Being able to send messages by telegraph was all very well - theoretically. But why would you want to? Life in the 1840s still moved at the speed of the horse and carriage. There was one exception - the railway. They needed to be able to send messages faster than the trains could travel - and, at that time, trains were the fastest things on Earth.
As the railways speeded up the pace of life so did the telegraph - with the infant telegraph companies having to adapt their services to the new realities of a fast changing world.
The electric telegraph created opportunities for entirely new forms of business, based on the distribution of information. One was the Exchange Telegraph Company, formed in 1872, to cable Stock Exchange news and prices to subscribers around the country. It soon gained the exclusive right to be represented on the floor of the exchange and its glass-domed 'ticker tape' machines that printed out the latest figures became a familiar sight in offices, banks, gentlemen's clubs and leading hotels.
Around the same time the Press Association established a similar business to disseminate the latest news, racing results and other information to newspapers nationwide.
It is difficult to imagine how strange the telegraph must have seemed to our great, great grandparents. People had only the vaguest idea about the technology involved.
They did know that the wires sometimes made a strange sound. But instead of realising it was just the wind blowing, some thought the lines were humming because they were carrying messages.
One railway passenger who left her umbrella on the train asked at the station if it could be found. The stationmaster said he'd try to use the telegraph to arrange for its return and wired to the end of the line to see if it had been found on the train. Soon, he received a message back that it had and would be sent back 'down the line'. When he told the anxious passenger this good news, she expressed amazement that items such as umbrellas could be returned using the telegraph!
Rather than disappoint her, the station staff hooked the returned umbrella over the telegraph wire - as if it had literally come back 'down the line'.
