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Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams
Yahoo ^ | 2/1/06

Posted on 02/01/2006 10:28:21 AM PST by Mr. Brightside

Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams

Robert Roy Britt

LiveScience Managing Editor

LiveScience.com

Wed Feb 1, 10:00 AM ET

After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams.

On the company's web site, if you click on "Telegrams" in the left-side navigation bar, you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible:

"Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative."

The decline of telegram use goes back at least to the 1980s, when long-distance telephone service became cheap enough to offer a viable alternative in many if not most cases. Faxes didn't help. Email could be counted as the final nail in the coffin.

Western Union has not failed. It long ago refocused its main business to make money transfers for consumers and businesses. Revenues are now $3 billion annually. It's now called Western Union Financial Services, Inc. and is a subsidiary of First Data Corp.

The world's first telegram was sent on May 24, 1844 by inventor Samuel Morse. The message, "What hath God wrought," was transmitted from Washington to Baltimore. In a crude way, the telegraph was a precursor to the Internet in that it allowed rapid communication, for the first time, across great distances.

Western Union goes back to 1851 as the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. In 1856 it became the Western Union Telegraph Company after acquisition of competing telegraph systems. By 1861, during the Civil War, it had created a coast-to-coast network of lines.

Other company highlights:

1866: Introduced the first stock ticker. 1871: Introduced money transfers. 1884: Became one of the original 11 stocks tracked by the Dow Jones Average. 1914: Introduced the first consumer charge card. 1964: Began using a transcontinental microwave beam to replace land lines. 1974: Launched Westar I, the first U.S. dedicated communications satellite.

On Jan. 26, the last day you could send a telegram, First Data announced it would spin Western Union off as an independent, publicly traded company.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: morsecode; samuelmorse; telegrams; theend; timesareachanging; westernunion; wgids
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To: Mr. Brightside

A little Republican history; John Hay who was Lincolns private secretary at the White House (one of two)... married the heiress to Western Union.


21 posted on 02/01/2006 10:37:28 AM PST by SF Republican
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To: martin_fierro

So much for loging on from Tijeras.....

See ya later...


22 posted on 02/01/2006 10:37:34 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: mlc9852
You should blame the President's eavesdropping program. Too difficult to intercept the telegrams... < /sarcasm >
23 posted on 02/01/2006 10:37:50 AM PST by weegee (Happy Holidays! Tis the season of MLK, Chinese New Year, Tet, Valentine's, Presidents...)
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To: Argus

Landshark!!!!


24 posted on 02/01/2006 10:38:34 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilisation is aborting, buggering, and contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: mlc9852
I blame Wal-Mart.

No. No. No. No. STOP It is STOP Bush's fault. STOP

25 posted on 02/01/2006 10:38:43 AM PST by Wolfstar (Someday when we meet up yonder, we'll stroll hand in hand again, in a land that knows no parting...)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Now we're just going to have to accept more illegal immigration so they can deliver the messages Americans just don't want to.


26 posted on 02/01/2006 10:38:58 AM PST by weegee (Happy Holidays! Tis the season of MLK, Chinese New Year, Tet, Valentine's, Presidents...)
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To: Mr. Brightside

When Western Union came up with Easy Link in the 1980's, it was only a matter of time. I wondered then why anyone would even NEED telegrams, when they could send messages by computer. Email?


27 posted on 02/01/2006 10:40:45 AM PST by TommyDale
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To: American Quilter

1974: Launched Westar I, the first U.S. dedicated communications satellite.

They contributed to the techonological changes. Didn't so much put themselves out of business as move to new ways of doing things.


28 posted on 02/01/2006 10:42:07 AM PST by weegee (Happy Holidays! Tis the season of MLK, Chinese New Year, Tet, Valentine's, Presidents...)
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To: weegee
5000 Mexicans running across the Arizona desert with mail bags around their necks. lol

Now we have a solution to the immigration problem. Just bulk mail letters to Mexico City and have the illegals carry them back! lol
29 posted on 02/01/2006 10:43:04 AM PST by TheForceOfOne
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To: TommyDale

Well the post office is trying to remain competitive with email and wanted to set up everyone in America with email accounts, offering to offer to hand deliver (with the day's mail) printouts of those emails.


30 posted on 02/01/2006 10:43:19 AM PST by weegee (Happy Holidays! Tis the season of MLK, Chinese New Year, Tet, Valentine's, Presidents...)
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To: Argus
I INVENTED THE TELEGRAM!


31 posted on 02/01/2006 10:43:34 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Mr. Brightside

This makes me sad and I don't know why.

I got a telegram once,the day I was married forty-five years ago.

The end of an era.


32 posted on 02/01/2006 10:43:49 AM PST by Mears (The Killer Queen-caviar and cigarettes.)
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To: weegee

I did receive a telegram from my Dad in basic telling me how proud he was of me and that I was doing a great job. It was awesome to receive and I still have it 181/2 years later. However, I do understand that technology is advanced and now their are other methods to send information.


33 posted on 02/01/2006 10:43:51 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: Mr. Brightside

I wonder what the last telegram said..


34 posted on 02/01/2006 10:44:05 AM PST by AntiGuv (™)
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To: Red Badger

WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT


35 posted on 02/01/2006 10:46:06 AM PST by abb (Because News Reporting is too important to be left to the Journalists.)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Horay for Morse Code. The first binary form of communications.


36 posted on 02/01/2006 10:46:45 AM PST by Wiseghy ("You want to break this army? Then break your word to it.")
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To: abb

They should make that their last OFFICIAL telegram message.......


37 posted on 02/01/2006 10:47:27 AM PST by Red Badger (...I will bless them that bless thee and those who curse thee I will turn into Liberals..........)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Don't feel sorry for them. Western Union makes a huge profit from money transfers. Go into a convience store or super market that has a WU hook up and you may well likely see our illegal guest from the south sending home American Dollars.


38 posted on 02/01/2006 10:49:33 AM PST by cva66snipe
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To: weegee

LOL


39 posted on 02/01/2006 10:54:54 AM PST by mlc9852
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To: Mr. Brightside

Somewhere, I still have the stack of congratulatory telegrams sent to my parents' hotel room on the night of their wedding in 1963. They had a small wedding and lots of friends and relatives who were not included wanted to send their best wishes.


40 posted on 02/01/2006 10:56:20 AM PST by HostileTerritory
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