Metascience https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-018-0320-4 BOOK REVIEW

Tracing the evolution of telegraphy and society in nineteenth and twentieth century America David Hochfelder: The telegraph in America, 1832–1920. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016, 264pp, US$29.95 PB Adrian Kirwan1

Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018

David Hochfelder’s book (first released in hardback in 2012) is a welcome addition to our understanding of the co-development of telegraphy and society in the USA in the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book seeks to understand the process by which the telegraph shaped the USA in this period, with a focus on its use and popularisation during the American Civil War; the monopolisation of telegraph services by Western Union (completed in 1866), and the debates that this engendered; its impact on the news industry; and finally, its role in reshaping US financial markets. The book concludes by tracing the gradual replacement of telegraphy with telephony. In addition, it provides a useful bibliographic essay for those new to this field. While the title claims that it traces the history of the telegraph in the USA from 1832, those hoping to gain an understanding of the early years of its development will be disappointed. Besides an extremely brief introduction to the early development of the electrical telegraph in the USA, the book really begins by exploring the role that it played in the American Civil War. Hochfelder argues that the vast network of telegraph lines that the US Military Telegraph Corps (USMT) operated—reaching 8000 miles of military and 5000 miles of commercial lines by 1865—was an important tool for the command and control of military forces, as well as offering logistical support. He also notes another key component of telegraph use during the war: the maintenance of civil control of military operations and censorship of news concerning the war destined for public consumption. The development of this system of military telegraphs was not a given but rather a process driven by the government’s gradual realisation of the importance of the technology to the successful pursuit of the war. The author’s central assertion is that & Adrian Kirwan [email protected] 1

Centre for Teaching and Learning, Maynooth University, Room 1.07, Rowan House, Maynooth, Co Kildare, Ireland

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the Civil War acted as a catalyst for the existing process of consolidation of the telegraph industry by Western Union. He argues that the near monopolistic position this granted Western Union in 1866 reignited the debate surrounding private ownership of the telegraph that had been dormant since the beginning of the decade. The second chapter explores the nature of telegraphy as a ‘natural monoploy’— one where networked technology dictates it as the most efficient way to operate— and the various calls for its nationalisation from the end of the American Civil War until the First World War. This debate was to raise questions concerning the role that telegraphy should play within American society: should it remain an expensive tool for businesses or become a nationalised utility that delivered a cheap service and brought a social dividend? This debate was ultimately settled by the Federal Government’s inability to run the system efficiently during a brief period of warinduced nationalisation in 1919. In exploring Western Union’s maintenance of its monopoly, Hochfelder argues that this was anything but ‘natural’. Instead, Western Union employed four core tactics to maintain its control of the vast majority of the US telegraph system: firstly, wayleave agreements, that granted it exclusive rights to lay wire along hundreds of railway lines; secondly, exclusive deals with a number of press associations; thirdly, belligerent rate decreases, to undermine potential competitors; and, finally, control of important technologies. In particular, the close connection between the railway and telegraph, and in turn the importance of wayleave agreements, is highlighted by the involvement of several prominent railway tycoons in the telegraph industry. In addition, the author highlights the ‘soft bribery’ of free telegrams for officials, including congressmen, which amounted to up to $300,000 a year during the 1870s and 1880s. He asserts that these tactics enabled Western Union to stave off attempts at nationalisation throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In conclusion, the chapter argues that the debate surrounding the nature of telegraph ownership was instrumental in delineating the spheres of public versus private enterprise and the rise of the regulatory state. The book also explores the impact of telegraphy on the written word and the news industry. The author demonstrates that many contemporaries predicted that the arrival and increasing use of telegraphy, and the premium that this placed on brevity, would led to a more direct and condensed literature style. While interesting, the length of this discussion takes away from an excellent overview of the impact of telegraphy on newspapers. This demonstrates that the cost of telegraphy lead to the rise of press agencies, which, by distributing the same intelligence to multiple newspapers, significantly reduced cost. The rapidity with which news was transmitted soon became the expected norm, with crowds gathering at newspaper offices to hear the latest intelligence. In exploring the use of the telegraph by the news industry, Hochfelder traces the relationship between the press associations and the cable companies, demonstrating the fluctuating balance of power between the two. The author argues that the arrival of telegraphic intelligence was to change the very nature of newspaper reporting, moving from narrative-based reports to a concentration on the presentation of facts. This in turn was to drive a separation of fact from opinion, a prerequisite for the rise of objectivity as a key feature in

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modern journalism. Hochfelder argues that this shift, driven by technological, organisational, and political factors, happened from the period of the Civil War through to the 1870s and 1880s. In addition to the news industry, the book does excellent work exploring the impact of telegraphy on the financial system, with a focus on stock and commodities exchanges. The author seeks to demonstrate that telegraphy had a central role in the development of modern capitalism. By studying the increasing popularity of stock trading and bucket shops—essentially betting shops based on movements in stock prices—he shows that the telegraph was to become an essential part of stock trading, connecting stock exchanges to the whole county. As intelligence is essential to success in these markets, stock and commodity prices soon feature prominently in newspapers. Hochfelder argues that two technological developments were central to these developments: the ticker and quadruplex. The ticker, invented by Edward Calahan in 1867, was basically a printing telegraph and allowed for the transmission of financial information from stock exchanges to subscribers. The author demonstrates that the uptake of this technology was aided by the arrival of quadruplex in the postCivil War period. Quadruplex, invented by Thomas Edison, quadrupled the capacity of telegraph wires by allowing two telegrams to be sent and two received simultaneously on the same wire. Hochfelder notes that this increased capacity meant that Western Union was willing to lease wires to press associations and stockbrokers for their own exclusive use. Consequently, it is argued the combination of privately operated wires and tickers, connecting stockbroker branch offices to exchanges, revolutionised the stock market and laid the foundations of the modern financial world. The final chapter focuses on the demise of the technology and the succession of the telephone. The book seeks to challenge and tease out the well-known narrative of Western Union’s failure to purchase Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent. It argues that it was only when the Bell telephone began replacing private-line telegraphs in urban areas that the technology really aroused the interest of Western Union, leading to its establishment of the American Speaking Telephone Company, in 1878. The purpose of this was to drive the Bell Telephone Company into consolidation rather than out of business. The book then traces the convoluted narrative of negotiations between the two companies. Here the author determines that Western Union’s withdrawal from the telephone market was primarily driven by its desire to concentrate on its new telegraph competitor, the American Union Telegraph Company, formed in May 1879. The rest of the chapter gives an overview of the progress of telephony and the stagnation of telegraphy, as well as AT&T’s gaining and divesting control of Western Union, in 1909 and 1913, respectively, and the final demise of telegraphy. Hochfelder’s work provides an excellent overview of the history of the telegraph in the USA, particularly, from the 1860s to the 1920s. The book offers much insight into the role of telegraphy in shaping American society. It provides an excellent history of the industry from a business perspective and uses this to advance our understanding of debates concerning monopolies, as well as state ownership and regulation of utilities in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America. In

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addition to its exploration of the telegraph’s effect on the news industry, the book in a number of places explores its use by the state, particularly for the gathering of intelligence. This is very informative and an area that warrants further research. For those coming to the topic of telegraphy for the first time, this book will remain a valuable source for many years to come.

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