Telegraphy: The Space-Time Governmentality, Part II

Posted on | January 22, 2011 | No Comments

This continues the argument started in Part I

What Hath God Wrought?

It is generally acknowledged that Samuel Morse did not invent the telegraph, but the painter and NYU professor can nevertheless be credited with its rapid development and commercialization. Morse first became enamored with the idea of transmitting “intelligence” by electricity on a transatlantic trip from Europe in 1832 after the topic of electromagnetism came up during a dinner conversation. Unaware of the difficulties others had actually had getting a signal to travel over wires, he set out first to develop a code that could represent alphanumerical symbols with short and long bursts of electrical current. Inspired by his new communication code, Morse set out over the next five years to assemble the right technology to transmit it. By 1838 he was traveling to Washington, London, and continental Europe to gain support for new innovations to make the telegraph work better.

Morse obtained a $30,000 grant from the US Congress in 1842 to construct a telegraph line using simplified technology that made and broke a circuit producing dashes and dots of sound that a trained operator could interpret and send.[9] He hired Ezra Cornell, the future head of Western Union and founder of Cornell University to design and build a machine that would lay the telegraph cable underground. Morse and Cornell built the between Washington DC and Baltimore during 1843 and Morse sent the famous message “What hath God wrought?” on May 24, 1844. Morse’s system of a transmission system plus a learnable code helped standardize an economic, workable telegraph model.

The basic elements of the Morse code were electrical signals sent through the network and interpreted by the human receiver as a “dot” or a “dash”. These were standardized in International Morse code with set time durations to distinguish between the two elemental code signals.[10] The dot was set as a very minimal duration while the dash was equal to three times the duration of the dot. The time between each element, character, and word was also important. The time between each dot or dash was one dot while the time between each character was three dots. The time between words was supposed to equal seven dots. No electrical current flowed through the telegraph line during the idle time between elements, characters, and words. The telegraph was very labor intensive and furthermore, required very specific and demanding skills. [11]

While most considered the telegraph a novelty at first, its fame grew and it began to attract private capital. In May of 1845, the Magnetic Telegraph Company was formed and soon lines were being built from New York to Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and points further west. The initial fee: twenty-five cents for ten words.[12] Morse’s telegraphic code soon became the standard language of the telegraph and it attracted the attention of many new companies. Some licensed his patents while others tried to implement rival technologies like Royal Hause’s printing telegraph. By 1851 over 50 different US companies were in operation.

Ezra Cornell and the Ascendancy of Western Union

The one telegraph company that was to reign supreme was created by Rochester businessmen Ezra Cornell and Hiram Sibley. Western Union was incorporated in April 1856 with the merging of the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company with the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company. Cornell became the biggest stockholder of the new company (and later the benefactor of Cornell University). In 1857, the “Treaty of Six Nations” divided the US into six different telegraph markets controlled by six different companies. It laid out terms of mutual interconnection and aid, but fell apart by 1860. Three companies emerged, but soon merged together as Western Union.

As its name suggests, Western Union was dedicated to the construction of telegraph links to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. A number of forays by the Corps of Topographical Engineers had surveyed possible routes starting in 1853. The US Congress’ Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad debated government support for the transcontinental link as early as 1855 and drafted legislation for the building of roads, railroads, and a telegraphic link from the Missouri River to the Pacific. Also discussed during the 1850s were the issues dealing with climate, Indians, labor, and terrain factors influencing the western-reaching infrastructure. Negotiations for treaties with Native Indian tribes commenced with the Fox, Shawnee, Omaha, Oto, and others for their cooperation. Finally, the cross-country link was completed about the same time the Civil War broke out.

Western Union’s ability to complete the transcontinental telegraphic link was a turning point in its development. Lubrano explains the emergence of the US’s ascendant telegraph power: “Western Union’s emergence as the dominating presence in the telegraph industry came with its extension of its lines to the Pacific Coast in 1861.” Communicating with the West was becoming paramount as gold shipments and other transcontinental trade increased. The 48-mile Panama Railroad was built in 1855 through a malaria infested tropical rainforest, bringing down the cost of an 8-oz letter from New York to California significantly from its 1849 high of 80 cents. [13]

By 1870, after the construction of the transcontinental railroad, the cost would be further reduced to 3 cents. The Pony Express was setup in April 1860 with 165 stations between St. Louis and Sacramento to carry mail and news over nearly 2000 miles. While heroic, its function proved short-lived, as crews working from both east and west neared an interconnection destination at Fort Bridger in the Utah Territory.[14] By the end of 1961, the transcontinental telegraph link was completed with the cable strung over the two mountain ranges between Denver and Sacramento.[15] President Lincoln received the first message in Washington from Sacramento on October 24, 1861.[16]

Further telegraph consolidations took place during the Civil War and the six companies narrowed down to three major systems: the American Telegraphy Company, the United States Telegraphy Company, and The Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1866 the final consolidation took place when Western Union exchanged stock for stock of the other two companies. This transaction made Western Union the first modern monopoly in the United States.”[17] A year after Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Western Union achieved its monopoly. It controlled over 85,291 miles of telegraph line and had net revenues of $2,624,919.[18]

One of the most vocal advocates of the transcontinental railroad was Mississippi U.S. Senator Jefferson Davis. While Secretary of War in the administration of President Franklin Pierce, he had sent out a number of survey teams to find routes for a transcontinental railroad. Davis desperately wanted a southern route for the railroad to counter the economic might of the Erie Canal and Chicago’s mercantile power. He had also opposed support for the transatlantic telegraph that would further advantage the north as it would connect Europe through Canada and downward through Boston and New York to Washington D.C. But the support for the railroad did not come until he had become President of the Confederate States of America and the war with the North had already commenced.

Notes

[9] Clarke, A. (1974) Voice Across the Sea. New York: Harper & Row. p. 22. Morse information. This is Arthur C. Clarke of satellite and sci-fi fame.
[10] The International Morse code was most prevalent of its variants.
[11] My familiarity with the technical aspects of the telegraph was enhanced by the website of Jared Hall entitled “A Brief History of Data Communications”. Last Revised in December 1996.
[12] Standage, T. (1998) The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s On-line Pioneers. NY: Berkley Books. pp. 25-55.
[13] Information on mail to and from California from cprr.org. Accessed 1/9/02. First Transcontinental Railroad – Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. http://cprr.org/. p. 2.
[14] Some 20 months later, the Pony Express was disbanded.
[15] Lubrano, A. (1997) The Telegraph: How Technology Innovation Caused Social Change. NY: Garland Publishing. p. 10. Information on the transcontinental link from Eicher, D.J. (2002) The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. NY: Simon and Schuster. This is one of the few accounts of the Civil War that addresses the issues of communications and transportation.
[16] Lincoln’s transcontinental message from Lewis, C. (1993) The Telegraph. London: McFarland & Co.
[17] Lubrano, A. (1997) The Telegraph: How Technology Innovation Caused Social Change. NY: Garland Publishing. p. 70.
[18] Lubrano, A. (1997) The Telegraph: How Technology Innovation Caused Social Change. NY: Garland Publishing. p. 71.

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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.

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