# Saying STOP when reading telegrams

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-stop-when-reading-telegrams/118130
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 10, 2002, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-stop-when-reading-telegrams/118130 "2002-07-10T00:08:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 22

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-stop-when-reading-telegrams/118130/22 "2002-07-10T16:17:50Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by evilhanz \*  
> \*\*  
> A person transmitting a telegram would structure the message by first sending their call letters, number of words, payment info, originating city, sender, time/date, and a couple of other things. Then the word TO would be sent followed by the recipients name and address. _Then a period_ followed by the body of the message. _Another period_ would signal the receiver that the transmission had concluded. \*\*

Interestingly, this convention has apparently survived into the era of email (although its not visible to most users). With many mail servers, a period alone on a line is used to denote the beginning and end of the body of the message, after you’ve specified the recipient and such. This was common with BBS software, as well. Pretty cool.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saying-stop-when-reading-telegrams/118130)._