page_title: Charles Minot (railroad executive)
section_title: Bringing the telegraph into use for railroading
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Minot (railroad executive) / Work / Bringing the telegraph into use for railroading
caption_attribution_description: English: Erie Railroad yard, showing locomotive and switching yard, by W. L. Sutton (section)
context_page_description: Charles Minot was an American railroad executive at the Erie Railroad, where in 1850 he became Superintendent as successor of James P. Kirkwood, and was succeeded by Daniel McCallum in 1854. After the bankruptcy of the Erie in 1859 he was reinstated as general superintendent of the Erie railroad.
context_section_description: The Erie, through Charles Minot, and through his successor, D. C. McCallum, attracted the eyes of the whole country to the value of the telegraph as a vital agent in the management of railroads, the running of trains, and the safety of passengers. What was known as the New York and Erie Telegraph Line was begun in August, 1847. It was not a work of the New York and Erie Railroad Company.
  In 1847, Ezra Cornell of Ithaca, New York worked to expand telegraphic communication through the New York and Lake Erie Railroad right-of-way with the Western Union Telegraph Company, saving a telegraph line he built from New York City to Fredonia. The new telegraph was an instant hit, and was commonly used for gossip and casual chatting.
  Ezra Cornell was the projector of the line, and while he was constructing it through the southern New York counties, taking the wagon roads for his route, Charles Minot was watching him. Minot early saw the value of the telegraph to railroads, and how it might be employed to direct the movement of trains at every point along the road. He induced the Railroad Company to construct a line of telegraph poles and wires along the margin of the railroad, without reference to patents, and without determining the machinery to be employed. It was constructed by the railroad workmen. Mr. Cornell supplied insulators and also Morse machinery for the offices to be opened. The insulators were of brimstone, enclosed in iron pots, and of but small value.
  On the completion of the Erie telegraph line, Superintendent Minot offered to purchase for the Erie the Morse patent on fair terms. Mr. Smith, one of the owners of the patent, refused to sell. He invited the New York and Erie Railroad Company to become stockholders in the Telegraph Company, and thus acquire the right to use the Morse instruments. By this time, however, the Cornell line had so shown its unreliable character that Mr. Minot declined the invitation. He wrote, also, very placidly to Mr. Smith that his notion was that, after its completion, "our Company would make arrangements with the New York and Erie Telegraph Company to work it for us."
  After a short struggle against circumstances the wire of the Cornell line was, in 1852 and 1853, transferred from the poles along the turnpikes to those of the Railroad Company, and by gradual processes the line became massed with and faded into the property of that Company. In 1852 the title of the company was changed to The New York and Western Union Telegraph.
caption: Erie Railroad yard, showing locomotive, switching yard, and the telegraph along the road, 1869-1880.
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