[CW] Question about marine radiograms

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Hello Richard,

I haven't searched for the information to see if it appears on the
Internet, but here goes:

Western Union was granted a monopoly on domestic telegraphic
communications.  They even had two teleprinter networks, WUD Western
Union Domestic  and  (WUI) Western Union International.

If you had a telegram, it had to go by Western Union.  There were
court cases galore.  ITT was granted gateway cities, they could only
have teleprinters in USA at gateway cities, I think they were New
York, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.  From there they had to
go Western Union.  Western Union had also telex lines WUD Western
Union Domestic and WUI Western Union International.  Memory says WUD
numbers began with 6, RCA numbers began with 2, ITT numbers began with
4, then there was French Telegraph Company (FTC).

I searched and info predates Internet so it's hard to find.

Here's a full list I found on Internet of telex providers, but
https://sendtelegram.com/# says they're registered to replace WUD -
Western Union which handled USA telegrams.

Telex Providers - private telegraph service (automatic direct dialed
teleprinter)
USA
(FTCC)
(GRAPHNET)
(ITT)
(RCA)
(TRT)
(TWX)
(WUD)
(WUC)
(WUI)

This is enough to get you started.  Western Union as it once was is no
more, someone bought them mainly for their bank wire services.

73
DR
On Tue, Nov 6, 2018 at 4:00 AM Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>      Very simple, I realize that I don't know something very
> fundamental about how marine radiotelegrams were worked. This is
> mainly how the coastal stations got the messages to the
> addressee. I have always assumed they must have relied on Western
> Union (or Postal Telegraph when it existed) but can't find much
> definite about it. Did companies like Radiomarine have traffic
> offices between the radio stations and the telegraph service? How
> did they work this? I have some memory that if you wanted to send
> a radiogram you could call WU and say you wanted it to go via RCA
> or Mackay or whatever. Perhaps there were also direct numbers.
> But I can't imagine even as large a company as RCA having the
> sort of local delivery ability of WU.  Probably all very obvious
> but not to me at the moment.
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
> WB6KBL
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=