Chatalas Shrugged

The Victorian Internet. Tom Standage. New York: Walker and Company, 1998. 233 pp.

Historians happily embrace subjects that lend themselves to comparisons of past to present. And author Tom Standage tills fertile ground in The Victorian Internet, his enjoyable account of the telegraph’s emergence and its apt similarities to today’s online world. Standage, the business editor at the esteemed Economist, writes an entertaining and informative history of the telegraph.

The significance of the telegraph isn’t well-understood by today’s generations. But moving through this book quickly makes the case that the telegraph changed the way we communicated on both sides of the Atlantic. Standage explores the technological, social and economic advances surrounding the telegraph, and boosts his central premise: the information age of today isn’t so unlike that faced by our forefathers of the 19th century.

The Victorian Internet is peppered with colorful characters, exciting exploits and entertaining anecdotes, which all help illustrate the author’s main points. At its core this book relates the importance of the telegraph, as it truly lifted the limits of time and distance upon communication. Prior to the telegraph entire days and months passed as information was transferred via ships, trains and horses. But a global network of wires, powered by electricity, broke existing barriers and led to near-immediate contact.

Standage argues that no matter the era in which a new technology evolves, the hopes run high and the disappointments are magnified. He delves into the hype and rapid growth of the telegraph frenzy, and how it mirrored that of today’s internet extravaganza. Innovators and investors were in a race to create the best and most comprehensive system. He dismisses the optimistic predictions of world peace that accompanied the telegraph’s (and subsequent inventions’) ability to bring people together. Standage also details skepticism and challenges, too. Samuel Morse’s dots and dashes were difficult to embrace as a means of communication, and the early displays of the technology weren’t overly impressive… bulky cables and boxes spitting out inconsequential messages didn’t inspire in most an information revolution.

Of course, as the title makes obvious, the comparisons to modern day are the thrust of The Victorian Internet. And Standage provides no shortage of similarities. Beginning with infrastructure, these networks were impressive in size (miles of wires and cables, underground and underwater) just as today. Messages moving among telegraph offices on the way to an intended destination presaged e-mail. And using pneumatic tubes to carry timely telegrams even short distances became a model for modern business communication structure and non-stop information sharing.

Standage’s congruities also include society and business. Relationships burgeoned via the telegraph’s rapid messages, much as they have today online and in chat-rooms. Jokes, stories and gossip were shared on the telegraph lines like we do these days in e-mails. Scam artists appeared on the scene, attempting to bribe and out-smart telegraph operators for inside information; the internet faces its own considerable issues of money-making scams, hacking, and identification theft. Businesses, initially skeptical of the telegraph, eventually came to embrace the power of the telegraph; amazingly, even as the internet has spawned innovative revenue models, many businesses haven’t fully understood or utilized its capabilities.

The Victorian Internet is an excellent primer on the telegraph’s history and relevance. Standage deftly covers the subject, and unobtrusively promotes his theme of the parallels between the telegraph era and the wired world of today.

These parallels to the internet age effectively jump off of every page. Standage succeeds in creating a narrative that enables the reader to see the similarities, rather than pointing them out at every instance. The tone is breezy and conversational, perfect for subject matter that could lend itself to formality. He has an excellent approach to presenting the material, including a cogent sequence of chapters that leads us through the book.

While the entire book is interesting, I particularly enjoyed the section titled Love Over the Wires. This focus on society nicely displays Standage’s success in engaging the reader. Beyond the tales of telegraph marriages and wired flirtation are the larger cultural issues that compare to today. For example, a sizable portion of the telegraph workers were women; today we see women running corporations. Furthermore, the workforce of skilled telegraph operators (including Thomas Edison) helped expand the middle-class; it was considered a promising profession with the lure of advancement based on ability. Standage also adequately takes us into the concern about information overload that is part of our current conversation.

One area where Standage falls short is the lack of discussion of the telephone. In particular, how the telegraph companies didn’t see telephony as a threat, instead believing it was merely a tool for local conversation. The fixation on long distance communication by Western Union, rather than embracing and implementing the new technology, surely played a role in the telegraph’s demise. Standage does imply that the telephone killed the telegraph, but doesn’t mention that neglecting Bell’s invention played a large part in the telegraph’s eventual undoing.

Also, one of the books greatest strengths is slightly undermined by the final chapter, The Legacy of the Telegraph. While Standage’s writing enables the reader to make modern day comparisons throughout the book, for some reason he feels compelled to list them all in the last pages. It’s almost as if Standage doesn’t fully trust his storytelling, and must detail them for maximum impact. Yes, it’s helpful, but it feels forced.

But these are minor criticisms, and do not detract from a book that supremely surpassed my expectations. The Victorian Internet is engrossing and enlightening, and thoroughly relates the telegraph’s historical importance and its connections to the present state of affairs. Anybody who’s assessing the impacts of the internet on today’s society would be well-served to examine what took place 150 years ago. Standage’s book provides the perfect context.