Every time I see a Western Union sign, it reminds me of the Pony Express. Don't know why. Spent a few minutes researching to discover Western Union was started in 1851 as a telegraph business - that part of the company shut down in 2006 when yearly telegraph volume dropped to 20,000 - and now survives mainly as a means of transferring money worldwide. They also invented the teletype machine, also confined to the dinosaur trash heap. Meanwhile Pony Express was formed in 1860 to provide speedy mail delivery from the eastern US to California and its 380,000 residents. By galloping across the plains and over the mountains, letters could travel from Atlantic to Pacific in only ten days. My confusion must result from watching too many cowboy movies with horse riders climbing up poles to intercept telegraph messages.
1 comment:
10 days! that's faster than it is now! Nice post.
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