Telegrams were a popular way to quickly convey information before the widespread use of telephones and the internet. They involve the transmission of electrical signals using Morse code and were typically sent via a telegraph operator. Today, telegrams are rare and difficult to find in most parts of the world.
A telegram is a communication sent via a telegraph. Typically, a telegraph operator receives the communication and then writes it for the recipient. Telegrams can also be sent by telephone. Before the widespread use of telephones and the Internet for communication, telegrams were the best way to convey information quickly; today, telegrams are quite rare in most parts of the world, and people in the West can sometimes actually have trouble finding a company that can send and receive telegrams.
Telegrams began to be used in the 1800s when inventors developed commercially successful telegraphy systems that could be used to transmit messages. Originally, telegraphy could only be sent over wires, with wireless telegraphy debuting in 1895, making fast communication even easier. However, telegraphy was a very crude method of communication, with users using a coded alphabet to communicate with each other.
Telegraphy involves the transmission of electrical signals, which can be entered with a telegraph key at one end of the line, and then read with a corresponding key, or with the use of headphones which can be worn by the operator. Most telegraph operators around the world used Morse code, an alphabet made up of a series of dots and dashes, to send messages.
When someone arrives at a telegraph office to send a telegram, he writes the message as he wishes it to be conveyed. Because the process can be time-consuming, most people use a very specific writing style that relies heavily on abbreviations and skipped words, rather than writing full messages. Punctuation must also be written in a telegram, with the most famous example of punctuation written “STOP” for a period, and the details are usually kept to a minimum.
The telegraph operator transmits the message to the telegraph office closest to the recipient, and the receiving operator writes the message so it can be read by the recipient. Many telegraph companies historically offered delivery service, with a telegraph company employee leaving the telegram at the recipient’s home or work, although people could also pick up messages at telegraph offices.
Since telegrams have historically been used for critical information that needed to be transmitted quickly, the arrival of a telegram could signal an emergency. Many servicemen used telegrams to inform families of dead or wounded in combat, which made the telegraph boy a feared figure in wartime, but telegrams could also bring good news, such as the birth of a child.
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