Epilogue


Experimentation with duplex and quadruplex telegraphs in the 1870s demonstrated that multiplexing could be used to increase wire capacity by allowing multiple telegraph messages to be transmitted in both directions on a single wire. Extensions of multiplexing             telephone when human speech replaced harmonic tones. Western Union’s William Orton had developed an interest in the telephone to the point of organizing the American                (under the American Speaking Phone Company) grew to 56,000 telephones in some 55 cities. Western Union under Norvin Green largely regarded the telephone as an “auxiliary” to the telegraph, and showed little interest in committing the capital and resources to  and Western Union reached an agreement whereby Western Union exited the telephone market in exchange for Bell concessions in the telegraph sector. The agreement with Bell was regarded as more of a Western Union retreat than an alliance, and it was questionable whether Bell’s patents could have defeated Western Union’s telephone patent claims in court. The most compelling reason for Western Union’s exit from the telephone market likely stemmed from the eminent threat of Jay Gould’s American Union in 1879. Western Union’s desire to maintain their telegraph dominance and their inability to grasp the long- term potential of the telephone ultimately sealed their fate, and eventual obsolescence in the twentieth century.


References


1. Hochfelder, David (2012). The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920. Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.


2. Reid, James D. (1886). The Telegraph in America and Morse Memorial. New York: J. Polhemus.


           Corporate Order, 1845-1893. New York: Cambridge University Press.


4. Cornell Law School. Pensacola Telegraph Company v. Western Union Telegraph Company. 96 U.S. 1 (, 24 L. Ed. 708).


5. Cybertelecom: Telegraph / Western Union (www.cybertelecom.org).


December 2018


47


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