Do you remember your training days
Written by Godfrey Dykes
© RN Communications Branch Museum/Library
Do you remember learning to type to the piano music of Winifred Atwell ? If you do, then just click Britannia Rag on the image of Winifred to listen to Britannia Rag.
The other day, I came across a black hardback (cardboard) folder measuring 13½ inches x 12½ inches, and inside were gramophone record folders (sleeves I suppose) each one with the centre circle cut out to allow access to the name of the record. This image is the label on the front cover.
Inside, in some of the sleeves, were broken bits of Bakelite records, some which had formerly measured 12 inches in diameter and another types which measured 10 inches in diameter. Regrettably, none had survived and the sounds on them have been lost for ever. They were a mixture of old learn to type records of commercial derivation (the larger records), and military records from which Radio Telephone procedures were taught (the smaller records) both types running at 78 rpm. Even the centres of the records had been destroyed or damaged, but as you will see, I was able to resurrect something from the debris. All the centres of the learn to type records were the same (three of them), and not one said what the record contained, music, sounds or the spoken voice. Again, there were three military records covering several subjects of R/T training on their six recorded sides: the military records were:-
| RECORD & SIDE | SUBJECTS COVERED IN R/T PROCEDURE |
| 1st - side A 1st - side B 2nd - side A 2nd - side B 3rd - side A 3rd - side B | Call. Text. Ending. Precedence. Receipt and Testing Communications Address. Transmission. Instructions. Text. Break and Corrections Read Back. Say Again. Wilco and Acknowledge Words Twice. I Spell and Abbreviated Method Abbreviated Method (continued) and Executive Method King, Wait and Silence |
