jakkarth

I'm in an English pub. Two guys I don't know are playing with a metal arm attached to a board. There's a spring, and when they press the arm it pops back to its original position. I realize it's a telegraph key. They're laughing at it and don't understand what it is. I look over to a nearby table to see Samuel Morse and a friend of his looking on with disappointment. Apparently the two men laughing were potential investors and they don't seem impressed. The four regroup at the table and I wander closer to hear what they're saying. Morse is trying to explain how he thinks it will revolutionize communications, but one of the investor men interrupts and asks why he didn't use a "single blast," presumably a dit, to be 0 to making calling long distance easier (never mind that this clearly predates the telephone). Morse sheepishly tries to explain that this isn't about telephony, and the investors snort derisively and walk away. Morse is dejected and his friend looks troubled. I sit down at their table and tell him that he's got to learn how to sell his idea. It's not inferior to telephony, it's superior to the Royal Mail. I launch into an example of shaving 3 weeks off of resupply requests to Africa, but I keep getting tripped up by not knowing if they have a king or queen at this point in history, or if they're using miles or kilometers.