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Postal Telegraph Company (Postal Telegraph & Cable Corporation) was a major operator of
History of the U.S. Telegraph Industry
/ref> Postal partnered with
By 1893, the company's rate of growth had allowed it to become the only viable competitor to Western Union. It had grown so large that management had to move out of the company's New York City headquarters to accommodate more operations staff. Chandler oversaw the design and construction of the
Clarence H. Mackay, Harbor Hill and the Postal Telegraph
File:(King1893NYC) pg215 POSTAL-TELEGRAPH-CABLE COMPANY'S BUILDING, BROADWAY AND MURRAY STREET.jpg, Postal Telegraph Headquarters Building, New York, 1893.
File:Postal Telegraph Messengers. (Indiana has no age limit for messengers.) Indianapolis, Ind. - NARA - 523084.jpg, Postal Telegraph Messengers, Indianapolis, IN, 1912.
File:1909 Postal Telegraph Cable Company stamp.jpg, Postal Telegraph Cable Company stamp, 1909.
File:POSTAL_TELEGRAPH_WIRE_-_NARA_-_515196.jpg, A Postal Telegram, 1942.
Telecommunications systems
Western Union
{{US-company-stub
Postal Telegraph Company (Postal Telegraph & Cable Corporation) was a major operator of 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 ...
networks in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
prior to its consolidation 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 ...
in 1943.Nonnenmacher, TomasHistory of the U.S. Telegraph Industry
/ref> Postal partnered with
Commercial Cable Company
The Commercial Cable Company was founded in New York in 1884 by John William Mackay and James Gordon Bennett, Jr.
Their motivation was to break the then virtual monopoly of Jay Gould on transatlantic telegraphy and bring down prices (particular ...
for overseas cable messaging.
Postal was founded in the 1880s by John William Mackay
John William Mackay (November 28, 1831 – July 20, 1902) was an Irish-American industrialist. Mackay was one of the four Bonanza Kings, a partnership which capitalised on the wealth generated by the silver mines at the Comstock Lode. He al ...
, an entrepreneur who had made a fortune in silver mining in the Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the Unit ...
. Mackay's original purpose was to provide a domestic wire network to directly link with the Atlantic Cable
Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...
. Mackay built the Postal network by the purchase of existing insolvent firms. The company was initially called ''The Pacific Postal Telegraph Cable Co''. Under president Albert Brown Chandler
Albert Brown Chandler (August 20, 1840 – February 23, 1923) was an American corporate executive. He was notable for his association with Abraham Lincoln during Chandler's service as a War Department telegraph operator during the American C ...
, the Postal network was able to achieve sufficient economy of scale to compete with Western Union, occasionally controlling as much as 20% of the business.
By 1893, the company's rate of growth had allowed it to become the only viable competitor to Western Union. It had grown so large that management had to move out of the company's New York City headquarters to accommodate more operations staff. Chandler oversaw the design and construction of the Postal Telegraph Company Building
The Home Life Building, also known as 253 Broadway, is an office building in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is in Manhattan's Tribeca and Civic Center neighborhoods at the northwest corner of Broadway and Murray Street, adjacent to City H ...
, a new headquarters at Broadway and Murray Street.
References
External links
Clarence H. Mackay, Harbor Hill and the Postal Telegraph
Gallery