NO MORE TELEGRAM
We have all been
reading a number of articles in various newspapers on the sad end to a
wonderful means of communication, the ‘Telegram’ and the telegraph
service.
The telegraph service was
established in India in 1853. However, it all began in 1839 when Dr.
William Oshaugh-nessy, an Assistant Surgeon to the Bengal Medical
establishment of the East India Company, laid the first telegraph line
in India from the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta.
As always happens, this novel
idea too met with its fair share of opposition from people who were
indifferent to it and even the authorities too were not very
encouraging. Sanction, however, came from the latter almost twelve years
later and as a result, the line between Calcutta and Kedgree was
declared open in 1950. This speaks volumes of the pioneering efforts,
that in 4 years this system was considered sufficiently established to
be opened to the public.
Later, Dr. William
Oshaugh-nessy, who took a keen interest in telegraphy, developed a new
system and laid wires between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour, a distance
of about 21 miles. Officially, this is considered to be the inaugural
telegraph line in the country; it was the year 1853. The centenary
celebrations were held in November 1963. Farther North, another line was
laid between Agra and Calcutta in 1854. The year 1865 is a landmark in
the history of the telegraph service because England and India were
connected by this remarkable new system.
In 1859, a school was opened for
the training of young men in telegraphy. Since the Morse Code was in
English, a large number of Anglo-Indian and English-knowing Indians
joined the telegraph service.
Morse Code which was used in the
transmission of signals consists of dots and dashes in different
combinations. For example, one dot and a dash represents the letter ‘A’
and two dots side by side represents the latter ‘I’, three dots
represents the letter ‘S’ etc. This system became useful for
transmission of telegrams quickly and to far away places.
The telegraph key/tapper
consisted of a brass lever mounted on a wooden base and a receiver
called the Duburn Sounder and it worked on electricity from a battery or
power source connected to the apparatus. By the up and down movement of
the key, the lever on the top of the sounder moves with a make and
break in the circuit, thus the codes were used for transmission. The
telegraphists were nick-named ‘Brass Beaters’ because they tapped the
brass lever of the key in order to transmit the telegram.
The charges for the transmission
of a telegram varied from time to time. Greeting telegrams were also
introduced with various phrases for all occasions to help the public and
the charges were reduced for these. It was also the quickest way to
send death and congratulatory messages to friends and family.
On a personal note, I would like
to mention here with immense pride that four of the members of my
family (including myself) served the P&T Department (some members
served between 1927 and 1996). My father James Rodrigues joined the
postal service in 1928 as a clerk in the post office located in
Halladakeri. He was paid Rs. 8 and later Rs. 10 as a monthly salary and
later became a signaller with an increase of Rs. 2 after training. He
was happy with the white collared job.
The transmission of telegrams
was chiefly looked after by the Postal Wing for several decades. Later,
the telegraph service was extended to large cities and Postal Department
continued to look after the transmission and delivery of telegrams in
smaller town post offices. In 1943-44, several postal clerks,
signallers, telegraphists and jamedars volunteered their services during
Word War II on the Burma front, Italy and Middle East.
Around 1950, the transmission of
telegrams from the Head Post Office was taken over by the CTO Wing
which became an independent wing after bifurcation and several smaller
towns connected with Morse facility were joined to it. The main office
began to expand and improve down the years. Teleprinters were gradually
introduced in the department like ‘Siemens’ (German model), ‘Creed
(British), ‘Olivitti’ (Italian) and finally ‘Hindustan’ teleprinters
(Madras) to help in quick transmission of messages and even lenghty
press messages without much strain.
Messages conveying ‘Death’,
‘Serious’ or ‘Start immediately’ followed by a reason of urgency were
given top priority. Even press messages were given priority. Press
correspondents who handed in their reports were of a very friendly
nature, especially Krishna Vattam, who is known to me since several
years, stands tall among them. The number of telegrams slowly increased
due to several factories and business establishments that were on the
rise and thus thousands of telegrams were handled everyday.
Talking in terms of the number
of telegrams handled per day reminds me of the highest number of
telegrams received and transmitted at CTO, Mysore, as I recall being on
duty that day, was on the day of the marriage of Princess Gayathri Devi,
which added to the already large number of regular marriage telegrams
during the marriage season. Several thousands, both inland and foreign
telegrams, used to be handled by the dedicated staff under the
Superintendent in-charge.
However, with the introduction
of computers, FAX etc., the entire Morse code lines were removed in
January 1997, a year after I retired from service. At the turn of the
millennium with the coming of other gadgets like the cell phone, with
its SMS and the internet, with its e-mail sounded a death knell to the
telegraph service. It is a great pity that this public service should
come to an end, after having served in the Department for several years.
I can only offer a ‘silent tear.’
