Macaroni
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Macaroni is spaghetti that has been moulded into a different shape by Marconi. For moulding the spaghetti into a macaroni shape, the Morse alphabet was developed.
In this alphabet, there are essentially only two shapes, a dot-shape and a hyphen-shape.
These are referred to as:
- Tubetti: Dot
- Penne Linguini: Dash
History[edit | edit source]
The first tests of this system were made by Giguilemi Macaroni atop Signal Hill in the Dominion of Newfoundland in 1902 and served with the finest of old cheddar.
The Macaroni wireless telegraph system remained in service for many years, despite the distress signals from the Titanic arriving cold, waterlogged and largely inedible. Various efforts were made by top chefs to improve the system, most notably by the invention of the 2450MHz magnetron tube as a means of reheating the dots and dashes after reception.
As macaroni in dots is too small to be edible, simplified Morse alphabets only know the hyphen and have got rid of the dots. Where the traditional Marconists kept alternating dit's and dah's whilst moulding the spaghetti in more subtle shapes, modern ones sound far more monotonous.
This may be why the original Macaroni system of radio telegraphy has been supplanted by TV Dinners.