End of the Telegraph Era
... American railroad involvement with the telegraph, as we know, began in 1844. Seemingly, at one time, virtually everywhere the railroad went, those telltale poles and wires followed it.
Evidently the earliest ancestor of Western Union dates from 1851, and it rose with the railroad industry. ... the railroad industry was already twenty-odd years old when this predecessor telegraphic company was born ...
—John Decker
[from the R&LHS Newsgroup.]
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Electromagnetic Pulse Threat and Mitigation:
"The most severe recorded space weather event, known as the Carrington Event, lasted from August 28 to September 4, 1859, and it affected several continents. The Carrington event disrupted telegraph networks. One study estimated that 'the economic costs associated with a catastrophic geomagnetic storm similar to that of the Carrington Even could measure in the range of several trillion dollars.'
... Another major event occurred May 14-15, 1921 and also disrupted operation of much of the telegraph system across the Eastern United States as well as disabling switching and signal equipment on the New York Central Railroad system."
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