Interesting aspect of 1919 Atkins Catalog

[Pete Taran]

I was perusing the 1919 edition of the Atkins Saw Company Catalog the other day. Typically I flip right to the handsaw pages because I'm looking something up. However, this time I was looking at the first few pages of the catalog and came across something I never noticed before: The Atkins Telegraph Code

It's easy to forget that today with everyone world wide having a cell phone what it must have been like 100 years ago. Even as late as 1919, the primary way to communicate with companies like Atkins was through the telegraph. Below are 2 of the 10 pages of the "Telegraph Code".

If you were to telegraph: "Avian Sewer Singe" to your Aunt Mabel in a nearby state, you might be alerting her to a catastrophe with the local Avian Bird Sanitary Facility. However, if you sent that same message to Atkins, It would be to inform them that you needed an urgent shipment of a Number 62 panel saw, 24" long. (note there was no panel saw longer than 24" :-) )

Thought others might appreciate this discovery.

Happy Sawing

385174385175

[Joe Bailey]

Good stuff Pete!

I've spent way too much time in old catalogs, and though I've seen many of these code words, I never put together the fact that it was to save money on telegram fees, where you paid by the word.

My personal favorite is what appears to be nonsense words in the Simonds catalog of 1904.

385188

[Ron Bontz]

Well,I learn something new everyday. :) Thanks for posting.

[Bill Houghton]

Eventually, someone will turn up a catalog with telegraph codes like "ROTFLMAO," and we'll realize that our new version of telegraph codes are as silly as the old ones.