Railway Telegraph Key Set - Cardigan River Heritage Centre
Click on the photos to Enlarge them
Artefact History:
Tapping out the code on a small machine called the Key, commercial messages were sent through wire lines strung from pole to pole alongside the railway tracks, first between Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton and London by 1847 and, in time, all across Canada and into the United States. In the late 1800s, the cost to send a telegram was 25 cents for the first 10 words and then a penny each for additional word.
Transmitting code by electric telegraph key, messages were received almost immediately. The Telegraph was used by varying business sectors in Canada for nearly 122 years.