telegraph, term originally applied to any device or system for distant communication by means of visible or audible signals, now commonly restricted to electrically operated devices. Attempts at long-distance communication date back thousands of years (see signaling). As electricity came into greater use, various practical and experimental methods of signaling were tried. A method that came into general use throughout most of the world was based in large part on the work of Samuel F. B. Morse. In Morse telegraphy, an electric circuit is set up, customarily by using only a single overhead wire and employing the earth as the other conductor to complete the circuit. An electromagnet in the receiver is activated by alternately making and breaking the circuit. Reception by sound, with the Morse code signals received as audible clicks, is a swift and reliable method of signaling. The first permanently successful telegraphic cable crossing the Atlantic Ocean was laid in 1866. In 1872, J. B. Stearns of Massachusetts devised a method for "duplex" telegraphy, enabling two messages to be sent over the same wire at the same time. In 1874, Thomas A. Edison invented the "quadruplex" method for the simultaneous transmission of four messages over the same wire. In addition to wires and cables, telegraph messages are now sent by such means as radio waves, microwaves, and communications satellites (see satellite, artificial). Telex is a telegraphy system that transmits and receives messages in printed form. Today telegraphy is rarely used, having been supplanted by the telephone, facsimile machines, and computer electronic mail, among others. Western Union, the American telegraph company whose origins date to 1851, stopped transmitting telegrams in 2006.

Electromagnetic communication device. In 1832 Samuel F.B. Morse made sketches of ideas for a system of electric telegraphy, and in 1835 he developed a code to represent letters and numbers (Morse code). In 1837 he was granted a patent on an electromagnetic telegraph that transmitted signals along a wire. That same year British inventors patented a telegraph system that activated five needle pointers that could be made to point to specific letters and numbers on their mounting plate. Public use of Morse's telegraph system began in 1844 and lasted more than 100 years. By the late 20th century the telegraph had been replaced in most applications in developed countries by digital data transmission systems based on computer technology. Seealso Western Union Corp.

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Former U.S. telegraph company and contemporary provider of electronic financial transactions. From its foundation in 1851 as a company formed to build a telegraph line from Buffalo, N.Y., to St. Louis, Mo., in 1856 the expanding business was reorganized as the Western Union Telegraph Co. By the end of 1861 Western Union had built the first transcontinental telegraph line. The company introduced singing telegrams in 1933. Western Union continued to grow, absorbing competitors such as Postal Telegraph Inc. in 1943. As telegraphy was superseded by other methods of telecommunication, Western Union diversified into teletypewriter services, money orders, and mailgrams. It launched the telecommunications satellite Westar 1 in 1974 and was operating five satellites by 1982. In 1988 the company was reorganized as Western Union Corp. to handle money transfers and related services. After declaring bankruptcy in 1993, it sold its financial services arm in 1994 to First Financial Management Corp., and in 1995 that company merged with First Data Corp. The renamed Western Union Financial Services, Inc., became a world leader in electronic (including Internet) transactions.

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The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, founded by William Brown (c.1737-1789) as the Quebec Gazette on June 21, 1764, claims to be the oldest newspaper in North America. Formerly a bilingual (French/English) publication, in 1873 the Quebec Gazette joined the Morning Chronicle to become the Quebec Chronicle and Quebec Gazette.

Published today as a weekly from offices at 1248 Chemin Ste-Foy, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, the newspaper is a descendant of several newspapers published during the past three centuries. Until 1842, the newspaper published editions in both French and English. It started as a weekly, but in May 1832, it began appearing in English on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and in French on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

In 1925 another merger occurred, with the Quebec Daily Telegraph and the paper was published under the banner of the Chronicle-Telegraph until 1934, when it added Quebec at the front of its name where it remains to this day.

In 1959, the paper was sold to the Thomson Group, owned by Canadian media mogul Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, and in 1972 went from being a daily to its current weekly edition. The paper was sold again in 1979 and, on January 1, 1993, was published from January 1, 1993, by Karen Macdonald and François Vézina. The current Publisher, Pierre Little, a New Brunswick native, took over officially from the former publishers on August 1, 2007. Please see the newspapers website for more details.

Its ISSN is 0226-9252.

Claims of seniority

The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph claims to be North-America's oldest newspaper.

• The Maryland Gazette began publication in 1727, though it died in its tenth year and the name was only revived in 1922;
• The New Hampshire Gazette began publication on October 7, 1756 and continues as a weekly today. However, the name disappeared for a time and the new version was started from scratch by a different owner who had not purchased the paper from a previous owner;
• In Canada, the Halifax Gazette, founded in 1752, claims to be "Canada's first newspaper." However, its official descendant, the Royal Gazette, is a government publication for legal notices and proclamations rather than a proper newspaper;
• The Newport Mercury began as a weekly in 1758 and still publishes news today under the same name, ceasing publication only for a short period during the American Revolution. Though it cannot claim to be the oldest continually-published paper in North America, neither can the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which also ceased publication during the siege of Quebec in November 1775; <-- disputed by the Quebec Chronicle Telegraph, 2008.
• Finally, there is the Hartford Courant, founded October 29, 1764, a few months after the Quebec Chronicle Telegraph. The argument from the Courant is that it has never missed a day of publication since its foundation.

The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph therefore has a defendable claim to being the oldest SURVIVING newspaper that still publishes news in Canada and the oldest in North America with continuous corporate bona fide buyouts from current proprietors to new successors. No other newspaper has this claim in North America and quite possible the New World.

External links

• Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph web site

References