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.,:;:»,~~:Ï::~' Wednesday, April 2, 1997 - 7 -J Not se glamourous -- but appreciated SCRATCH PADS J 5O4ea. or 3for $1 What a deal! These are some of the peo- pie that usually get over- Iooked, but are dolng a great job. The volunteer dishwash- Arthur Black Do you have any idea what I mean when I write DOT- DOT-DOT, DASH-DASH- DASH, DOT-DOT-DOT? If you do, chances are you're a littie longer i the tooth than your average Generation X-er. Those dots and dashes spell out help! Mayday! Aidez-mol! Au sec- ours! Hey, buddy -- gimme a hand! Speclflcally they speli out the letters S,0 and S -- the lnternatlonally recognized dlstress signal. The telegra- pher on the Ttanic frantical- ly typed out that message just before his shlp went to Its watery doom. Samne thing happened on the Lusitania,' the Andrea Doria and the SS Edmund Ftzgeroldi. SOS .... SOS... .My pop told me it stands for Save Our Ship, Save Our Souls. If that's not true, it ought to be. There's no telling how many thousands of lives Morse Code has saved -- at sea and on land - since it was lnvented by one Samuel FilIey Breese Morse, 159, years ago. Morse, a Massachusetts artlst and sometime inventor was foollng around wth an electromagnet when it occurred to hlm that he could use short-duration electric cuitent to print a pretty well infInite serles of marks on a movlng striýp of paper. By pressing a key, he could make those- marks long (a dash) or, wth a light touch, short (a dot). It further occurred to him that, with a lot of work, he could come up with a code fro the alphabet made up of various groupings of dots and dashes. Morse ers at T'hursday nilght's Odd Connùe Hooey. ilhey look a bit Fellows and Rebekah Dinner. dazed but thafs because 1 Looking at us are Marian scared them îTItO turning Adams, Steven Graham and around! poked around for several years, refinlng his idea. Flnally he was ready to go public with it. His flrst message traveled by, overhead wire from Baltimore to Washington in 1844. Decoded, It read WHAFT HAH GOD WROUGHT. Sam Morse didn't know It, but he, (not God) had wrought a system of codified conversation that was des- tined to dominate long dis- tance communication around the world for the next centu- ry and a half. The beauty of Morse Code is its universal adaptabillty. You don't need a telegraph key to use it. Morse Code can be sent by whistles, buzzers, flags, even by alternating clenched and open flsts. At night, you cari "speak Morse" wlth anything from a llght- hou se beacon to a Bic lighter. Prisoners have used Morse Code to communicate between celîs, rapping on their bars or water pipes. In the hands of an expert, Morse code approached an art formn. Operators wth sen- sitive fingertlps çould tap out messages witl' bhsterrng speed. They calîed it making the wlres sing'. 'It's a littie likf- music" says one Morse openitor. It's been an~ altogether wonderful and iife-enhancing invention, old $amn Morse's brainwave. Too bad it's aibout to die. French maritime radio authorities have already offi- cially given up §ending mes- sages in Morse. The rest of the world is exp@cted to follow suit. Two years from now. use of Morse by maitime author- ities is schediled to be a thing of the past, worldwide. What did Morse Code in? Advancing techfiology, for the most part. The cxperts say it's too horse-and1buggY to sur- vive in an age of ultra-slick, hyper-quick radilo and satel- lite communication. Well, perhapo. But I like to thlnk that thef e will always be room for a system of non- vocal communication that doesn't have to rely on inter- stellar satellites and fancy dlsplay monitors in order to work. But hey -- wbat do 1 know? P'm a hopeless romantic and an unregenerate Luddite from way back.' All I can do is lament the passing --,and maybe tap out a tribute on my keyboard. DOT-DOT-DOT-DASHî- DOT-DASH. I'm pretty sure that's Morse Code for 'over and out'. STIUTT'S PHARMM2Y IN~TRODUCES WATCH FOR GREAT PHOTOFINISHING SPECIALS New Store Hours: Monday toFriday 9 arn - 6 pm Saturday,9 arn - 5 pm 983-5009 T e opertin e e TENDER SEALED TENDERS, clearly marked as to contents, for the following requirements isted below, submitted to the Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington, Office of the Clerk, 40 Temperance Street, Bowmanville, Ontario, LiC 3A6, are invited and will be received on the forms and in the envelope provided until the specified closing time and date. Tender documents may be obtained f rom the Purchasing Office at the above address.1a Tender CL97-6 Tender CL97-5 Closing Time & Date: -Surface Treatment -heat, supply and apply liquid asphaft emulsion HL15SS( approx. 415,000 litres) -supply, spread and roll 5/8" Class 2 aggregate (approx. 5400 tonnes), -Asphaît and Surface Treatment Pulverizing -Pulverize approx. 113,500 sq. metres 2:00 p.m. (local lime> Wednesday, Aprîl 16, 1997 The lowrzst or any tender flot necessarily accepted. Mrs. Lou Ann Birkett, C.P.P., A.M.C.T. Purchasing Manager Telephane: (ýO5> 623-3379i, Ext. 268 P.O. 615S4 Northcutt Eliott [EJFuneral Home THIOUGHTFULNESS SERVICE & CONCERIN A Family Owned Business, Offeingiý: - Traditional Funeral Services Preatranged & Prepaid Services- Cremation Arrangements Alternatives to Traditional Funerals - Out ofTown Shipping 53vsiot, Cory Kuipers - President 623-5668 Bowmanville Ontario LiC 2Z8 OFF STRE"T PARKIMNG ONTARIO Date of Pubication: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 i) mm Get more ý Outof life.:: Câ#,,Oîg, Brothers.ý -Ï.