including military personnel, and to transmit messages on paper. January 11 is "Learn Your Name in Morse Code" day. Morse was first demonstrated by its inventor on this day in 1835.

Morse is an alphabet consisting of long and short dot and dash characters and is produced through a signal key by means of short and long beeps: morse code. The telegraph operator mastered the Morse language and operated the signal key. Messages were sent by cable or radio and the receiver, also a telegrapher, translated the message into a readable language. Morse code was used in aviation and shipping until the 1960s. The telegrapher was therefore part of the crew of the aircraft or ship. Morse code owes its name to its inventor: Samuel Morse. He developed the language around 1835 to communicate through his invention: electric telegraphy.

The restored spill writer from the nineteenth century, from the manufacturer Siemens & Halske, ensured that the Morse messages ended up in copy on a strip of paper. Restorer and radio amateur Piet Lassche: "The spill writer was also used for telegrams. It was basically the WhatsApp of old. At our house it was also used to play pranks. When relatives got married, for example, we would send good luck telegrams in the middle of the night!"

RestorationLassche: "For some time this spill writer had been part of the collection of the Radiokamer in Aviodrome. It was donated several years ago by heirs of a radio amateur. The spill writer was originally used by KLM and there are strong indications that it came from the Dutch East Indies." However, the spill recorder no longer worked, upon which Pete decided to restore the device.

The restoration was not without controversy, and the process took about six months. Lassche: "It wasn't simple! The scribe had not been used for decades and was very dirty. The operation of certain parts was also not entirely clear. I managed, after hours of observation, to disassemble the device down to the smallest screw. Of each operation I took a photo, so that after cleaning it, it could be reassembled properly."

Learn your name in Morse codeThursday, Jan. 11, is "Learn Your Name in Morse Code" day. Lassche: "Ever since my retirement, about 20 years now, I have enjoyed being a volunteer and radio amateur in the Aviodrome Aviation Museum's radio room. Telegrapher is now an extinct profession, but fortunately there are still hundreds of thousands of passionate radio amateurs all over the world."

General manager of Aviodrome Coen Hoozemans: "I am very proud! Not only on the fact that the volunteers in the radio room enjoy demonstrating this intangible heritage on a daily basis, but also that projects like this are taken home and then restored for months and successfully."

In the Radio Room of the Schiphol Building 1928, a replica of the original building, Aviodrome visitors can admire the restored spill writer. Hoozemans: "We would like to invite visitors to learn about the extinct profession and the distant ancestor of WhatsApp!"

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