In August 1912, President Howard Taft, in direct response to the sinking of the Titanic, signed into law ‘An Act to Regulate Wireless Communications’. Part of the Act required that all shipboard wireless stations be manned 24/7 (remember, the operator on Californian threw a fit and switched off after Titanic told him to shut up earlier in the night).

With a shortage of educated Marconi operators, and a new need for around-the-clock coverage, Thomas St. John developed and patented the “St. J. Wireless Codegraph” which assisted new operators in working a Marconi apparatus.

The codegraph is a small metal plate with raised Morse code. New operators could drag a metal stylus across the raised letter and phrase codes to send the wireless signals without learning Morse code. This way, in the event of another emergency, even a layperson could send off an SOS.