Telegrams are an interesting part of communications history because at one point it was actually the preferred way to communicate over phone calls. More on that in a moment.

When people think telegram, they think of a printed document seen at right. Well, that’s only the last portion of it.

What made telegrams different from postal mail?

When sending a letter through postal mail, the message is physically couriered the entire distance. With a telegram, your message is transmitted by an operator either over-the-air or by phone to a receiving station close to the recipient (usually in the same town the recipient lives in) where it is then printed and delivered by local courier. Being the bulk of the distance was handled via electronic means before getting to the physical stage of being put to paper, telegrams were a much faster way of sending messages.

Were telegrams used more than the telephone at one point?

Yes. For about two decades (the 1920′s and 1930′s) it was actually cheaper to send a telegram than place a long distance phone call.

What’s the deal with “STOP”?

Using a period character cost extra money to use in a telegram, so what people did was use the word STOP which was free instead; this is why you will see most (but certainly not all) telegrams with STOP in them signifying the end of a sentence.

Are telegrams still being used today?

No. Western Union, arguably the most famous telegram service there ever was, sent its last telegram on January 27, 2006.

When was the first telegram sent? May 26, 1844. By whom? Samuel Morse himself.

Is email a modern version of a telegram?

No. Email in the way it works is just like postal mail except the courier transport is the internet.

The closest equivalent to a telegram today is a radiogram.

(Image from howtoconnect.co.uk)

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