You might think that sending telegrams is an old fashioned way to communicate. In Spain this is still common in some towns and small cities. Learn how to talk about this interesting activity in today's lesson.
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Question of the day:
Have you ever sent a telegram?
Alguna vez han enviado un telegrama?
Marco: Usted debe ser extremadamente joven para no saber que Western Union es todavía muy activo. En México, por ejemplo, decenas de miles de telegramas se envían cada año. Internet no es común, cómo la utilizamos, y las personas no tienen computadoras o de servicios de Internet en su hogar. Además, el dinero es por cable a través de Western Union de los Estados Unidos a México al día. Además, el Código Morse no se utiliza.
Nunca he recibido ni enviado ningún telegrama. Ni los he visto aparte de los de las peliculas. Qué lástima!
En Japon, es muy comun enviar telegramas para bodas o funerals.
MC will read some of the telegrams at the wedding reception in case of a wedding. I also have seen MC reading telegrams at some memorial ceremonies or parties (not at the actual funeral).
Usually, those who send telegrams are the ones who actually could not attend the wedding/funeral.
Pero nunca he receibido uno. No pienso quela genteuse telegramas para comunication en Japon.
Telegrams these days come in all kind of styles! Some even come with Mickey Mouse!
http://www.ntt-east.co.jp/dmail/wedding/index.html
¡Es uno de mis sueños enviar un telegrama! Aquí muchas compañías han suspendido el servicio de transmisión de telegramas debido a la popularidad del correo electrónico.
No tiene que ser sueño Lucie, todavía es posible mandar un telegrama. Llameles al Western Union. Todavía llegan los mensajes impresos en ese papel amarillo y huelen a nostalgia!
Porota, ¡gracias! Lo voy a investigar :-)
Hi Guys
I’m a satellite communications engineer, but my old company owned half the world’s submarine cables. The first cables all carried telegraph (telegram) messages. Nowadays submarine cables carry most of the world’s Internet and voice traffic. The laying of the first submarine cable across the Atlantic was one of the greatest engineering feats in history.
The Morse Code which was, and still is used in sending telegrams, formed the basis of the digital codes that are used in all modern computer systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1JEuzBkOD8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6PXf8YnjV4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duI1m9WI0Ls&feature=related
Dave
Dave
Very interesting! I did not know submarine cables did that! Thanks for sharing.
Wow! That is so cool! How do you go about fixing a broken cable?
Yo recuerdo los telegramas en Cuba.Eran muy fáciles de hacer y muy económicos.Se solían enviar por cualquier motivo,para decir solamente:
Estamos bien. o Fulano murió.
Mientras más cortos más baratos. :)
Recuerdo un chiste relacionado con los telegramas y la importancia de usar bien los signos de puntuación en ellos.
En un pueblo tenían preso a una persona ( que era inocente,no tenía culpa de nada) y se estaba esperando la decisión de qué hacer con él por medio de un telegrama desde la fiscalía de otro pueblo.El telegrama tendría que haber dicho:
¡Matarlo no,dejarlo vivo!
Pero en realidad esto fue lo que llegó:
¡Matarlo,no dejarlo vivo!
Y como las órdenes se cumplen y no se discuten....
Pobre hombre,por una coma mal puesta.:(
Ha! Buen chiste! Para que vean la importancia de usar bien la coma!
Hi Marco
Very good question. The first part of a cable route is usually in quite shallow water close to the coastlines where there is a continental shelf. Beyond that, the ocean floor drops down sharply. When the cable routes are planned, careful consideration has to be taken in order to avoid undersea volcanoes ( there are many of those), as well as areas of seismic disturbance. Most cables get cut due to fishermen pulling them up in their nets or due to ships’ anchors. Many fishermen are killed when their axes hit the central power line in the cable. When the cables are cut, the two ends usually fly apart from each other. If the break has occurred in the middle of the Atlantic, that causes a lot of problems. Firstly, you need to know where the break is. Pulses can be sent from both ends and the time for the pulses to return can be measured. From this, you can determine the distances to the ends of the breaks. Now you have to physically get there. Large cable ships go out and (using GPS) go to where the break is thought to be. Sumarine robots are then used with very bright lights, cameras and sonar to find the ends. Pincers are used to grab one end and take it to the surface. The same process takes place with the other end. This is very difficult. Due to the weight of the cable (even fiber optic cables have copper conductors to allow electricity to power the repeaters) this is a difficult task. Once you have the ends, you now need to splice them together and then put the cable back into the sea carefully.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOif2kjyiCE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6iBZT7cyVA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8ubOYtqcg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CRx8Ix1Nho&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3RCLIYVDhM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xbfcD1qtsI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g7DbgfHVHU&feature=fvw
Dave
Since Marco and Lily were wondering about the Pony Express.
The image of the Pony Express is of young riders galloping across the prairie. But hundreds of years ago when John Upson made his first run, he spent a lot of the riding time walking. It was April 1860, The Pony Express had a goal: deliver mail 1,966 miles between Missouri and California in less than 10 days. Today, ten days is very slow to deliver mail, but a hundred years ago ten days was very fast. Ships usually took months to cross oceans and coaches took at least 25 days to travel 1,000 miles. So a transportation company put out the call: "Wanted-young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over 20. Must be expert riders, and are willing to risk their lives for the job. Orphans preferred. Wages twenty five dollars a week." Company employees came up with a relay system. Each rider would travel 100 miles night and day, riders would stop every ten to twenty miles to change new horses. When a rider got to their home station, a new rider would take over. In all, there would be 190 stations along the Pony Express trail.
Some info on Morse Code:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWDKgB5_CVU&feature=related
Dave
Some info on Morse Code:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWDKgB5_CVU&feature=related
Dave
Yes, also for Marco. The Pony Express did not deliver telegrams, just letters, I think. It was a tremendous feat for the telegraph wires to be strung across the US, along side the railroad tracks. The train agents in the depots would receive telegrams and pass them on to other depots or retrieved them for people in that vicinity. I imagine that the postal service and Western Union were somewhat in competition. In WWII my mother and my grandmother lived only about 10 miles apart in the country (US) but they wrote letters back and forth because there was no phone service in rural areas where they lived. So anything urgent was by telegram or someone driving over dirt roads at a time when cars were scarce and gas was rationed.