10. Information Overload

Summary (Chapter 10)

By: Danielle,  Lora,  Mengyuan,  Yue,  Jisheng

In chapter 10 of Tom Standage’s book “The Victorian Internet”, he tells the story of how the telegraph revolutionized business through rapid and efficient transmission of information. Before the invention of telegraph, it took long time for merchants to receive information from their foreign associates. However, with the birth of the telegraph, market prices at the central stock exchange could were published and wired to customers every day. Also, due to the speed of telegraph, tradesmen could diversify its market horizontally. This allowed farmers and manufacturers to offer better prices without the interference of middlemen. However, because telegraphs were widely used for business, poor merchants were forced to use the telegraph in order to remain competitive and efficient. The easy access to price information caused businessmen to become addicted to the information supplied by the telegraph.

In Europe, telegraph was used mostly for social correspondence this created a high dependency on the telegraph. This meant that the telegraph industry became highly profitable. Telegraph companies in Europe were controlled by the post offices and offered services such as telegraphic addresses, private lines. They also provided a delivery service of regular bulletins in order to increase profits.

In the 1860’s Dr. S.S. Laws invented a gold indicator which allowed merchants to keep track the price of gold at the Gold exchange. He provided this indicator service to private merchants and brokers for a subscription fee. Later on E.A Callahan created an improved indicator which recorded the prices of all goods on the stock exchange. This invention was called the ticker because if the noise it made while. In 1869, Thomas Edison improved the stock tickers and they were widely used all over the United States, and on the London Stock Exchange. The money Edison made off his innovations with the stock ticker allowed him to become a full time inventor. His later inventions would render the telegraph obsolete.