The Chicago Great Western Depot Museum

Partner Address: 

110 E. Myrtle St.

City, State, Zip: 

Elizabeth, Il 61028

Partner Phone: 

(815) 591-3895

Partner Contact: 

Martha Purchis

Partner Email: 

elizabethhistoricalsociety@gmail.com

Telegraph Instruments

Image of telegraph instruments, telegraphy bay at the railway depot in Elizabeth, Illinois.

Installed by the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad in 1888, which became the Chicago Great Western Railway in 1892, then the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad in 1968, abandoned in 1972

The telegraph, invented by Samuel F.B Morse in 1844, opened nearly instant communication with the wider world, and railroads quickly lined their tracks with telegraph poles, continuing to use this infrastructure long after later inventions such as the telephone were commonplace. Today, a train's diesel horn still sounds the letter 'Q' in Morse code at all grade crossings: dash, dash, dot, dash.
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