You Heard What I Said, Sell!

To contemporary eyes, the tickertape parade belongs to the black and white world of old newsreels, but until a generation ago tickertapes and the machines that printed them were common fixtures in the financial districts of large cities. The tickertape machine, or stock ticker, was an early and enduring application of telegraphy, the first use of electricity to send messages. Business operators whose profits depended on accurate, up-to-the-minute information were quick to adopt the telegraph, and it was soon adapted to meet their needs.

Fast operators take a breather,Toronto Corn Exchange, 1885.Numbers on tickertape could make or breake fortunes in minutes.(Courtesy of National Archives of Canada, PA 135845)

The first practical telegraphs were patented by William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in Britain (1837) and by Samuel Morse and his associates in America (1840). In 1846, Toronto and Hamilton were linked by the first telegraph line in Canada. Early systems generally employed an interrupted direct current and an electromagnet to deflect an indicator needle, mark a paper tape or make a sound. Messages were sent in code and had to be deciphered and written out by an operator. Before long, inventors developed printing telegraphs to eliminate this translation step. One application of these devices was to relay stock and commodity prices directly to the offices of merchants, bankers and brokers. In 1867, the first such printer was produced in New York. And in 1869, a young Thomas Edison made the first of several improvements. The Edison stock ticker in Connexions (870279*) was probably made in the late 1800s.

As the world's first electrical and digital communication system, telegraphy increased the range and the pace of business activity, aided the operation of railways, sped up the transmission of reports to newspapers and extended the reach of governments. Whether directly or indirectly, this affected everyone's lives. But by today's standards telegraphy was slow, inflexible and inaccessible. Most people only availed themselves of an occasional, brief and often urgent "telegram."

*The numbers in brackets are the accesssion numbers of artifacts held by the Museum.