Telegraph

New York

Technology

**Image**: General Operating Department, Western Union Telegraph Building, New York
**Date**:1875
**Source**: Work is Public Domain; image from Library of Congress

Following the delegation’s visit to the New York Tribune, the group headed to the headquarters of the Western Union Telegraph Company at 145 Broadway Avenue. Inside of the offices men tested out the service. The group received wishes of good fortune along their journey from Western Union offices in Cleveland and Washington D.C. It was wonderful to be able to communicate so quickly from great distances! The telegraph, invented in 1844 by Samuel Morse, had spread to several countries but was not yet popular in Japan. When the delegation returned, they ensured that the network expanded rapidly across the country. In the late 1870’s the Tokyo Central Telegraph Office was created, and a nationwide telegraphic communication service linked all major cities.

Kume, Kunitake. “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” Japan Rising: The Iwakura Embassy to the USA and Europe, edited by Chushichi Tsuzuki and R. Jules Young, 100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511721144.

Yang, Daqing. “Telecommunication and the Japanese Empire: A Preliminary Analysis of Telegraphic Traffic.” Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, vol. 35, no. 1 (131), GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences, Center for Historical Social Research, 2010, pp. 66–89, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20762429.