The Western Union Company (Western Union) - an American company specializing in providing monetary intermediation. Founded in 1851. Is one of the leaders in the market of international money transfers. In the Fortune 500 in 2009, the company won the 451-th position, moved from 473rd line in 2008. Revenue
for 2007 totaled $ 4.9 billion, while the number of transactions was
572 million to go to the money transfer company provides services in the
field of telegraphy.North
American headquarters are located in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and
the main office of the international service of marketing and commercial
services is in Montvale, New Jersey.ContentStoryBefore the telegraphOne
of the earliest descriptions of the prototype of the electric telegraph
was published in 1753 in the journal «Scot's Magazine» by the letter "A
quick way to transmit the news" (English «An Expeditious Method of
Conveying Intelligence»), obtained from the Editorial Board of the
mysterious sender - «CM» . This letter was first described a practical method of communication using static electricity. "What hath God wrought!"In
1832, Samuel Morse, with the assistance of Alfred Vail to begin
designing electromechanical telegraph, which was called "recording
telegraph." Morse and Vail continued to improve its development over the years. But
gradually they began to feel that their development is almost close on
the heels of other competing invention of Germany, France and England. Moreover, until they came reports that someone from their competitors was built experimental line length of 7.5 miles.In 1837, Samuel Morse introduced the documents to register a patent for his invention to the Patent Office. The
method of Morse telegraph transmission in electric communication
channels was to interrupt the flow of electrical current for shorter and
longer periods of time, a special button on the device. Obtained
in this way long and short signals, so-called "dash" and "points" (as
well as pause, separating the letters) at a special code table
translated into words. In 1838, Morse completed the telegraph and created his own company, taking a partner Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale.In
1843, Morse received a grant from Congress of $ 30 thousand dollars for
the construction of the first telegraph line from Baltimore to
Washington. However, unfortunately, it was not a shrewd businessman and had no practical plan for construction of the line. After
an unsuccessful attempt to laying a telegraph cable under the ground
together with Ezra Cornell, the inventor of the trench plow, which also
dug a trench, the cables and dug a trench, Morse switched to the
erection of telegraph poles instead of trenches, which was more
successful solution. A
successful solution was due to low cost and speed of laying lines, as
the telegraph wires were attached to the posts bare, without costly
isolation. May
24, 1844 of the Supreme Court building in the Capitol Morse sent a
message to Baltimore to his companion Alfred Vail: «What hath God
wrought!» (Rus What hath God wrought!, A phrase from the "Book of
Numbers").In
1845, Morse had hired his company to the former Postmaster General of
the offices of President Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren - Amos
Kendall - the position of the agent to search for potential buyers of
the telegraph. Kendall
realized the true value of the development of Morse and it was not
difficult to convince others of its potential for profit. By the beginning of the fall of the same year, he drew a small group of investors. Was
created Magnetic Telegraph Company and a group of investors was opened
financing for the company in the amount of 15 thousand dollars. At the same time, it created a lot of other telegraph companies as Morse sold licenses for its development who could.Company
Magnetic Telegraph Company in the spring of 1846 was built and put into
operation the first commercial telegraph line between Washington and
New York. Immediately
after that, the ex-congressman, Francis Smith - one of the owners of
patent rights - to build a line between New York and Boston. Many of those early companies had licenses that they were given the patent holders of Samuel Morse.By 1851, the territory of the United States, there were about 50 independent telegraph companies. Such
an abundance of companies in the market was due to the telegraph vain
attempts to patent owners to telegraph to convince the U.S. government
and other governments in the potential prospects of the invention. In
the private sector, the owners of patents having difficulty in
persuading capitalists in large commercial value of the invention. Therefore,
this led to the fact that licenses were sold telegraph everyone
entrepreneurs who created a separate company and then build an
independent telegraph lines in different parts of the United States.
