Telegraph

From Historical Hastings

Prior to the roll-out of telephones, telegraph lines were the main means of electronic communication over distance with overhead cables used initially to transmit morse code (later teletype etc). On the 28th of February 1870, poles were installed between the main Hastings Railway Station and the Main Post Office in Meadow Road[1] The cabling was re-used to some degree when telephones took over. The words 'Telegraph Pole' remained part of the vocabulary still in use to the current day for the poles utilised to support overhead telephone cabling, although the adoption of improved cabling technologies and underground cabling removed many of the 'trees' that once dominated town centres.

Images

References & Notes

  1. Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 29 January 1870