Western Union Delivers Last Telegram

With technological progress seemingly outstripping humanity’s ability to adapt, it is interesting to note that one’s grandparents could commonly do something that today has become impossible. As of January 27, 2006, no one in the US can send a telegram anymore. Western Union has stopped the service. The company, however, continues to flourish.

When Samuel Morse sent the first telegram message in May of 1844, instant communication across vast distances become possible (he sent “What God Hath Wrought” from Washington, DC to Baltimore, Maryland). Western Union’s website says that seven years later, “A group of businessmen in Rochester, New York form The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, Western Union's predecessor company. The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company change[d] its name to The Western Union Telegraph Company, signifying the union of ‘western’ telegraph lines with eastern lines into one system, following acquisition of a series of competing telegraph systems.”

However, that wasn’t enough for Western Union. The company also came up with the telex, the stock ticker, the consumer charge card, the fax and the commercial satellite. In 1870, it created the first time service, helping to standardize clocks across the country – thus, one of its nicknames was “The Nation's Timekeeper.” In 1933, it even came up with the singing telegram.

The biggest change, though, came in the 1989 when it established Quick Collect, which started its money transfer business. It is that business that now accounts for its revenues. On its 150th anniversary, the company had 100,000 agents worldwide, and it handles remittances from immigrant works in such volumes that many developing nations keep afloat financially thanks to its transfer service.

The point is not to hype Western Union, which may or may not have a spotless record and prospects. The point is that management at the company kept innovating, kept trying to find new ways to use what it had and to create those things it needed to stay in the game. Eventually, it evolved into a financial services company rather than a communications company. So, one can’t send a telegram anymore – one can send money instead, which is usually more welcome.


© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

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