Intro

Victorian Internet taking shape: patchwork of telegraph networks, submarine cables, pneumatic
tube systems, and messengers combined to deliver messages within hours.

Morse code took 10 hrs whereas Telegram did it in 4 mins, transmitting of data. Underwater
submarine telegraphy lines were a hit.

Improved connectivity need not mean a positive effect. The ways in which they will make things
worse are usually unforeseen.

Codes, Hackers, and Cheats

Telegram provided unscrupulous individuals with novel opportunities for fraud, theft, and deception
like in stock markets, horse races.

Cryptography came in as another problem for telegrams, which was later banned by International
Telegraph Union.

Codes used in telegram, boon for people, as less words were needed, economy>privacy. Later
changed by ITU to charge more for codes than words.

As time went by, codes increased, confusion increased, new rules increased, and again new codes
increased.

Western Union developed a new coded system to transfer money, where multiple offices were
involved and each office had a codebook, from which instructions were deciphered. It became a
huge hit.

Complications arose even in the codes used by military, like false arrests, fractions being formed.
France was the pioneer in this field as well.

Love over the wires

Online marriage was conducted over telegraph. Run-away couples were in problem, news spread
faster now.

Telegraph workers were an online community. Could identify each other from Morse codes, had
their own signatures. Telegraph became like WA group of present families. They also played games
like checkers. It also became an avenue for flirtation.

Speed of typing was important and the ones with good speed were posted at better levels and
regarded highly. Based on pure meritocracy. The experts could haze the newcomers when they join.

Thomas Edison was a pioneer operator of Telegram (advantaged by partial deafness). Soon enough
telegram operators job turned into present day corporate life.

War and peace in the global village

Newspaper was too slow, spread news slowly, not printed every day, covered only local news. News
was reprinted by various papers freely.

Telegram threatened to put newspaper out of biz. Disadvantage: Cannot spread to masses, who
would do reporting? Result: Both newspaper and telegram came together to spread the news.
Advantage for both.
Some news became more important than the other, like stock market ones. Demand for foreign
news shot up exponentially. Avenues for earning money increased because of the demand.

It was used extensively in relaying the war related news. News was available now for the spies and
enemies more easily.

Distance had shrunk. Diplomats were in problem, as they had to respond immediately. They adapted
slowly to it.

World peace was still hopeful. No solid evidence of it was found.

Information Overload

News from all over the world started to show in, thus the overload. Sort of like big data for that
time. Commerce thrived as people connected to each other in a better way, middlemen eliminated
here too(D2C).

Rail network spread in the US due to Telegraph. Telegraph was also monopolized by Western Union.
Problems like delay, retransmitting, copying mired the network.

Leasing of lines for personal use was a hit. Stock tickers were another, info on prices were needed
regularly. Gold exchange(rooms) also developed. System to relay the gold prices in tandem was
developed.

Improvements were made on stock tickers by Thomas Edison, which ultimately led the Telegraph’s
demise.