Cybertelecom Federal Internet Law & Policy An Educational Project

Telegraph Reference

Law :: Federal

• 1947: ch. 256, § 1, 61 Stat. 327: An Act To repeal the Post Roads Act of 1866, as amended, and for other purposes
• Hearing, House Committee on Ways and Means, May 22, 1947 Revenue Revisions 1947-48 (considering proposal to revoke Post Roads Act) [Post Roads Act Hearing 1947 at __]
• Post Roads Act Revocation Hearing, Statement of Joseph L. Egan, President of Western Union [Egan at __]
• Statement Requested By Congressmen Reed And Eberharter On The History And Effect Of The Post Roads Act , Under Which The Telegraph Company Is Required To Extend Reduced Rates To The Government – submitted by Western Union President Egan [WU History of the Post Roads Act 1947 at ]
• Communications Act transfers government oversight of telegraph from USPS to FCC
  • Section 1, R.S. § 5263, related to use of public domain.
  • Section 2, R.S. § 5264, related to use of materials from public lands.
  • Section 3, R.S. § 5266; acts June 19, 1934, ch. 652, § 601, 48 Stat. 1101; Mar. 6, 1943, ch. 10, § 6, 57 Stat. 12, related to Government priority in transmission of messages.
  • Section 4, R.S. § 5267; act June 19, 1934, ch. 652, § 601, 48 Stat. 1101, related to purchase of lines.
  • Section 5, R.S. § 5268; act June 19, 1934, ch. 652, § 601, 48 Stat. 1101, related to acceptance of obligations to be filed.
  • Section 6, R.S. § 5265; act June 19, 1934, ch. 652, § 601, 48 Stat. 1101, provided that rights were not transferable.
  • Source: Legal Information Institute
• 1918 Congressional resolution authorizing the President to take control of telegraph, telephone, railways
• Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 (placing telegraph and telephone under jurisdiction of ICC)
• 1887: 49th Cong. Sess 2 Chapt 136 An act for the construction of a military telegraph line from Sanford, Florida, to Point Jupiter, Florida, and the establishment of a signal station.
• US Postal Laws & Regulations Brought to you by the US Postal Bulletins Consortium Year: 1887
• "The act of June 21, 1884 (23 Stat. 30) "An act to extend an act approved August 8, 1882, to encourage and promote telegraphic communication between American and Europe"
• The act of March 3, 1883 (17 Stat. 547, 556) "An act making appropriations for the naval service for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy four, and for other purposes.
• The act of August 8, 1882 (22 Stat. 371), "an act to encourage and promote telegraphic communication between America and Europe"
• The act of February 20, 1877 (19 Stat. 232). "An act to encourage and promote telegraphic communication between America And Europe."
• The act of August 15, 1876 (19 Stat. 201), "An act to encourage and promote telegraphic communication between America and Asia"
• Act of February 4, 1874, 18 Stats., 14 :: Appropriations act funding construction of telegraph network between the Capitol and various federal buildings
• 1873 Appropriations Act
• An Act granting Lands to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the States of Missouri and Arkansas to the Pacific Coast. 27th day of July, 1866. 14 Stat. 292, c. 278 (incorporating the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company)
• Post Roads Act of 1866 chap. 230, 14 Stat. 221; Rev. Stat. U. 8., § 5263 et seq. (July 24, 1866) (land grand and access to ROW to telegraph companies, in exchange for service for govt telegraphs with priority and at a govt set rate)
• Legislative History of Post Roads Act: Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong. [Post Roads Act Leg. His. at ]
• Part 2: p. 979 (Sen. Brown, introducing resolution asking for post office report on a postal telegraph service), 1773 (April 5th - Sherman introduces Act to incorporate the National Telegraph Company)
• Part 4: , 3075 - 3077 (June 11, committee favorably reports Bill to full senate, postponing debate till later date), 3427-3430 (June 27), 3480-3490 (June 29, debate with vote passing Bill), 3744 - 3747 (July 11, consideration in The House with vote passing Bill)
• Post Roads Act, Legis. His., 39th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 1773 (April 5th, 1866)
• H.R. 575, A Bill To Aid in the Construction of Telegraph Lines, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. (Introduced May 10th, 1866), available at LOC American Memory
• Appropriations, $15,000 for construction of police telegraph line in the city of Washington. Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong. at 3127
• The act of May 5, 1866 (14 Stat. 44), "An act to encourage telegraphic communication between the United States and the island of Cuba and other West India Islands and the Bahamas."
• Railways and Telegraph Act of 1862: Gives President authority to take control of railways and telegraphs, and place them under the authority of the War Department. 12 Stat. 334-335.
• Pacific Railway Act of 1862 "The act was an effort to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and to secure the use of that line to the government." (building first transcontinental railroad line, with obligation to build telegraph line along right of way). See Discussion Pacific Railway Act of 1862
• 1888: Pacific Railway Act amendment (amending Pacific Railway Act of 1862 to include nondiscrimination obligations, placing enforcement under ICC)
• S. 317, Pacific Railroad Act of 1866 (14 Stat. 66) Legislative History Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong., at 3181, 3224, 3256, 3306, 3399
• S. 145 Northern Kansas Railroad, Committee on the Pacific Railroad, 1866 Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong. at p. 3866, 3301, 3306/LI>
• S 123, Railroad and Telegraph from Central Pacific Railroad to Portland, Oregon, Committee on the Pacific Railroad, 1866. Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong. at 3269, 3298
• S 125 “An act granting aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the town of Folsom (Salt Lake) to the town of Placerville, in the State of California.’’ , Committee on the Pacific Railroad, 1866 Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong. at 3267
• House Bill 679 Telegraph and railroad line from Columbia River to Salt Lake. Cong. Globe, pt. 4, 1st Sess., 39th Cong. at 3194, 3252, 3267, 3306
• Pacific Railroad Act of 1865 (13 Stat. 504)
• Pacific Railroad Act of 1864 (13 Stat. 356) (adding interconnection and nondiscrimination obligations)
• The Pacific Railroad Act of 1863 (12 Stat. 807) (setting the gauge of the railroad)
• Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 (building first transcontinental telegraph line)
• The Atlantic Cable Act of 1857
• 1842: Appropriations $30,000 for Morse's experimental telegraph line

USG, Reports

• Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Chapter R: Communications [Census Colonial to 1970]
• 76TH CONGRESS Hearing U.S. telegraph industry, directing a complete study of the: S. Res. 95. May 22 and 23, 1939. Printed. Filed with S. 1310. 69 p.
• Government Ownership of Electrical Means of Communication, S. DOC. NO. 399, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. 19 (1914) [Postmaster Report Govt Ownership 1914 at ]
• Investigation of Western Union and Postal Telegraph-Cable companies : letter from the Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor, transmitting, pursuant to a Senate resolution of May 28, 1908, a partial report showing the results of an investigation made by the Bureau of Labor into the Western Union and the Postal Telegraph-Cable companies.
• 48TH CONGRESS Hearing, Postal telegraph: S. 17, S. 227, S. 1016, and S. 2022. Jan. 17-Mar. 19,1884. Transcript. Sen 48A-EI6. I vol.; U.S. CONG., REPORT ON POSTAL TELEGRAPH 10 (1884).
• 23 February 1875, US Congress, House, Committee on the Judiciary, Investigation of Western Union Telegraph Company
• Reports of the Committees of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Forty-Second Congress, 1871-72, Report of Committee on Appropriations, Signal-Service and Telegraph Companies, May 9, 1872 [House Telegraph Report 1872 at ]
• 42D CONGRESS Appropriations Hearing Postal Telegraph, proceedings in the matter of the. Dec. 17, 1872. Printed. Sen 45A-E 15. 35 p.
• Postal Telegraph in the United States, To Accompany HR No. 2365, Report, Select Committee on Postal Telegraph, July 5, 1870
• Samuel Morse, US Commissioner, Examination of the Telegraph Apparatus and the Processes in Telegraphy, Paris Universal Exposition 1867, Report of the United States Commissioners
• The Seventh Census, Report of the Superintendent of the Census for December 1, 1852 [Census 1852]
• Alfred Vail, The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph, With the Reports of Congress and a Description of All Telegraphs Known (Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Blanchard, 1845)
• House Ways and Means Report 1845 (favoring extending government telegraph service)
• McClintock Young, Electro Magnetic Telegraph, Communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, Transmitting The Report of Professor Morse, 28th Congress, Doc. No. 270, June 6, 1844 [Young]
• Telegraphs for the United States: Letter from the Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, Transmitting a Report Upon the Subject of a System of Telegraphs for the United States, h.r. Doc. No. 25-15 (1837) [Woodbury at __]

• First Telegraph Message From the Capital, US Senate History, Senate Stories, 1801-1850 [Senate History]
• "What Hath God Wrought" The House and the Telegraph, History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives [House History]

Caselaw

Supreme Court

See also caselaw for Post Roads Act

• Western Union Telegraph Company v. Esteve Brothers & Company, 256 U.S. 566 (1921) [Esteve Brother, 256 U.S. at ] [k]
• POSTAL TELEGRAPH CABLE CO. v. CITY OF NEWPORT, KY. 247 U.S. 464 (38 S.Ct. 566, 62 L.Ed. 1215) No. 273. Argued: Jan. 18 and 21, 1918. Decided: June 10, 1918
• Wheeler v. United States, 226 U.S. 478, 488 (1913)
• Wilson v. United States, 221 U.S. 361 (1911)
• Western Union Tel. Co. v. Crovo, 220 U. S. 364 (1911) (Virginia statute regarding failure to deliver telegram not preempted, "the court concluded that the Virginia was valid because it amounted to a police regulation of only indirectly affecting commerce and imposing a the carrier for a failure to perform a clear")
• Western Union Tel. Co. v. Commercial Milling Co., 218 U. S. 406 1910
• Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Call Pub. Co., 181 U.S. 92 (1901) (telegraph is common carrier)
• Western Union Tel. Co. v. James, 162 U. S. 650 1895 (where congress had failed to affirmatively legislate, state law regarding failure to deliver telegram was not preempted - "The matters upon which the silence of Congress is equivalent to affirmative legislation are national in their character, such as to fairly require uniformity of regulation upon subject-matter involved affecting all the states alike")
• United States v. Western Union Tel. Co. and Union Pacific, 160 U.S. 53 (1895) (Pursuant to the Pacific Railway Acts, the government funded the construction of the railways and telegraph lines, and the government was authorized to withhold payments due for railway service or telegraph service over those lines provided to the government, but where the line on the north side of the tracks was constructed pursuant to the Act by Union Pacific and the line on the south side of the tracks was constructed by Western Union - and Western Union acquired both lines and provided service to the government - and it was impossible to determine which lines Western Union used, the government improperly withheld payments to pay for the financing of the Union Pacific line on the north side of the tracks.) [Union Pacific, 160 U.S. at __]
• Primrose v Western Union, 154 US 1 (1894) Telegraph companies resemble railroad companies and other common carriers, in that they are instruments of commerce, and in that they exercise a public employment, and are therefore bound to serve all customers alike, without discrimination. They have, doubtless, a duty to the public to receive, to the extent of their capacity, all messages clearly and intelligibly written, and to transmit them upon reasonable terms. But they are not common carriers. Their duties are different, and are performed in different ways; and they are not subject to the same liabilities. Express Co. v. Caldwell, 21 Wall. 264, 269, 270; Telegraph Co. v. Texas, 105 U.S. 460 , 464. [Harris at 109 ("In the Primrose case it was held that a stipulation that the telegraph company shall not be liable for mistakes in the transmission or delivery of a message beyond the sum received for sending it, unless the sender orders it to be repeated and pays for such service, is")]
• Franklin Telegraph Co. v. Harrison, 145 U.S. 459 (1892) [Franklin Telegraph, 145 U.S. at __]
• California v. Central Pacific R. Co., 127 U.S. 1 (1888)
• O'Reilly v. Morse, 56 U.S. 15 How. 62 (1853) ("Morse was the first and original inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph, for which a patent was issued to him in 1840 and reissued in 1848." Morse's "two patents of 1848, being good with the exception of the eighth claim, are substantially infringed upon by O'Reilly's telegraph, which uses the same means both upon the main line, and upon the local circuits.") [O'Reilly, 56 U.S. __]
• Harrington v. Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co., 143 F. 329 (S.D.N.Y. 1906)
• Tyler, Ullman & Co. v. Western Union Tel. Co., 60 Ill. 421, 431 (1871) Court consternated because telegraph does not carry a good, failing to recognize the role of carrying information. Concluding that while did not carry good like a CC, still it would be held to the same standard..
• Parks v. Telegraph Co., 13 Cal. 423, 424-25 (1859) (“The rules of law which govern the liability of telegraph companies are not new. They are old rules applied to new circumstances. Such companies hold themselves out to the public as engaged in a particular branch of business, in which the interests of the public are deeply concerned. They propose to do a certain service for a given price. There is no difference in the general nature of the legal obligation of the contract between carrying a message along a wire and carrying goods or packages along a route. The physical agency may be different, but the essential nature of the contract is the same.")
• New York, Albany, and Buffalo Telegraph Company v. de Rutte, Vol. 14, No. 7, New Series Volume 5, p. 407 (May, 1866) (liability of telegraph company for acceptance of message addressed to a place beyond its route, when telegraph provider takes payment for the entire distance)
• Smith v. Downing, 22 F. Cas. 511, 513 (C.C.D. Mass. 1850) (No. 13,036).

Wester Union

• Western Union Annual Report 1873 (This is in the back of the file of the 1869 Report, starting on print page 49) [WU Report 1873]
• Western Union Annual Report 1869 [WU Report 1869]
• The Proposed Union of the Telegraph and Postal Systems, Statement of the Western Union Telegraph Company, 1869, available at Project Gutenberg [Statement of Western Union 1869 at ]
• David Wells, "The Relationship of the Government to the Telegraph" (New York 1873) (report prepared at the request of Western Union) [Wells at ]
• Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company Articles of Incorporation 1946
• Smithsonian
  • History of the Telegraph, HistoryWired, Smithsonian Institute
  • Western Union Records
  • Anglo American Telegraph Company
  • Robert Harding and Alison Oswald, Guide to the Western Union
  • Telegraph Company Records NMAH.AC.0205 Smithsonian Museum of American History 1986 [Smithsonian Guide 1986]
  • Joseph Stromberg, How Samuel Morse Got His Idea, Smithsonian Magazine Jan 6, 2012 [Stromberg]
• Norvin Green, The Government and the Telegraph, The North American Review, Vol. 137, No. 324 (Nov., 1883), pp. 422-434. [Green at ]

Books

• James Bamford, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America 2008 [Bamford]
• T Barnard, Army and Navy Chronicles, Vol. 4-5 1837 [Barnard]
• Alice L. Bates, The History Of The Telegraph In California, Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California Vol. 9, No. 3 (1914), pp. 181-187 [Bates, Telegraph in California]
• David Homer Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office (New York, The Century Co. 1907) [Bates]
• Ken Beauchamp, History of Telegraphy, IET 2001 [Beauchamp]
• Thomas Spencer Baynes, The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, Volume 1, at 650 1889 [Encyclopaedia Britannica 1889 at ]
• Walter G. Bolter, James W. McConnaughey, Fred J. Kelsey, Telecommunications Policy for the 1990s and Beyond (ME Sharpe 1990)
• Lewis Coe, The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States (2003) [Coe at ]
• Gregory Crouch, The Bonanza King: John Mackay and the Battle over the Greatest Riches in the American West (2019) [Couch at ]
• The Electrical World and Engineer, Volume 41, McGraw Publishing Company, 1903 [Electrical World 1903 at __]
• Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union, Washington Post [Fishel]
• Alvin F. Harlow, Old Wires and New Waves 1936 [Harlow at ]
• David hochfelder
  • David Hochfelder, The Communications Revolution, in William Barney, A Companion to 19th Century America (John Wiley & Sons 2006)
  • David Hochfelder, The Telegraph in America: 1832-1920. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012 [Hockfelder 2012]
  • David Hochfelder, The Telegraph, Essential Civil War Curriculum, Virginia Tech [Hochfelder, Essential Civil War]
  • David Hochfelder, Joseph Henry: Inventor of the Telegraph?, Smithsonian Institution [Hochfelder, Joseph Henry]
• Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio: In Two Volumes. An Encyclopedia of the State, Volume 1, 1907 [Howe at ]
• Jonathan Hughes, The Vital Few: The Entrepreneur and American Economic Progress (1986) [Hughes at ]
• Alexander Jones, Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph: Including its Rise and Progress in the United States (New York, NY: George P. Putnam, 1852)
• Joseph Joyce, Howard Joyce, A Treatise on Electronic Law (1900) [Joyce at __]
• Maury Klein, The Life and Legend of Jay Gould (JHU Press 1997) [Klein at ]
• Alasdair Nairn, Engines That Move Markets: 2nd Edition [Nairn at __]
• Frank Parsons, The Telegraph Monopoly (C.F. Taylor Publisher 1899) [Parsons at ]
• William Plum, The Military Telegraph During the Civil War (1882) [Plum]
• Edwin A. Pratt, The Rise of Rail-Power in War and Conquest, 1833-1914 (1915), republished by Project Guttenberg [Pratt at ]
• James D. Reid, The Telegraph in America: Its Founders, Promoters, and Noted Men, Arno Press, 1879 [Reid at ]
• Richard Allen Schwarzlose, The Nation's Newsbrokers: The formative years, from pretelegraph to 1865, Northwestern University Press, 1989 [Schwarzlose]
• Richard Allen Schwarzlose, The Nation's Newsbrokers: The rush to institution, from 1865 to 1920, Northwestern University Press, 1989 [Schwarzlose 1865]
• Robert Sobel, ITT: The Management of Opportunity 2000 [Sobel at ]
• Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet (Walker and Company 2007)
• Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media (2004 Basic Books)
• Stephen W. Stathis, Landmark Legislation 1774-2012: Major U.S. Acts and Treaties 2014 [Stathis]
• Sterling, Bernt, Weiss, Shaping American Telecommunications, p. 43 (2006)
• Robert Luther Thompson, Wiring a continent: The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832 - 1866 (Princeton University Press 1947) [Thompson at ]
• Tom Wheeler, Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story Of How Abraham Lincoln Used The Telegraph To Win The War (2006) [Wheeler]
• Joshua Wolff, Western Union and the Creation of the American Corporate Order, 1845-1893 Cambridge University Press, Jun 28, 2013 [Wolff]

Articles

• Matthew Alexander, Laying the First Transatlantic Cable, Proto Type, Journal of Undergraduate Engineering Research and Scholarship, March 2013
• William von Alven, Bill's 200 Year Condensed History of Telecom, CCL 1998
• J. Cutler Andrews, The Southern Telegraph Company, 1861-1865: A Chapter in the History of Wartime Communication, The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Aug., 1964), pp. 319-344 [Andrews at ]
• Annual Report of of the Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, Ohio, 1889 [Ohio 1889 at 1094]
• David Homer Bates, Lincoln In The Telegraph Office 49-67 (Univ. Of Neb. Press 1995)
• Lou Benson, Civil War Communications and Cryptology, The Link, National Cryptologic Museum Foundation Feb. 2011 [Benson]
• Curtis Bishop and L. R. Wilcox, Telegraph Service, Texas State Heritage Association
• E. Douglas Branch, The Coming of the Telegraph to Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania History 1938 [Branch at __]
• Jimmy Burns, The Texas and Red River Telegraph Company, Crown Jewels of the Wire October 2000
• Jane Busch, Telegraphy and Telephones, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University [Busch]
• John Casale, Signature of the Father, Feb. 2001 Telegraph History [Casale]
• Lewis Coe, The Telegraph: A History Of Morse&Rsquo;S Invention And Its Predecessors In The United States 51-65 (2003) [Coe]
• Competition in Telegraph Service; Commercial Cable Company and Postal Telegraph Company Preserve Their Independence, Banker's Magazine, Vol. 80, Jan. 1, 1910 [Banker's Magazine at ]
• Kenneth Davis, “No Immigrants. No Catholics”: The Other Morse Code, HUFPO, Dec. 6, 2017 [Davis]
• Kris de Decker, Email in the 18th Century: The Optical Telegraph, Low Tech Magazine Dec. 2007 ("Moreover, the electrical telegraph was cheaper than the mechanical variant. Another advantage was that it was much harder to intercept a message – whoever knew the code of the optical telegraph, could decipher the message.")
• Prof. J-M Dilhac, The Telegraph of Claude Chappe - An Optical Telecommunications Network for the XVIIIth Centurty,
• Richard B. DuBoff, Business Demands and the Development of the Telegraph in the U.S., 1844 to 1860, 54 BUS. HIST. REV. 459 (1980).
• Richard Du Boff, "The rise of communications regulation: The telegraph industry, 1844-1880," Journal of Communication, 34, 1984, 52-66 [DuBoff 1984 at ]
• The First Telegraph Message and its Author, The Electrical Engineer, New York, NY, United States, Wednesday, August 19, 1891 vol. 12, no. 172, p. 201-202, col. 1-2 [Electrical Engineer]
• Tom Farley's Telephone History Series (cc)
• Alexander J. Field
• Alexander J Field, The Regulatory History of a New Technology: The Electromagnetic Telegraph, 2001 L. REv. M.S.U.-D.C.L. 245 [Field __] [r]
• Alexander J. Field, French Optical Telegraphy, 1793-1855: Hardware, Software, and Administration, 35 TECH. AND CULTURE, April 1994 [Field, Optical Telegraph]
• The first electric telegraph in 1837 revolutionized communications, Connecting Britain, The Telegraph Dec. 2, 2016 [Connecting Britain]
• Phillip Easterlin
  • Easterlin, Phillip R. (April 1959). "Telex in New York". Western Union Technical Review: 45. [Easterlin]
  • Easterlin, Phillip R. (October 1960). "Telex in Private Wire Systems". Western Union Technical Review: 131
  • Easterlin, Phillip R. (January 1962). "Telex in the U.S.A.". Western Union Technical Review: 2–15.
• Fari
  • Simone Fari, The Formative Years of the Telegraph Union, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015 https://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/62621 [Fari 2015]
  • S. Fari, G. Balbi and G. Richeri, "A common technical culture of telegraphy: The Telegraph Union and the significance of technological standardization 1865–1875," 2012 Third IEEE HISTory of ELectro-technology CONference (HISTELCON), Pavia, 2012, pp. 1-5. URL: [Fari 2012]
  • S. Fari, “Technology on the wire. Technological changes in the first thirty years of the Italian telegraph experience: achievements and difficulties”, in A. Giuntini (edited by), Communication and its lines. Telegraphy in the 19th Century among economy, politics and technology, Prato: Istituto di Studi Storici Postali, 2004. [Fari 2004]
• William F. Friedman, Codes and Ciphers of the Civil War, Lecture 4, NSA (n.d.) [Friedman]
• James Gamble, When the Telegraph Came to California, The California, reprinted at Telegraph History http://www.telegraph-history.org/california/ [Gamble, Telegraph California]
• Morris Gray, A Treatise On Communications By Telegraph 115 (1885)
• David Alan Grier, What the Count of Monte Cristo Can Teach Us About Cybersecurity, IEEE Spectrum 25 Jan 2018 [Grier]
• History of the Pacific Telegraph. Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume VI, Number 112, 10 November 1861 [Marysville 1861]
• Gardiner G. Hubbard, "The Proposed Changes in the Telegraphic System", North American Review, July 1873, Vol. 117, No. 240, pp. 80–107 [Hubbard 1873 at ]
• Gardiner G. Hubbard, Government Control of the Telegraph, The North American Review, Vol. 137, No. 325 (Dec., 1883), pp. 521-535 [Hubbard 1883] (Hubbard was Alexander Graham Bell's partner) [Hubbard 1883]
• International Telephone and Telegraph Corporate History, Funding Universe [ITT Corp History]
• International Telephone and Telegraph, Telecommunications Virtual Museum available at Archive.org [ITT Virt. History]
• Invention of the Telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress, 1793 to 1919, Library of Congress [Invention of the Telegraph LOC]
• Jockers, Kenneth M. (July 1966). "Planning Western Union Telex". Western Union Technical Review: 92–95. [Jockers]
• Richard R. John, The Selling of Samuel Morse, American Heritage [The Selling of Morse]
• Richard R. John, Recasting the Information Infrastructure for the Industrial Age, in A Nation Transformed by Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States From Colonial Times to the Present 55, 81 (Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. & James W. Cortada eds., 2000)
• William Jones, The Common Carrier Concept as Applied to Telecommunications (reviewing how telegraph came under common carrier regulation)
• Adrienne LaFrance, In 1858, People Said the Telegraph Was 'Too Fast for the Truth', The Atlantic JUL 28, 2014 [LaFrance]
• Matthew Lasar, How Robber Barons hijacked the "Victorian internet", Ars Technica (Dec. 2, 2009)
• Lester Lindley, Norvin Green and the Telegraph Consolidation Movement, Filson Club History Quarterly July 1974 [Lindley 1974 at ]
• Lester Lindley, The Constitution Faces Technology: The Relationship of the National Government to the Telegraph, 1866-1884, Rice University PHd Thesis, 1971
• Lord, J. Walter. “The Post-Roads Power of Congress: An Historical View.” The North American Review, vol. 185, no. 619, 1907, pp. 635–644.
• Clarence Mackay, The Postal Telegraph Company, Railway Age Gazette Vol. 48 No. 5 at 266 (1910) [Clarence Mackay at 266]
• Michael J. Makley, John Mackay: Silver King in the Gilded Age (Uni. Nevada Press 2015). []
• David McCullough, Samuel Morse’s Reversal of Fortune, Smithsonian Magazine September 2011 [McCullough]
• Neal McEwen, The Telegraph Office, Charles Williams, Jr., Boston Mass (1998)
• Bill McLaughlin, Clarence H Mackay, Harbor Hill and the Postal Telegraph, 2007 (some excellent examples of graphics from Postal Telegraph) [Lord]
• Thomas McMullan, The world's first hack: the telegraph and the invention of privacy, The Guardian July 15, 2015 [McMullan]
• Stephen Mihm, The Apple of Their Day: Telegraph Companies Fought for Privacy, Bloomberg March 23, 2016
• Nonnenmacher, Tomas., History of the US Telegraph Industry. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. August 14, 2001. [Nonnenmacher] [EHA]
Odlyzko, Andrew. "The History of Communications and the Implications for the Internet." Unpublished paper, 2000. [Odlyzko at ]
• Wesley MacNeil Oliver, Western Union, The American Federation of Labor, Google, and the Changing Face of Privacy Advocates, 81 Miss. L.J. 972 (2012)
• Dexter Perkins, Henry O'Reilly, Rochester History Vol. VII No. 1 Jan. 1945 [Perkins at ]
• John I. Reilly, Atlantic, Lake and Mississippi Telegraph Range (Nov. 1, 1848) (broadsheet) [John I. Reilly]
• Richardson, Alan J.. (2015). The cost of a telegram: the evolution of the international regulation of the telegraph. Accounting History. http://scholar.uwindsor.ca/odettepub/84 [Richardson at ]
• Hugh Schofield, How Napoleon's semaphore telegraph changed the world BBC News, Modane, France June 17, 2013 [Schofield]
• G. C. Selden, Western Union: Bird's Eye View of Its Progress for Nineteen Years, Magazine of Wall Street, Vol 15, page. 319 (1914) [Selden at ]
• Robert Siegel, Western Union Sends Its Last Telegram NPR Feb 2006
• Taltavall, J.B. "American Telegraph Engineering – Notes on History and Practice." Telegraph and Telephone Age (July 16, 1910): 487-489. [Taltavall at __]
• Inventor Samuel Morse sends the first US telegram, The Telegraph 1 JUNE 2017 [The Telegraph 2017]
• The Telegrapher
  • The Telegrapher Vol 1-3
  • The Telegrapher Vol 4-6
  • Circular to the Stockholders of the US Telegraph Company, The Telegrapher, Vol. II, No. 26 April 16, 1866 p. 93
• Through the Wires: The Telegraph and Beyond, Thinkquest
• Robert Thompson, Wiring the Continent: The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832-1866 (1947 Princeton Uni Press)
• Telegraph: Early Postal Role, USPS History 2015
• Alfred Vail's Description of the American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph
• Thomas White, US Early Radio History (The Electric Telegraph 1860-1914)
• A History of Information Highways and Byways: Modern Networks, The Wired Professor (" In the United States optical telegraph lines ran from Boston to Martha's Vineyard and connected Staten Island to Manhattan. One line ran from Philadelphia to New York so that the stockbroker who ran it could get word immediately of fluctuations in stock prices. Another optical telegraph operated in San Francisco from 1849 to 1853. Telegraph Hill in San Francisco was one of three optical telegraph stations in that city.")
• Wadsworth, 1908, Postal Telegraph, unCovering Nevada's Past
• Wernikoff, Sergio (July 1966). "Information Services Computer Center". Western Union Technical Review: 130. [Wernikoff]
• Frank Whitten and Diana J. Kleiner, Telephone Service, Texas State Heritage Association
• Christopher Woolf, The History of Electronic Surveillance, From Abraham Lincoln's Wiretaps to Operation Shamrock, PRI Nov. 7, 2013

Links

• The Civil War Military Telegraph Service
• History of US Telegraph Industry EH.NET
• Yearly Messages sent over lines:
  • 1867: 5.8 million - $1.09 per message
  • 1870: 9,158k
  • 1880: 29,216k
  • 1890: 55,879k
  • 1900: 63.2 million / 63,168k - $0.30 per message
  • 1910: 75,135k
  • 1920: 155,885k
  • 1930: 211,971k
  • 1940: 191,645k
  • 1950: 178,904k
  • 1960: 124,319k
  • 1970: 69,679k
• ITT History [ITT History]
• Lucent History
• Western Electric History, Bell System Memorial
• Western Union History [WU History]
• History of the Pacific Telegraph. Marysville Daily Appeal, Volume VI, Number 112, 10 November 1861 [History Pacific Telegraph]
• PBS American Experience: The Great Transatlantic Cable [PBS Transatlantic Cable]
• Guide to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company Records, National Museum of American History