R.I.P. Western Union Telegrams

Western Union sent its last telegram on Friday.

Telegrams reached their peak popularity in the 1920s and 1930s when it was
cheaper to send a telegram than to place a long distance telephone call.
People would save money by using the word “stop” instead of periods to end
sentences because punctuation was extra while the four character word was
free.

Last week, the last 10 telegrams included birthday wishes, condolences on
the death of a loved one, notification of an emergency, and several people
trying to be the last to send a telegram.

“Recent generations didn’t receive telegrams and didn’t know you could
send them,” Chayet said.

Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code, sent the first telegram from
Washington to Baltimore on May 26, 1844, to his partner Alfred Vail to
usher in the telegram era that displaced the Pony Express. It read “WHAT
HATH GOD WROUGHT?”

“If he only knew,” Chayet said of the myriad of choices today, which
includes text message on cell phones, the Internet and virtually free
long-distance calling rates.

“It definitely was an anachronism,” Noel said. “It’s amazing it survived
this long.”

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