Telegraphic Tales and Telegraphic History: A Popular Account of the Electric Telegraph, its uses, extent and outgrowths

Written for a general audience, Telegraphic Tales and Telegraphic History combines the historical development of the telegraph with fascinating stories. Stories begin with the history of signals among the ancients then move through the use of electricity and the development of cables for long distance communication. Alongside historical developments are interesting cultural stories about the telegraph’s role during wartime and humorous and entertaining uses of the technology. This book is both entertaining and valuable for its contribution to the history of technology, and it supports our collecting interests in the historical and cultural aspects of technology and engineering.

Condition and treatment: This is a late 19^th century cloth covered publisher's binding. The cover is broken. It is detaching along the joints and has been previously repaired with a thick black cloth tape along the spine. Overall from age, the textblock has discolored from light beige to brown and is brittle. Uppermost pages are severely damaged with paper loss along the fore edge and are completely detached. Conservation staff will remove the prior cloth repair along the spine and reunite detached pages in the textblock. The case joints will be repaired with a repair sympathetic to the original cloth publisher’s binding. After treatment, the binding will be housed in a polyethylene clear jacket to protect it during future use.