Telegrams
'Telegram' was the name for the messages sent by telegraph systems.
Telegraph companies used to charge based on the length of the message sent (by letter). It was, therefore, much cheaper - especially for businesses - to send very short messages. Some businesses and most governments also wanted to keep their messages secret, leading to the creation of many codes used to replace phrases with words.
Examples of such groups of letters include LIOUY ("Why do you not answer my question?"), AYYLU ("Not clearly coded, repeat more clearly"), and PAESCOLA ("Natives have plundered everything from the wreck.").
These are in many ways similar to the shorthand used in emails and SMS messages such as LOL ("laughing out loud"), and ROTFL ("roll on the floor laughing")!
Using punctuation in telegrams cost extra. Therefore, rather than using a full stop at the end of a sentence, the word STOP was used. This word led to many telegram jokes, including lines such as:
YOU SAID YOU LOVE ME STOP DON'T STOP
Telegrams and their impact
Morse code allowed telegrams to become a method of short and speedy communication. This helped telegrams became part of many significant historic events, sometimes serving the special function of summarising great moments.
For instance, when Sir Charles Napier, a British general in India, captured the Indian province of Sindh (now Pakistan), pronounced ‘sind’, he sent a one-word telegram in Latin to London that said "peccavi", which literally translates to "I have sinned".
Australia’s own Australian Overland Telegraph Line was completed in 1872 between Adelaide and Darwin. The honour of sending the first telegram fell on Charles Todd (later Sir Charles), who conceived the idea of building the telegraph line, planned it, and supervised the massive task.
He telegraphed: |
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"We have this day, within two years, completed a line of communication two thousand miles long through the very centre of Australia, until a few years ago a terra incognita believed to be a desert." |
Apart from articulating great sentiments in history, telegrams were also instrumental in communicating news of war, birthday wishes, love notes and important business briefs.
Before the Second World War, perhaps because of our isolation, Australia held the record for the most telegrams sent per person. The number of telegrams sent annually in Australia peaked at 35 million during the 1950s!
Telegrams today
As the telephone and later email became popular communications tools, the use of telegrams became less of a commercial tool and more of a sentimental gesture. The formal era of telegrams is said to have ended on 27 January 2006 when Western Union discontinued its telegram and commercial messaging service. Although telegram services still exist, its popularity has finally ended.