Global Telegram System RIP (1845-2013)

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Message 1383616 - Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 9:10:34 UTC
Last modified: 22 Jun 2013, 9:11:14 UTC

Telegram system ends. Stop. Replaced by text messages. Stop

The telegram, that bringer of bad news and birthday greetings, was too slow for the digital age

-- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10120701/Telegram-system-ends.-Stop.-Replaced-by-text-messages.-Stop.html

For more than a century, bad news always came by telegram. A slip of pastel paper through the door would confirm our worst fears, from the death of a relative to the loss of a battle far from home.

Yet the telegram service was not able to break the news of its own demise on Thursday. Instead, the announcement that India would abandon the service next month appeared on the internet, the telegram’s nemesis. After 163 years, Indians will send their last telegrams on July 15.

BSNL, the government-owned firm that operates the service, has lost more than £2 billion and says it can no longer afford to run it. Erratically punctuated messages in capitals have gradually been replaced with the electronic trill of “You’ve Got Mail” or the ping of an incoming text message.

The announcement made headlines yesterday because India is the last country to use the telegram on such a large scale. The American service closed in 2006, while BT put an end to the British version in 1982. Even centenarians can no longer expect a telegram from Buckingham Palace. Today, the Queen opts for a card, having abandoned “telemessages” – letters that look like telegrams – in 1999.

Little more than a century earlier, however, another Queen was rather keener on this form of communication. Before she embarked on her Diamond Jubilee procession on June 22, 1897, Queen Victoria stopped at the telegraph room in Buckingham Palace. She pressed a button, and within minutes the Central Telegraph Office relayed her message to every country of the Empire. “Thank my beloved people,” it read. “May God bless them.”

It had taken only a few decades for the telegram to reach such prominence. Samuel Morse is thought to have been sent the first message via telegraph wires using his system of dots and dashes in May 1844. His message, sent from Washington to Baltimore, read: “What hath God wrought?”

[...]
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Message 1383655 - Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 13:17:46 UTC

Yes, I also miss flint knives.
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Message 1383669 - Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 14:20:50 UTC

But you can still send money via Western Union .....
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Message 1383687 - Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 16:06:03 UTC

The Western Union is the method the spammers use to beg for money ....
It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues



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Message 1383759 - Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 22:22:52 UTC - in response to Message 1383687.  

Ah yes, the old telegram service.

Here in Australia we dismantled this service a bit over 2yrs ago now. Ever since the introductions of both mobile phones and the internet, the telegram service here was deemed dead back in the mid-late 1990's (and a large cost burden as it was not being used).

I'm actually surprised that the service here took 10yrs longer to complete the take down than it was originally suppose to (that was something that we Aussies were to leave behind in the 20th Century).

Cheers.
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Message 1383762 - Posted: 22 Jun 2013, 22:40:43 UTC

Well you can still rely on good old Canada.
We still have it here.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/featured/the-first-telegraph-in-canada
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Message 1385047 - Posted: 27 Jun 2013, 7:09:57 UTC
Last modified: 27 Jun 2013, 7:10:26 UTC

The telegraph, Ive read where that was the first revolution in rapid communication. Dont mourn the telegram or the telegraph. Consider them the ancesters of todays internet.

You still need a code to to be on the internet. Its binary not Morse. A text is just an electronic telegram.

I dont mourn the passing of the telegraph. I celebrate the wonders that it has brought forth.
[/quote]

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Message 1385061 - Posted: 27 Jun 2013, 8:21:57 UTC - in response to Message 1385047.  

The telegraph, Ive read where that was the first revolution in rapid communication. Dont mourn the telegram or the telegraph. Consider them the ancesters of todays internet.

You still need a code to to be on the internet. Its binary not Morse. A text is just an electronic telegram.

I dont mourn the passing of the telegraph. I celebrate the wonders that it has brought forth.

+1
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Message 1385152 - Posted: 27 Jun 2013, 17:10:58 UTC - in response to Message 1385087.  

I will mourn the telegram, I think it had its place. I am old enough to still remember the telegram boys on their Post Office BSA 125cc motorbikes. It stopped in 1977. Then we had Telemessages via BT Accurate which ceased in 2007.These days if you get a greetings telegram from the Queen on your Diamond Wedding or 100th Birthday, it is a card through the post. Doesn't quite have the same cachet does it?

Hand-signed? That would be a keepsake.
Better than an email.
Well, maybe a graphic e-Card...
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Message 1385160 - Posted: 27 Jun 2013, 17:19:55 UTC - in response to Message 1385158.  

The Queen's congratulatory messages consist of a card containing a personalised message. The card comes in a special envelope, which is delivered through the normal postal channels.

I don't know if it is personally signed by HM, I doubt it.

Even if signed by a staffer or an autopen, I'd save it....
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Message 1385178 - Posted: 27 Jun 2013, 18:51:55 UTC - in response to Message 1385047.  

The telegraph, Ive read where that was the first revolution in rapid communication. Dont mourn the telegram or the telegraph. Consider them the ancesters of todays internet.

You still need a code to to be on the internet. Its binary not Morse. A text is just an electronic telegram.

I dont mourn the passing of the telegraph. I celebrate the wonders that it has brought forth.

Binary is basically morse code but with a 1 or 0 instead of a _-


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Message 1385202 - Posted: 27 Jun 2013, 20:01:32 UTC - in response to Message 1383687.  

The Western Union is the method the spammers use to beg for money ....



My old Email used to be filled with these messages. You wonder where those people get their imagination from...
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Message boards : Cafe SETI : Global Telegram System RIP (1845-2013)


 
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