Telegraph History: "Telegram for America"
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- more at "History, technology and 1950s-era practice of the telegraphy business."
Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
Telegraph (from Greek: tele τηλε "far", and graphein γραφειν "writing") is the long-distance transmission of messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus semaphore is a method of telegraphy whereas pigeon post is not.
...In the 19th century, the harnessing of electricity brought about the means to transmit signals via electrical telegraph. The advent of radio in the early 1900s brought about radiotelegraphy and other forms of wireless telegraphy. In the Internet age, telegraphic means developed greatly in sophistication and ease of use, with natural language interfaces that hide the underlying code, allowing such technologies as electronic mail and instant
Telegraphs as such have existed in Europe from as early as 1792, then in form of a semaphore line, or optical telegraph, that sent messages to a distant observer through line-of-sight signals. In 1837, American artist-turned inventor Samuel F. B. Morse conducted the first successful experiment with an electrical recording
n 1851, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was organized in Rochester, New York by Hiram Sibley and others, with the goal of creating one great telegraph system with unified and efficient operations. Meanwhile, Ezra Cornell had bought back one of his bankrupt companies and renamed it the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company. Originally fierce competitors, by 1855 both groups were finally convinced that consolidation was their only alternative for progress. The merged company was named The Western Union Telegraph Company at Cornell's insistence, and Western Union was born.
Western Union bought out smaller companies rapidly, and by 1860 its lines reached from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, and from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. In 1861 it opened the first transcontinental telegraph. In 1865 it formed the Russian American Telegraph in an attempt to link America to Europe, via Alaska, into Siberia, to Moscow. (This project was abandoned in 1867.) The company enjoyed phenomenal growth during the next few years. Its capitalization rose from $385,700 in 1858 to $41 million in 1876. However it was top-heavy with stock issues, and faced growing competition from several firms, especially the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company--itself taken over by financier Jay Gould in 1875. In 1881 Gould took control of Western Union.
It introduced the first stock ticker in 1866, and a standardized time service in 1870. The next year, 1871, the company introduced its money transfer service, based on its extensive telegraph network. In 1879, Western Union left the telephone business, having lost a patent lawsuit with Bell Telephone Company. As the telephone replaced the telegraph, money transfer would become its primary business.
When the Dow Jones Transportation Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven all-American companies tracked.
By 1900 Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two international cables.
20th century
The company continued to grow, acquiring more than 500 smaller competitors. Its monopoly power was almost complete in 1943 when it bought Postal Telegraph, Inc., its chief rival.
In 1914 Western Union offered the first charge card for consumers; in 1923 it introduced teletypewriters to join its branches. Singing telegrams followed in 1933, intercity fax in 1935, and commercial intercity microwave communications in 1943. In 1958, it began offering Telex service to customers in New York City. Western Union introduced the 'Candygram' in the 1960s, a box of chocolates accompanying a telegram featured in a commercial with the rotund Don Wilson. In 1964, Western Union initiated a transcontinental microwave system to replace land
Western Union became the first American telecommunications corporation to maintain its own fleet of geosynchronous communication satellites, starting in
Due to declining profits and mounting debts, Western Union slowly began to divest itself of telecommunications-based assets starting in the early
This is more impressive than the internet kinda
I sent some telegrams home when I was stationed in the Philippines in the 1970s.
An amazing look into the past this. Just imagine that back in the 1950s, this was the only form of long distance communication, international phone calls simply didn't exist yet.
I think back in the 1950's international phone calls did exist, but it was ridiculously expensive !!!!!!!!
TAT 1 ( sea cable for Telephone) was installed in 55 ish. It connected an operator in White Plains NY with London. In essence you could be in Manchester and call San Fran but the cost went up for every operator that was required which means basically every city or town along the route, It would have taken bit of time having to connect to so many operators to patch up so the cost would have been very high. But even back then, money wasn't a problem for some people depending on how important the information was. London to Paris cable was installed about 1960 ish.
You can communicate using radio
I used to work for the phone company. I guess back in that day inter-office trunk lines did not exist. So if you wanted to call someone beyond the local exchange, you were out of luck. I am just guessing. I remember seeing an old advert at my grandmother's house. The phone number only had 4 digits, so I imagine there was no possibility of calling from outside that exchange because no extra info was given on the advertisement. It is funny this film is so old, it assumes you know all this stuff. We take it all for granted now. But man, I bet people slept better back then not having the brain constantly bashed with information 24/7.
@@wingsmith9003 yes and when Ricky and Lucy went to Europe and called little Ricky big Ricky was like HURRY! I believe it was Ricky birthday episode and they were in Italy or something
Close to magic? Whatever science we don't know is magic until we understand how it works.
Great Documentary. I loved it!
Ever hear of Postal Telegraph Co.? They were a competing telegraph system to Western Union.
Yes... I remember during the last big hurricane here in Florida. I lost power and all I had was a battery powered radio. No TV , internet, or mail delievery, or electricity. I literally felt like I was on a deserted island. People must have felt like this before electtfonic communication.,
What year did the movie come out? It reminds me of the movies shown in school, during " rainy day lunches ". Thanks.
People don't tend to miss what they never had.
I believe it's was 1952 , I remember watching this in elementary school on rainy day too. Love these movies
This is definitely 1940's era. Maybe even pre-war based on some clues. @ACM TV, do you guys have this on celluloid? It would be cool to have a better scan than this one.
Great documentary
What American accent is that spoken in these types of films from yesteryear?
Mid atlantic accent. Nobody talks like that except in radio or movies. Apparently it's the middle ground sorta accent where the majority of english speaker (especially ESL speakers) could understand, from people as north as Alaska to people as south as south africa or the falklands to the jungle of Borneo
sadly almost all gone now since feb 6 2006 . all wu does now is moneygrams. i just learned that a orginzation called i telegram now owns and operates the former wu network. cool
A telegraph in a car! Wow! What will they think of next! 09:10
Texting! The classic way!
What year is this documentary from?
So primitive compared to what we have today.
Abe Mortillaro Not really the technology in this video is closer to what we use today then the older analog telephones of the 90's
What you are having today will be considered primitive in the next 10 years!
And yet it was an impressive feat to pull off. Watching videos about old technology really helps give that sense of appreciation for the smart ideas people had to push technology forward, and to get us to today.