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TIL The initial rate in 1866 for messages sent along transatlantic cable was $10 a word, with a ten word minimum. (www.pbs.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The initial rate in 1866 for messages sent along the transatlantic cable was ten dollars a word, with a ten word minimum, meaning that a skilled workman of the day would have to set aside ten weeks' salary in order to send a single message. As a practical matter, this limited cable use to governments (transmissions from the British and American governments had priority under the terms of their agreements with Field's telegraph companies) and big businesses (who made up about 90 percent of telegraph traffic in the early years).

Businesses quickly turned to the use of commercial codes through which one word could convey an entire message. For example, the word "festival" as telegraphed by one fireworks manufacturer meant "a case of three mammoth torpedoes." And for truly urgent information, price was considered no object: New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley spent $5,000 (over $65,000 in 2003 dollars) in 1870 to transmit one report about the Franco-Prussian War. During three months in 1867, the transatlantic cable sent 2,772 commercial messages, for a revenue that averaged $2,500 a day. But this represented just five percent of capacity, so the rate for sending a telegram was halved to $46.80 for ten words, a move which boosted daily revenue to $2,800.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TIL. Which is actually pretty bad considering I'm actually certified general amateur operator. They'll let anyone with a little EE and law knowledge into the club these days.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Good link. For the lazy:

The neat thing about "PARIS " is that it's a nice even 50 units long. It translates to ".--. .- .-. .. .../" so there are:

10 dits: 10 units; 4 dahs: 12 units; 9 intra-character spaces: 9 units; 4 inter-character spaces: 12 units; 1 word space: 7 units. A grand total of 50 units.