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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Telegrams, adieu!

Until I learned there would be no more, that in fact there had been no telegrams in the U.S. for seven years, I had no idea how attached I was to telegrams, or the idea of telegrams, or the possibility of telegrams.
This past Sunday the last telegrams were sent in India, the last stronghold of telegrams; they announced births and deaths and offered congratulations. And then the Indian telegraph shut down for good.
Western Union, based in Colorado, ceased sending telegrams back in 2006 and I am chagrined that I never noted its passing. I would like to rectify that.
One of the more cumbersome (and hence delightful) methods of long distance communication I learned about was an electrochemical telegraph devised by Samuel Thomas von Sömmering in 1809. The process involved physically laying as many as 35 wires from one place to another, and submerging each end of the wires in a glass vial of acid, next to a card indicating which letter or number it represents. The transmitter applied eclectic current to his end of the wire, which caused the wire at the receiver’s end to release hydrogen bubbles. Then all you do is match up the bubbles to the letters and voilĂ , a message: Does your wife like aubergines?

But back to telegrams: Most of us consider Samuel Morse the progenitor of those filmy pieces of paper with words pasted onto them. In 1837 Morse patented an electrical telegraph capable of sending long and short signals (dits and dahs) across several miles of wire. That eponymous code was still considered a useful thing to learn when I was a kid; an uncle of ours once promised that he would give $5 to whichever of we cousins first learned Morse code one summer, and no, I was not the grand prize winner. But I am sure that in one of the Nancy Drew mysteries our heroine, trapped inside the trunk of a car by a wicked villain, was able to pound out the Morse code to signal her plight, and was rescued. Or maybe it was another plucky heroine.
Then came Tesla and Marconi and wireless telegraphy, and the terse but potent messages in what we recognize as telegraphese. In their brevity telegrams can be compared to Tweets, with their 140-character limit. Brevity was important because telegraph companies charged by the word and the beauty of that is the burden of making every word earn its keep. Though I was surprised to learn that the word STOP was free, while punctuation of any kind cost extra, hence the punctuation-less messages with their frequent STOPS.
Like our email and telephone communications (viz. Snowden’s NSA leakage) telegrams were easily intercepted and not exactly secure. So codes were developed, like the one used in this telegram of 1920 I discovered in the parental basement, dating to the days when my grandfather was a cotton merchant in Boston traveling often to Europe. And this one upon which someone, presumably a secretary, has kindly typed the translation. Also in the dusty piles of papers was a key to the code. There is much to wonder about: had my grandfather memorized this list of randomized letters? Did he carry the key secreted on his person, in some hidden pocket or the false bottom of his valise? Just how cutthroat was the cotton business in the 1920’s such that these precautions were deemed necessary?

Also in a cabinet in the parental basement, in a pile mercifully left un-nibbled by the mice, was a stack of congratulatory telegrams sent on the occasion of my parents’ betrothal. Many of them were sent from friends in Cairo to my mother, then a student at Smith, care of the home of her husband to be, the home she still lives in. The best thing about these telegrams is that on each one my beloved grandmother wrote the name and address of the sender, presumably so that my mother could send a proper thank you note. Just to see my Bonne-Maman’s unmistakable Belgian convent script fills me with longing.For the time I am holding these perishable pieces of old paper, she is entirely present: lovely, kind and toujours well-organized.

And now, all relics.

5 comments:

Rebecca Rice said...

I love this evocation of the lost era of telegrams, Christine. And who knew that STOP was free?

Thanks for educating and entertaining your dear readers!

Love,
Becky

Rebecca Rice said...

I love this evocation of the lost era of telegrams.

Thanks for educating and entertaining your dear readers!

Love,
Becky

Rebecca Rice said...

I love this evocation of the lost era of telegrams.

Thanks for educating and entertaining your dear readers.

Love,
Becky

Charlie said...

I too was unaware of the passing of telegrams and am saddened to read your report. It brings to mind the young boy in William Saroyan's The Human Comedy whose job was to deliver telegrams from the War Department announcing the deaths of loved ones during WWII...by bicycle...to the unsuspecting survivors.
I still have, in a dusty baby book somewhere, a telegram sent to my parents by a witty uncle on the occasion of my birth..."Glad you finally got one with a handle!
You've inspired me to gather together all of my old telegrams and to give them the respect and honor that they deserve.
Thanks Christine!
Charlie

dokka srinivasu said...

Dear Sir

Very good article. Thanks for sharing very valuable information about Telegram system and mentioning about the closing of Telegraph system in India on 15th july by adding some beautiful and vintage telegrams of your collection.

Sir on 14th July i am sharing one message in my Heritage of India blog with the title "Vintage Telegrams of India(Farewell to the 163 Year Old Telegraph System)". Sir in this message i am trying to share something about the significance of telegraph system in India by adding some images of vintage telegrams which are in my collection.

Sir this is the link for this message "Vintage Telegrams of India(Farewell to the 163 Year Old Telegraph System)" which i sahred in my Heritage of India blog.

http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/07/vintage-telegrams-of-indiafarewell-to.html

Sir on the same day i.e. on 14th July BBC delhi office staff preparing some articles about telegraph system in India in their hindi website and in one of their message they are using some of my vintage telegram images.

Sir this is BBC hindi website link where BBC delhi office staff using some of my vintage telegrams images.

http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/07/vintage-telegrams-of-indiafarewell-to.html

Sir i request you please look into my message and share your valuable comment about my collection.