My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office ... - Monoskop

14
DAILY LIFE IN THE TELEGRAPH OFFICE
rate” message was a higher-priority “rush” message. (In telegraphic terminology,
a “letter” had a fixed length, say fifty words, and a flat-rate charge,
while a “message” was of unspecified length and was charged for by the
word.) A full rate message had priority over everything except government
messages, which had the highest priority of all. “Night letters” and “night
messages” were less expensive because they were sent at night, when the
line was less busy. There was also less chance that the operator at the receiving
end would be awake and at the key so a night letter might not be
delivered until the next day, and a night message would definitely not be delivered
until the next day. 3
Figure 5. Office of Carrie Pearl Seid, railroad operator, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, 1907.
From Railroad Telegrapher, August 1907, 1256. Reproduced from the Collections of the
Library of Congress.