A Story of the Telegraph — Background and Themes

A Compendium with a Canadian Accent

The preface signals a deliberate scope: “confine this initial work into as narrow a compass as possible,” with a possible expanded edition later. The book’s structure—standard authorities, biographical sketches, then Canadian pioneer sketches—reflects a dual audience. The Canadian section is where Murray adds original value, offering names and incidents that would interest local readers. The tone is modest and provisional, as if the author is testing the market. This framing matters for a first reading: the book is not a definitive history but a curated selection, and the Canadian material is its distinctive feature.

The Queen’s Message and the Cable’s Failure

Murray includes a firsthand account of the 1858 Atlantic cable. He was “situated as operator” in Ogdensburg, N.Y., and “received the Queen’s message over the wire.” The message was disappointingly brief, but later it was learned that only a portion had arrived due to a “temporary interruption.” The cable worked imperfectly for three weeks, transmitting 730 messages, then failed on September 1. The operator at Heart’s Content, De Sauty, issued hopeful bulletins, then “disappeared and was never heard of again.” Murray quotes Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem “De Sauty” as a humorous coda. This episode shows the author blending personal memory with documented history, and it reveals the fragility of early transatlantic communication.

Reading by Sound on St. Sacrament Street

A later excerpt recounts a trick played by an operator of the British American Telegraph Company. With wires down, he loitered near the Montreal Telegraph Company office on St. Sacrament Street. The windows were open; he “could plainly decipher everything passing over the wire.” He copied an item, had it manifolded and distributed to the press. When the older company sent the same news later, it was refused because it had already been received. “Reading by sound of the instrument was not a common occurrence then, and especially on the public highway.” The Montreal Company never learned of the trick. This anecdote illustrates the competitive, improvisational culture of telegraphy and the skill of operators who could decode signals by ear.

Biographical Sketches as a Lens

The preface states that biographical sketches of “eminent scientists and inventors” will let readers “form his own conclusions as to the merits of each.” This suggests Murray does not take sides in priority disputes—a common feature of telegraph history. The book likely profiles figures like Morse, Wheatstone, and others, but the excerpts do not reveal which. The Canadian sketches, however, are promised to be “especially interesting to Canadians.” For a first reading, these biographical sections can be used as a guide to the author’s judgments: whom he includes, whom he omits, and how he weighs contributions. The compendium format means the narrative is built from these discrete portraits.

Murray’s telegraph history is best read as a period piece—a 1905 snapshot of how the electric telegraph was understood by a Canadian insider. The book’s value lies in its local anecdotes and the author’s own operator experience. Readers should pay attention to the Canadian sections and the firsthand cable account, as these are the most original parts. The biographical sketches and standard history provide context but are drawn from secondary sources. The compendium’s modest scope means it is a starting point, not a final word.

There’s a comforting patience in old technical books, isn’t there? Murray’s telegraph volume feels less like history and more like eavesdropping on a quieter era. It reminds me of the same gentle curiosity I found in How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use — Reading Companion, where everyday wonders are simply explained, as if to a friend by lamplight.