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Belgium ends 19th-Century telegram service
- kristopolous 9y agoThe service was offered on things like trains and cruise-ships and of all the miraculous things, you could send actual money through it as well. Sounds like a pretty magical service for the 1930s. There were even photos and drawings over it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirephoto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirephoto
- qubex 9y agoHence the idiom ”to wire [money]”.
- 24gttghh 9y agoIn general terms, transferring funds via ACH is over a wire (or perhaps more specifically, a fiber optic filament) as well.
- theandrewbailey 9y agoEver heard of Western Union, the company that does money orders? They were the big telegraph company a century ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_union
- aldof 9y agoWe all use www.telegram.org nowadays.
- struppi 9y agoWhen I was young, I sometimes got birthday telegrams from my uncle. I loved them - only a single sentence in all caps. So I am feeling a little bit nostalgic right now. But, of course, I would not want that world back - where you had to pay a small fortune to "instantly" deliver a short message. And "instantly" meant within a few hours, not milliseconds like today.
- lb1lf 9y agoI remember getting one -1- telegram. (Received for my Confirmation from a distant relative in the US. Must have been May 1993.) This was such an event in the cottage I lived in at the time that the local postmaster dropped by on his way home from work to deliver it, rather than just toss it in the mail for delivery next day (as was SoP, if I remember correctly - I seem to remember telegrams were telexed from whatever entity served as the national gateway to the nearmost post office, where it was printed and put in local mail; this procedure was written out in the phone books, and provided for a glimpse into an exotic world for a kid stuck in West Podunk, Norway in the eighties...) Still get a chuckle out of it, as my relative (who had emigrated from Norway as a kid, and thus spoke Norwegian) had apparently gamed the system a bit - in order to pay for fewer words, he'd strung multiple words together like 'CONGRATULATIONSON THEBIGDAYMAY GOD BLESSALL' (Wonder how that worked out - presumably foreign language text was billed at a higher rate?)
- concerned_user 9y agoHistorically, telegrams are billed per character, nowadays they are probably just transmitted over internet anyways, the only difference is the time it has to be delivered. I know of Russian system they still have it, only difference from a letter is that regular telegram will be delivered in 8-12 hours and urgent in 4 hours. Currently with everyone having a mobile phone there is a lot less demand, sending an sms will be faster anyways.
- lb1lf 9y agoHi, Thanks - that makes a lot of sense. (Maybe the operator at the sending end had problems deciphering the handwriting on the form? Or were you instructed to write in block letters, perhaps even with a single character in each box, to ensure maximum readability? Presumably there was a standard form used by all members of the ITU or something? Call it a common interface, if you like?) I've always assumed that the slightly garbled text was an attempt at shaving a little off the fee; I almost feel a little sad to hear that may not have been the case at all. :)
- Aeolun 9y agoI am always sad to hear that another part of history dies out. I'm not sure why, since I've never in my life used a telegram, but it's somehow representative of an age that is no more. Including anything from steam engines, trains, intercontinental ship travel and a whole range of things that have long since been improved on, but which I'm still sad to see go.
- concerned_user 9y agoTelegrams are SMS of pre-mobile era.
- deadmetheny 9y agoSEND NUDES STOP
- skookumchuck 9y agoTelegraphy didn't die out. It evolved into the internet. (The internet did not spring from nothing.)
- digi_owl 9y agoKinda. The net itself do not have much in common with telegraphy, but many of the early computers that ran it were operated by a device that came out of the improvements to telegraphy. Yes, the teletype terminal, or TTY.
- skookumchuck 9y agoThat's right. Also keep in mind that the telegraph system was a digital network. It's pretty clear that evolving into the internet was inevitable, as telegraphy had outgrown the abilities of manual operators.
- jcrites 9y agoIntercontinental ship travel has not entirely died out. Well, for pure transportation it largely has, but for tourism or entertainment you can frequently find intercontinental legs on cruise ship voyages. These are not routinely offered and usually occur when the ship itself needs to sail between continents. Because these voyages have multiple consecutive days at sea with no land activities, they are usually considered less desirable than cruises that dock every day in port. As much as there is to do (relatively) on big ships, most passengers get bored. Those of us who enjoy solace and contemplation can enjoy the time however. On modern cruise ships, all of these journeys are fast and uneventful, what with weather radar and forecast, fast travel speeds, and stabilizers that nearly eliminate rolling motion in calm waters. Plus satellite Internet and often cellular phone connections. So they rarely ever have the drama that we imagine from a century ago.
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- snowpanda 9y agoThis image shows the worldwide wiring map in 1891 for those interested: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/1891_Telegraph_Lines.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/1891_Tel...
- johannes1234321 9y agoThe German post offers fake telegrams: They can be sent via telephone or internet (incl. CSV upload for mass spendings) and will be delivered by regular mail. If entered till 3am it will be delivered on the same day. 160 characters for 12.90€. https://www.deutschepost.de/de/t/telegramm.html https://www.deutschepost.de/de/t/telegramm.html
- konschubert 9y agoOh, that's so tacky.
- vadimberman 9y agoOnly for hardcore hipsters.
- mrighele 9y agoIt's the same in Italy [1]. Until just a few years ago it was still somewhat used in special circumstances (wedding, death of friend/relative) to send a formal message when you could not be present in person. [1] https://www.poste.it/gamma/telegrammi.html https://www.poste.it/gamma/telegrammi.html
- cpach 9y agoWe used to have that in Sweden as well, but it seems like it was discontinued a few years ago.
- barking 9y agoI rememeber us getting a telegram from an aunt who lived abroad in the 70s. The local post office phoned us with the message and the written telegram itself was delivered by the postman, next day. I kept it for awhile.
- JoeDaDude 9y agoI remember the anecdote about ending the use of a Morse code only distress channel by the Coast Guard. On the last day, the land based radio operators spent the time sending each other Shakespeare quotes and similar until they received an actual emergency distress call! Seems a small cargo ship had lost a lot of systems - including rudder control - and were forced to use the Morse channel to ask for help.
- sohkamyung 9y agoFrom the article: Just 10 businesses and a handful of individual customers have kept the Belgian system going until now. It has been chiefly used by bailiffs, who had need of a system which provided legal guarantees of dispatch and receipt. Would email programs supporting PGP fill this role?