Have you ever wanted to send a telegram?
This weekend is your last chance…if you’re in India.
The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which has been offering telegram service in India since 1855, will be discontinuing the service on July 15th.
This news reminded me that I’d come across people born in the U.S. named Telegraph and Telegram.
The electrical telegraph started being used commercially in this country in the mid-1840s, and that’s about the time we start seeing babies named Telegraph:
- Telegraph Miggins, female, born about 1845 in Virginia
- Telegraph Hill, male, born in 1849 in Massachusetts
- Telegraph Goodman, male, born about 1856 in California
- Telegraph “Telly” Bland, male, born in 1859 in California
- Telegraph Greer, male, born about 1860 in Mississippi
- Telegraph Price, female, born in 1871 in Alabama
- Telegraph Messersmith, male, born in 1878 in Kentucky
- Telegraph Morris, male, born about 1885 in Kentucky
So far, I’ve spotted only two Telegrams:
- Telegram Tucker, male, born about 1868 in Georgia
- Telegram Sherman Walton, male, born in 1877 in Ohio
And, in case you’re interested, here’s a baby named Gramaphone…
Source: Kurup, Deepa. “Telegram dead, start mourning.” Hindu 14 Jun. 2013.
Image: Adapted from Morse Key by Lauren.mcalary under CC BY-SA 4.0.
