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Belgium Ends 19th-Century Telegram Service (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the end-of-an-era dept.

Belgium's telegram service is about to stop. From a report: One hundred and seventy-one years after the first electrical message was transmitted down a line running alongside the railway between Brussels and Antwerp the final dispatch will be sent and received on 29 December. The fact that this 19th-Century technology is still up and running in the age of Instagram and Snapchat may seem rather odd -- especially when you consider that the UK, which invented the telegram in the 1830s, abandoned it as long ago as 1982. The United States followed suit in 2006 and even India, which had been by far the world's biggest market for the telegram, finally closed its system down in 2013.

9 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Stop by oldmac31310 · · Score: 2

    Stop

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    http://www.acetonestudio.com
    1. Re:Stop by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You know this sounds like a fun project for kids with a Raspberry PI. Program the PI to receive Morse code, translate it to the actual text. Send it over the internet via SSH to an end point, where it would decode the message, and play the Morse Code back onto a ticker tape writer. All the nostalgia without having dedicated cable.

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      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re: Stop by houghi · · Score: 4, Informative

      As somebody living in Belgium and having used telegram service, morse has nothing to do with it. What we did was send an email asking them to deliver a telegram. They prited it out and deliverd it, minus the headers and what not. For birthdays you could even buy cards that would go with it it was billed to the phonebill.

      Think of it as what you see in mivies where they have to hand over a soupena by hand. The underlaying protocol didnot matter. Sono morse code, but boring TCP/IP.

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      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  2. Sam Morse's son's comment on the telegraph by jabberw0k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Da-da did-it.

    But seriously, it is good to remember that the telegraph's current loop (with ground/earth return) was used for Teletypes; paper tape punched by these was easily stored or repeated to multiple recipients over radio or other links; Teletypes themselves were easily interfaced to early computers, and begat RS-232 and all today's serial I/O. Dig deep into any modern computer and in a way, it still talks click-clack telegraphy.

    1. Re:Sam Morse's son's comment on the telegraph by chthon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The telegraph embodies everything that is necessary to know in modern digital electronics: transmission lines, the relationship between bandwidth and frequency, and the basis for information theory.

    2. Re:Sam Morse's son's comment on the telegraph by bws111 · · Score: 3

      You appear to have absolutely no understanding of what descended from means, as it means exactly what you claim it doesn't. Either that or you are too dumb to know the difference between a teleGRAM (the message itself) and teleGRAPHY (the method used to send the message). It doesn't have anything to do with 'an improved solution to a problem', it has to do with extending an EXISTING thing to a new purpose.

      The telegraph was sending DIGITAL signals SERIALLY over a wire using a CODE. Are you really going to claim that does not still happen in modern computers? Telegraph using Morse Code led to teletype using Baudot code. Teletype using Baudot code led to RS-232 using ASCII led to Ethernet and so on. Of course over time the electrical characteristics of the connections changed, but the exact same concepts are still in place.

  3. Used for legal reasons by guruevi · · Score: 2

    When I was young, telegrams were used for "instant" communication regards legal matters.

    It had guaranteed delivery, proof when it was sent and a chain of custody similar to "registered mail" in the US, I don't know of any products in the EU/Belgium that have similar guarantees, hence the need for telegrams.

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  4. Fake News Detected by jrmcferren · · Score: 4, Informative

    "The United States followed suit in 2006..."

    While in 2006 Western Union stopped handling telegrams, the business was sold not discontinued.

    There are two companies providing this service. International Telegram took over the Western Union Service, but American Telegram is another company in the business.

    The official time stamp on a telegram is valid in court for purposes of contract law regardless of delivery method, in fact cancelling time share agreements is a common use of telegrams.

    Like paging, the telegram business is healthy but smaller than it once was. The service has evolved significantly with classic and contemporary entry and delivery methods.

    Telegrams can be delivered in one or more methods:

    - Traditional Hand Delivery
    - Postal Delivery
    - Telephone (an operator calls and reads the telegram to you)
    - Fax (the telegram is transmitted to your fax machine).
    - Email: Yes, even email delivery of a telegram is available. Telegrams, even if delivered by email are kept on file by the telegraph (Morse isn't used BTW) for legal verification purposes.

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  5. Still alive by enriquevagu · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's funny, because telegrams are still alive in Spain. They still charge per words.

    As mentioned in previous comments, telegrams are still alive in many parts of the world (including the US, despite what's in the article) and they are used for legal reasons, in cases in which registered delivery is required.