# Why did telegram services last as long as they did? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986 "2020-10-01T20:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/22 "2020-10-02T00:21:52Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I wasn’t sure if this belonged in General Questions or not. Mods feel free to move if appropriate. Seems factual enough. Moved to GQ (from MPSIMS). ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/23 "2020-10-02T00:23:32Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > What happened to my post?!?! Discourse thinks that you deleted it. I restored it for you. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/24 "2020-10-02T00:37:42Z")
Well now I have two posts with the same stuff in it and now it says “What happened to my post?” for a reason no longer apparent. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/25 "2020-10-02T01:16:45Z")
Thanks. I shouldn’t have only been thinking about US use of telegrams. There are other countries! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/26 "2020-10-02T01:30:39Z")
Yeah-- and other countries couldn’t adopt fax technology when the US did, because their phones weren’t as fast. And FWIW, when we lived in Moscow in 1977, we had a rotary phone in our apt., but we were very unusual. Most families we knew, and I mean American families, didn’t have one-- there was usually one phone on their floor. When my mother lived in Prague in 1980, she didn’t have a phone in her room, nor did she have a phone the time she was there in 1983, albeit, that was just for 3 months. When I visited family in Czechoslovakia in 1985, most of them had phones, but they were all rotary dial. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/27 "2020-10-02T01:57:57Z")
Follow-on question: When did telegraph services stop sending messages by hand-tapped Morse code and begin using text devices like Teletype machines? ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/28 "2020-10-02T02:51:38Z")
I think that’s stretching it. As a teenager I worked for my mom’s cousin in the summer of 1988, and that was the first time I’d ever seen one. Clearly they weren’t even much incorporated into tv shows and such at the time. You still had to call people, even offices, and make sure they had a machine. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/29 "2020-10-02T02:56:27Z")
I know. See my post above (#21). My perspective was probably a bit skewed back then. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/30 "2020-10-02T04:15:48Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > When did telegraph services stop sending messages by hand-tapped Morse code and begin using text devices like Teletype machines? Varied quite a bit, I think. Big city offices began using various kinds of printing telegraphs as early as 1850, and teleprinters (including Teletype machines) were commonplace by the 1930s. But a message sent to a very small town could have had someone listening to a sounder and typing out the message well into the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/31 "2020-10-02T04:38:13Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Now that you mention it, I think I got some information about a job interview in the early 1980s in a “telegram” delivered by the US mail. That was a service called Mailgram. I’m amazed it lasted as long as it did - (1970 to 2006!) you’d call Western Union, tell them you wanted to send a Mailgram, dictate the message and pay them. They’d transmit the message to somewhere near the recipient where it would be printed and put in an envelope, then handed off to the USPS. Delivery time was usually next business day. > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I find it kind of hard to believe that there were single wires strung around and someone pounding away in morse code on a telegraph key in 2006, so presumably that letter is just the last time that Western Union would take your $10 and hand deliver a text message somewhere, having abandoned the actual technology years (decades?) before. This 1975 ad for Wester Union’s Mailgram shows them using satellites back then. WU launched their own satellite called Wester for the purpose in 1974. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JqQKbvdiO8w/hqdefault.jpg "Western Union Mailgram Commercial (1975)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqQKbvdiO8w) Then not far after that, the USPS had a stab at delivering bulk (i.e.: junk) email. [E-COM](https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/ecom.pdf) didn’t last too long. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/32 "2020-10-02T04:44:44Z")
I sent the first and only telegram of my life just last year (in 2019). I stupidly signed a contract (long story) with a 7-day cancellation provision. Within a few hours after signing, I got cold feet and decided to cancel. Per the contract, the only way to cancel was by certified mail or telegram. To cover my ass, I did both. For one thing, a certified mail receipt only indicated that I had sent them a letter—it provided no proof that I had actually cancelled. (I also sent the company an email, but if the matter had ended up in court, it might well not have counted as being a valid method of delivery.) If I had waited until the last minute on the seventh day, a telegram would have been the only legal way for me to deliver the required notice to the company. Anyway, the telegram cost me nearly $100! Apparently one of the reasons telegram companies still exist is for this purpose (i.e. archaic contractual language dictated by archaic laws and/or regulations). Here’s one such company: > **[International Telegram® - How to cancel a contract by telegram](https://itelegram.com/telegram/contract-cancellation.asp)** > > Same day contract cancellation telegram is a legal notice delivered to any street address or PO box anywhere in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/33 "2020-10-02T04:48:17Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > How is that better than a fax? Fax technology was ubiquitous in the 80s. Definitely wasn’t my experience in the 80s. A father’s friend worked as a newspaper reporter, and he’d type a story, then dictate it over the phone if they wanted to get it in faster than mailing and were too far (or dealing with bad road conditions) to drop it off. They switched from ‘dictate over phone’ to ‘transmit via portable computer with a coupler modem’ at some point, but never expected to find a fax machine. And they definitely weren’t something that most people had at home, or something they could use for private correspondence the way they would a telephone. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/34 "2020-10-02T05:01:40Z")
From 1984 to 1986, FedEx offered a service called [Zapmail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapmail), which essentially consisted of you giving them a document, which they took to their local office, then faxed to another FedEx office, which would then deliver the hard-copy fax to the recipient. It proved to be a failure, but when it was launched, it was still the case that relatively few businesses had their own fax machines. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/35 "2020-10-02T06:47:35Z")
The history of Zapmail is fascinating, by the way, especially if you like obscure computer and telecom history. FedEx developed their own proprietary packet network for transmitting Zapmails so they would not have to rely on the phone company. (Commercial access to the Internet wasn’t yet widely available, and probably would have been too slow anyway for the level of traffic they were expecting.) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/36 "2020-10-02T07:02:51Z")
Towards the end, much of their business was probably due to the novelty of the whole idea. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/37 "2020-10-02T07:08:10Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Proof of delivery? Not just proof: the telegram service guaranteed _attempted_ person-to-person delivery. They kept trying until they succeeded or ran out of options. The only real telegram I ever saw (in the 1970’s) was sent to a person who was about to board an airplane, telling them that they would not be met. She had already left the house, and they went off to retry at the airport. It’s not co-incidental that the service was finally buried after SMS became ubiquitous. There was another related wire service that also lasted well after the introduction of the telephone: telex. That lasted until Fax became ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/38 "2020-10-02T08:42:58Z")
In the UK, telegrams were discontinued by BT in 1982, but their predecessor, The Post Office had decided to close it down five years earlier. There is a private company that offers a range of services from same-day hand delivery to first-class post. From their website, it looks as if it’s mainly aimed at and used for wedding and birth congratulations. They don’t say, but it’s a reasonable assumption that the message is sent to a local delivery service by email rather than by telegraph. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/39 "2020-10-02T11:49:36Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > > [@Andy\_L](#): > > > > Now that you mention it, I think I got some information about a job interview in the early 1980s in a “telegram” delivered by the US mail. > > That was a service called Mailgram. I’m amazed it lasted as long as it did - (1970 to 2006!) you’d call Western Union, tell them you wanted to send a Mailgram, dictate the message and pay them. They’d transmit the message to somewhere near the recipient where it would be printed and put in an envelope, then handed off to the USPS. Delivery time was usually next business day. Yeah, that sounds right. Delivered to my college mailbox - but inside the envelope was the message printed on flimsy paper (with fanfold edges?) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/40 "2020-10-02T12:53:39Z")
Related question; did singing telegrams really exist? That’s something I saw in various movies and TV shows but never saw one in reality. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986/41 "2020-10-02T12:56:37Z")
They still do exist. There may not have been an actual telegram involved for a very long time. [Singing Telegram Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_telegram) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-telegram-services-last-as-long-as-they-did/921986.md?page=3)