Edward Augustin Calahan (1838–1912) was an American inventor, credited with invention of a

ticker tape Ticker tape was the earliest electrical dedicated financial communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use from around 1870 through 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through a machine called ...

, gold and stock tickers, and a multiplex

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

system.New York Times:E.A. CALAHAN, INVENTOR, DIES; Originator of Gold and Stock Ticker and Multiplex Telegraph System.September 13, 1912
/ref> Calahan was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He left school at the age of 11 to pursue his interest to be part of a modern business. Calahan came to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1861 and made his residence in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He joined as chief telegrapher in Western Union telegraph company's New York office at

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. While working with

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...

, he encountered a group of rushing messenger boys which inspired him to improve exchange communications. These young men called runners had to dash from the Stock Exchange to their offices to report the changes in share values. Calahan realized that the prices could be sent directly via telegraph to each broker's office much more quickly and efficiently in a permanent stream of information. With the idea, he invented the

in 1867.Patent number: 76157;Issue date: Mar 31, 1868
/ref> After many years of work he started the company ADT security, which still stands today. He was inducted to the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...

in 2006 for this invention.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calahan, Edward A. 1838 births 1912 deaths 19th-century American inventors