First of all, In the post below, about telegraphs, somebody asked about how to simulate incoming telegrah messages-contact the Railroad Museum of PA-I was there Tuesday and they have done so.

IMHO, the story of the marriage between the telegraph and the railroad is hard to overemphasize.

However their telegrapher was wearing a conductors style hat which brought me to a series of questions.

Old movies often portray telegrahers and other white collar crafts (journalists, bookeepers) as wearing a green visor commonly referred to as "greeneyeshades". I even saw Andy Griffith put one on in an episode of Mayberry once.

Its seems that these things were common once-old Sears catalogs from 1900 or so list them for sale. They claimed that they were made of the finest transparent green celluloid-which I understand is very flammable doesn't hold up well over time if exposed to UV light.

So my questions are, how do you go about producing a replica of small item like this which is no longer made. How do you establish if they were as common as it appears in Hollywood portrayals?

You could certainly substitute polypropelene I think for celluloid-but how would you establish the "right" color, dimensions, etc.?

Or is it that such a thing was so generic that any reasonable portrayal would solve the trick.

This might be a bit peripheral to preservation-but certainly similar questions must have beenb raised in "living history" interpretations.

Rosco laboratories makes theatrical lighting color media (gels) in a very nice green that will work beautifully. Talk to a theatre near you. Cut to fit and replace the visor on a lightweight tennis or golf headgear.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

I recall my mother telling me about finding an eyeshade for a elderly man in the resthome that her mother was in. Thirty plus years ago she had a difficult but not impossible time finding this item.

How days, I wonder if these are commercially made anymore?

Brian Norden

bnorden49@earthlink.net

> There's some "gambler's visors" available @ some gambling supply houses and novelty hat dealers on the net, but they don't look much like the one in the old Sears catalog.

If they are made, they aren't on the net. I used every descriptional variation and all the best meta search engines.

Which brings me back to the original question? When there is something that needs to be reproduced, how do you establish what it was made of and stay true to the original dimensions, color, design, etc?

I can think of other stuff that was part of the railroad era that isn't made anymore-such as wicker. In general what's the drill researching and reproducing obselescent materials, etc.

..according to this page (scroll to bottom of page):

http://www.lebow.drexel.edu/wieck/MISRe ... ding4.html

Reads: "no one uses the Morse more religiously than the 2,400 members of the Morse Telegraph Club, which has made its own green eyeshades to mimic the ones telegraph operators once wore."

The Morse Telegraph Club has a website with E-mail addresses (under "Details" button). Perhaps they can tell you how to make one, or even have one to sell:



The Morse Telegraph Club
bilburns1313@ameritech.net

Theatrical costume supply houses and party catalogs offer a version of the traditional eyeshade, but the color is not quite the deep green of the old ones and the celluloid is very flimsy. Also, they have a white vinyl headband/strap, not at all like the originals which had black strap rubber or leather. My old one had a chain link headband of black rubbery plastic, but my dad got it for me
40 years ago when he worked for a newspaper, another profession which made use of them. Maybe some old office supply store has some stacked away in an attic...

Depot88@aol.com