Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-20
Sixty Years of the TeIeg raph.


1t is hard for us to conceive that it
was only 60 years ago that the world
had to depend upon the mails or upon
messengers for the transmission of
news and the transaction of business.
In these times when we read at the
breakfast table whatever Of Importance
has happened within "a hours on the
other side of the world, and when men
in Augusta do business with others
who are in Boston or Chicago or San
Francisco as promptly as though they
were in the next building, we can hard
" grasp the idea of the world as it
was before Geographic communication
was a reality. Yet it was just 60 years
ago, this month"; that the telegraph re-
ccived it's first practical commercial
use. Before that, for some years, TEL
egraphy had been a dream, a toy and
an experiment, but with the successes
of that month it became a business
utility and a necessity of modern life.
1t was on the occasion of the Wing
national convention, held in Baltimore
in late May, 1914, that Professor Morse
won his first great triumph by trans
hitting the news of it's proceedings TO
Washington. The line was only 40
miles in length, but the wonder of the
performance was greater than it would
be now to get wireless messages in
Washington from the banks of the
Yalu. 1t was on May "a, 1914. that
Morse sent his historic message from
the rooms of the United States su-
preme court. 1t was instantaneously
received and Immediately returned.
Yet there were scoffers that day as
there were when the news of the Mar
conf triumph came from Newfoundland,
and the Atlantic ocean mad been crossed
by wireless messages. The Morses suI
cess was Il matter of only few words,
the public dcrided, not believing the new
toy would ever prove practical; few
words might be sent but the wires and
the electric current could never trans
nit long messages any distance. Then
came the Wing convention at Balti-
more and Washington read of the hap
penings as rapidly as they transpired.
Washington was amazed.
Slowly the line extended from Wash
ington to Philadelphia, to New York
across the continent, and today, 60
years after the Wing convention, al
most a quarter of a million miles of
telegraph lines in the United States
alone convey messages. as quick as
lightning flash, to the remote hamlets,
mountain and valley. In 1901 the
Western Union Telegraph company re-
ported that it had 1859 miles of poles
and cables, 972,766 miles of wire, 1929
offices, and transmitted 65,657,O49 mes
sages, while the Postal Telegraph COM
pany reported 1880 miles of poles and
CdbleS, Z4o,4E0 miles OF WIRE, 14,SIU
offices and transmitted 17,S9S,O73 mes
sages. In 1902 the figures for the
United States showed .219,97S miles of
lines and S3,555.12 messages trans
mitted. Fifty eight years before then
forty-mile line and a report, less than
column of the average newspaper to-
day. were the newest wonders of the
world. What a helpless and slow old
institution the world would be, today,
without the telegraph. Within the past
few years Marconi and his wireless
system have been derided and scoffed
at as were Morse and biography in
1874. but already wireless teiegraphy
Is doing practical service and is sup
plementing telegraphy in an impor-
tant manner. Who dares to prophecy
what its developments will be when
sixty years have passed?