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Long before we could sit at a computer and e-mail a message across the earth, the fastest way to send a message somewhere was by telegram. Until the 1960s, long-distance calling by phone was prohibitively expensive, and mail took a long time. Telegrams were fast, and although they weren’t cheap, they were the best way to send an urgent short message.

Western Union, pioneer of the telegraph

Western Union, who started buying up smaller telegraph companies in the mid 1800s, became the only US telegraph company by 1950. The old telegraph lines were replaced by more modern teletypewriter systems, and later, dedicated fax networks over private phone lines. The modernized Western Union even pioneered computer networking and time-sharing services.

Even when long-distance phone calling got cheaper, in the 1960s, telegrams still ruled as the preferred way to send something urgent. They argued that while phone calls could be ignored, and mail could be left unopened, the urgency of a telegram gave it special status in the mind of the recipient. If someone was willing to pay Western Union to send a message, it must be important.

Do telegrams still exist?

Today Western Union is a financial services company. They gradually got out of the messaging business, and in 2006 the remaining telegram business, which still handled about 20,000 overnight telegrams a year, became part of International Telegram.

Surprisingly, people still use telegrams today. The now-uncommon experience of getting a telegram delivered makes a telegram stand out even more when it’s used to get attention. Telegrams also have special status as legally valid for certain types of legal messages, such as canceling contracts. Like the postal service, telegram companies are federally regulated and have to be registered with the FCC.

The future of telegrams

Although the technology behind telegrams has changed from Morse-code telegraphs to teletype to IP switching, the uniqueness of a telegram hasn’t changed. A telegram is something physical that a person can hold, read, and keep. It’s likely that telegrams will be around for quite a while.