Sounder

[centurion]

Reading a diary entry by an officer (who later served in WW1) undertaking an exam on signalling pre war. He gives his marks for Small Flag, Lamp, Semaphore and Helio - all of which I understand, burt also Sounder which I don't; is this a Morse buzzer on a field telegraph or a Ground buzzer (both WW1 equipment) or something else that was or was not used in WW1?

[Old Tom]

I would suggest that it was simply a device capable of short and long sounds, rather like a voice mouthing 'dis' and 'dahs'. I recall something like that from my Boy Scout service.

Old Tom

[centurion]

I would suggest that it was simply a device capable of short and long sounds, rather like a voice mouthing 'dis' and 'dahs'. I recall something like that from my Boy Scout service.

Old Tom

A Morse buzzer?

[horatio2]

A Morse buzzer?

I think so. An apparatus which enabled the electromagnetic telegraph signal to be converted into a useful, audible sound which the operator could read as morse code.

[MikeMeech]

Hi

This is probably not what the diary mentions but you never know.

The French had 'Sound Signalling' devices in use pre-war and in the early war years probably. This was a continuation of earlier battlefield sound systems, the drum and bugle. The US Army translated and printed earlier French documents when they came into the war in 1917. Some illustrations follow:

The 'Trumpet' or 'periscope bugle'.

The 'listening device' or 'ear trumpets'

The 'Gas operated sending apparatus'.

They would send 'Morse' sound signals.

Mike