A History of Telegraphy: Its Technology and Application (review)

The electric telegraph revolutionized communication. With its instantaneous action and its wires crisscrossing diverse landscapes, towns, and cities, the telegraph came to symbolize a new technological age. Although it has received considerable scholarly attention, the history of telegraphy—compared to that of railroads, say—is yet to be fully appreciated. The title of this book by Ken Beauchamp, a longtime telecommunications engineer, promises a comprehensive history. But Beauchamp actually presents only what he himself describes as "a brief record of the growth of the techniques of telegraphy over two centuries of development" (p. xix). This record consists of an encyclopedic collection of facts, lists, and descriptions of apparatus and techniques, compiled mostly from published primary records without any discernable critical or historiographical sensibility.