URL to an article that appeared in MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11147506/
The end of an era
First few paragraphs
"
DENVER - For more than 150 years, messages of joy, sorrow and success
came in signature yellow envelopes hand-delivered by a courier. Now
the Western Union telegram is officially a thing of the past.
The company formed in April 1856 to exploit the hot technology of the
telegraph to send cross-country messages in less than a day. It is
now focusing its attention on money transfers and other financial
services, and delivered its final telegram on Friday.
"The decision was a hard decision because we're fully aware of our
heritage," said Victor Chayet, a spokesman for the Greenwood Village,
Colo.-based company. "But it's the final transition from a
communications company to a financial services company."
Several telegraph companies that eventually combined to become
Western Union were founded in 1851. Western Union built its first
transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.
"At the time it was as incredible and astonishing as the computer
when it first came out," said Tom Noel, a history professor at the
University of Colorado at Denver. "For people who could barely
understand it, here you had the magic of the electric force traveling
by wire across the country."
Chris
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