ABSTRACT
Figure 8.1 The International Telecommunication Union as the successor of ITU and IRU (1934) 88
Figure 8.2 IGOs and public international unions established between 1815 and 1914 92
The invention of the telegraph
The creation of the first public international union arose from the invention of the telegraph and the need to develop uniform rules for its worldwide use. Carrier pigeons had long been used for long-distance communications. Other possibilities for sending messages from post to post across longer distances were using drum beats, light flashes or a semaphore with flag signals. These worked as long as the weather was good. In the late 1830s and early 1840s progress was made with the electromagnetic telegraph, both in Europe and in the US, where Samuel Morse developed an electronic alphabet (his Morse code) that could carry messages along lines. Governments and businesses alike were interested in these technical inventions, as they allowed military, diplomatic and commercial messages to be sent over long distances in a short time. ‘Constructed along railway lines, for example, telegraphy rapidly improved the operation of continental transport. Combined with the printing press, telegraphy enabled the creation of a daily news service. Applied in the financial sector, capital became more mobile and easily exchanged’ (Lee 1996, 58). The number of telegraphs increased rapidly. In 1868 almost 20 million domestic telegraphs existed in the US, and 5.7 million international ones. In 1885 the numbers were, respectively, 132 and 13.3 million, and in 1905 310 and 82.2 million (Reinsch 1911, 18). The first submarine telegraph cable was laid between Calais and Dover in 1851, and the first durable transatlantic cable between the UK and the US in 1866. While public ownership characterized European telecommunications, the facilities in the US were
mainly privately owned and divided between cartels which together developed into an oligopoly. Governments soon came to the realization that regularity and uniformity were needed to connect the national systems. In Europe agreements and unions were set up, such as in 1850 the Austro-German Telegraph Union and in 1855 the Telegraphic Union of Western Europe (Belgium, France, Sardinia, Spain and Switzerland). In 1858 Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Prussia, Sardinia and Switzerland adopted the Bern Telegraph Convention. This made governments aware that more uniformity and also worldwide regulation were necessary.
