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Friday, January 26, 2007

Out with the Old

Wired news reports that Western Union will discontinue its telegram service as of January 27, 2007.  Over 160 years ago, Samuel Morse sent the first telegram from Washington D.C. to my beloved city, Baltimore.  Although individuals had largely traded in the telegram for the telephone system by the 1950s, Western Union stood by its messaging service.  But the increasing use of VoIP telephony, cellular phones, and email no doubt finally convinced Western Union that it was time to lay the telegram to rest.  Morse's first message can perhaps be said about today's emerging information technologies that replace the telegram--"What God hath wrought?"    

Posted by Danielle Citron on January 26, 2007 at 02:07 PM in Information and Technology | Permalink

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Comments

Actually, that was January 27, 2006. So no last minute telegrams, unfortunately.

Posted by: Brian | Jan 26, 2007 6:39:00 PM

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