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How to Dial

Eisenhower! One of my heroes!

300px-Dwight_Eisenhower_Signature.svg.png
 
After UPS started using the little touchscreen to sign on in the 90s my signature went from being nice and legible to a scribbled W. K-----.
 
I learned that signatures don't have to be readable, just distinctive. After signing dozens of ship's logs every day, mine became much simpler. On a related note, there was a brain teaser in Reader's Digest (remember that one?) to compare names with signatures. The one that I was sure was Khrushchev's actually belonged to Eisenhower.

I admit mine isn't as clear a it used to be, we get used to scribbling it out I suppose and the touch screens don't help. But what you said made me think of presidential signatures. Would you know Trump's s his if you didn't know he was president when shown a signed document on TV or in a picture for example.
 
Dial-return doo-hickies?
 
Correct.
They are the the one way clutch thing that drives the return governor. I just came across them when I was going through my tool cabinet.

The company I use to work for made machines that made all the phone parts for the GPO in England. The gear assembly machine was one that I had to build. All the parts were auto fed to the final assembly turret. The little gears were a holdup till someone came up with a magazine design like a LP record holding hundreds of gears. May still have a photo somewhere.
Brings back memories from the mid 70s.

David
 
Look at yard sales or estate sales and flea markets. you can buy and old dial phone for $5 and up. Bought mother-in-law an old princess phone as she washed her cell and couldn't remember how to dial her digital land phone. All she has to do now is pick , say "hello" and hang up when done and numbers are bigger. I carried mail for 19 yrs and always had to have a signature for certified, insured packages. once a high school girl answered door and I asked for her signature, she said " I can only print, is that OK?", Sorry, legal document, have Mom pick it up at Post Office. How do they sign drivers license?
 
"How do they sign drivers license?"

Or a job application, or marriage license, or medical releases, or endorse a check, or ...

yikes

 
I've a scan of my 'chop' on file to use with PDF stuff, my cursive is vertical and seldom used now. Check writing is about all. Lettering is what I use to do any written correspondence. From childhood my dad made it a practice that I printed info. Drafting/mechanical drawing, rendering wiring schematics were all part of growing up for me.

Been asked many times: "Are you an architect?" or: "You're an engineer?"

"No, just a putz with a legible hand."
 
Tom, this is how they'll sign: X.

Doc, I remember when I was a freshmen in engineering school that we focused on printing. It was excruciating for me but I made it through and my print is very neat and uniform it just takes me a little effort to produce. When I rush though my print looks like that of a second grader.
 
I was taught cursive in grade school by a strict Englsh teacher. Didn't have an excuse for sloppy as my Dad and Mom bad the perfect cursive writing. Later in years, I saw a Dr's signature and his script for a prescription, so I now do the same, just make it barely recognizable.
 
In the days before word processors or printers this is how it was done. Dip pen and ink well.

I picked this up art a junk store in England. Wish I had got more as it is very interesting. It is a lease agreement and details every last detail of the property Hard to read the text now. I presume that is what they meant by signed and sealed.

David

Indenture.jpg
Indenture 2.jpg
Signed and sealed.jpg
 
That is exactly what they mean by signed and sealed. Seals go back to a time when the bulk of people, including monarchs, were typically illiterate and anything that a scribe wrote down would need to be sealed so that everyone could see that it was a legitimate document. As signatures became more common seals became less common until they became strictly ceremonial.
 
There was a time that letters were sealed with wax to prevent snooping and were stamped in wax of the family crest. I think it went out in the 1800s.
 
Sealing wax became an art medium. My mother would drip wax onto pine cones to make Christmas decorations. The wax sticks had a wick just like a candle as far as I remember.

In England they may still attach a postage stamp to legal documents.

David
 
Some States require a notarized document to contain either the notary's seal and/or the expiration date of his/her authority. You sometimes will see the initials L.S. at the end of the signature line. This means locus sigilli - the place where the seal would go, except that AFAIK, no seal is now required anywhere in the US for the signer of the document. The initials are enough. Another legal fiction.
 
The only time I have ever seen LS on a line was for the notary's seal (OK's are now stamps).
 
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