The Morsecodians' Fraternity

At right is the badge of the Sydney Morsecodian's Fraternity, a group of aging telegraphists who never quite forgot the romance of the Morse code era. Their annual reunions are cheerful, noisy affairs during which conversation only stops while the speeches are being made; and it stops not merely from courtesy but because everybody wants to listen—the speeches are made in Morse Code.

People whose only knowledge of Morse comes from watching old movies or listening to the SMS signal on their mobile phones may be surprised to learn that it didn't always sound like that. The buzzer, or oscillator, was used only in radio communication. When Morse was used on land-lines the signals were a series of clicks and telegraphists were trained to read the spaces between those clicks.