In the United States the telegraph is entire ly in the hands of private companies. The first company was organized in 1845 under the name of the Magnetic Telegraph Company by Morse's supporters and associates. In that year the tele graph was constructed between Philadelphia and Norristown and in the following year it was ex tended to •New Yo•k. The House printing tele graph was patented in 1846, and soon after nu merous companies were formed to exploit both systems. This was the case all over the United States, and soon the competition became most sharp and the lack of thorough organization ap parent. In 1856 the Western Union Company was formed by the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company uniting with the New York and Missis sippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. From this time combination and consolidation was carried on, the efficiency of the service increasing continually. In 1862 the telegraph across the North American continent was completed and in operation. By IS66 consolidation had taken place to such an extent that there were three tele graph companies which enjoyed the largest part of the busines* in the United States. These were the Western Union, the American Union, and the United States. In 18S1 the Western Union ab sorbed the American Union and the Atlantic and Pacific, and at later periods purchased or leased the lines of the New York Mutual Telegraph Company, the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Tele graph, American Rapid Telegraph, and the North western Telegraph Company, all of which are now operated as part of the Western Union sys tem. The telegraph business of the United States is at present controlled by the Western Union and Postal Telegraph-Cable companies. The former in 1901 had 193,589 miles of poles and cable, 972,766 miles of wire, 23,23S offices, trans mitted 65,657,049 messages, had receipts aggre gating $26,354,151, expenses amounting to $19, 668,903, and profits of $6,685,248. The average toll per message in ]S70 was 75.5 cents, while the cost of transmission was 51.2 cents. In 1900 these figures were 30.8 cents and 25.] cents, re spectively.
The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company in 1901 had in its system 43,S50 miles of poles and cables. 243,423 miles of wire, 14,870 offices, and transmitted 17,898,073 messages.
In striking contrast to the system of private companies of the United States is the govern mental eontrol of the telegraphs as practiced in Great Britain and other European countries. In Great Britain previous to 1S70 the telegraph busi ness was controlled by private corporations, but in 1S6S a bill was introduced into Parliament and passed in the following year whereby the lines and property were acquired by the Gov ernment at an expense of 16750,000. In 1869 there were about 7,000,000 messages sent, a num ber which increased to 22,459.775 in 1879, and 90,415,123 in 1900. In this last year the receipts from telegraphs were £3,400,492 amt expenditures £3.748.930, leaving a deficit of 1288,43S. This deficit is due largely to the reduced rate at which newspaper messages are transmitted, there being an actual loss of over 1250,000 on this class of business. With governmental ownership have come improved service and reduced rates. Where in 1870 it cost from 3 to 6 shillings to send a mes sage from London to Dublin, now a message of 12 words can be sent anywhere in the United Kingdom for 6 pence. In 1867 the average charge for a me.ssage was a little over 50 cents; now it is slightly more than 15 cents. In 1900 the Post office Department controlled 11,1S8 telegraph of fices, including 2337 railway offices, while the mileage of line is stated at 44,970, with 329,660 miles of wire.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Houston and Kenelly, Electric Bibliography. Houston and Kenelly, Electric Telegraphy (New York, 1896) ; Loring, A Hand Book of the Elcctro-Magnctic Telegraph- (New York, 1900) ; Mayer, American Telegraphy: Sys tems, ppa rat us, Operation (2d ed., New York, 1899) ; id., Quadrupled, with Chapters on the Dynamo Electric Machine in Relation to the Quadruplex (New York, 1S93) ; Pope, Modern Practice of the Electric Telegraph (16th ed., New York, 1899) ; Prescott, Electricity and the Elec tric Telegraph (New York, 1892) ; Olney, Hand book of Practical Telegraphy (8th ed., London, 1885) ; Preece and Sivewright, Test Book of Telegraphy (9th ed., London, 1891) ; Bright, Submarine Telegraphy (London, 189S) ; Reid, History of the American Telegraph (New York, ISS2). See also ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH; TELEG RAPHY, SUBMARINE; and WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.