Saturday, March 16, 2013
Why diamond?
When I made a model of Wheatstone's needle telegraph, I puzzled over his diamond-shaped 'map' of letters. It seems like a highly inefficient use of the available signals and actions.
Here's an indication that diamond shapes were all the rage among telegraph makers and code designers in that era. This proposal used gaslights, which were more familiar and reliable than electricity in 1826:
Note the alphabet ending in VUWXYZ. Though U and V have always been perfectly distinct in English and its Teutonic ancestors, the power of Latin scholarship lingered in the silly pretense that U/V is the same letter, and I/J is the same letter. Apparently the pretense was stronger than the need for a settled alphabetical order!
= = = = =
Update 3/23: The word 'Signal-House' on that drawing somehow awakened my graphical Muse. I felt the need to bring the 1826 vision to completion. Results visible here. For Poser and Daz3d types, the complete set is on my ShareCG page.
¶ 12:08 PM 
Note the alphabet ending in VUWXYZ. Though U and V have always been perfectly distinct in English and its Teutonic ancestors, the power of Latin scholarship lingered in the silly pretense that U/V is the same letter, and I/J is the same letter. Apparently the pretense was stronger than the need for a settled alphabetical order!
= = = = =
Update 3/23: The word 'Signal-House' on that drawing somehow awakened my graphical Muse. I felt the need to bring the 1826 vision to completion. Results visible here. For Poser and Daz3d types, the complete set is on my ShareCG page.
¶ 12:08 PM
