End of an Era: The Last Western Union Telegram

Before text messaging, before e-mail, before faxes, before the telephone, the telegraph revolutionized the way people communicated with one another over long distances.

This mid-19th century innovation and the network it spawned made it possible for the first time for one person to send their words to another faster -- much faster -- than a physical message could be carried by horse, by boat, or by train.

The telegraph -- "The Victorian Internet" as it was called in a 1999 book of that title -- changed the way personal communication, business, journalism, and many other activities of modern society were conducted.

Telegrams are still in use, especially internationally, but as of last week the Western Union telegram -- practically synonymous with the medium for much of American history -- is no more.

In a quiet announcement on its Web site, the company noted that "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage."

As reported in an article on LiveScience.com , the usefulness of telegrams has been in a long decline, hastened since the 1980s by cheap long-distance telephone service, faxes, and, more recently, e-mail.

Western Union itself is not going away, reports LiveScience Managing Editor Robert Roy Britt. The company is refocused on money transfers and, in fact, was spun off by its parent company as a separate, publicly-traded firm -- on January 26th, the last day a Western Union telegram could be sent.