User:Ghkuhn
Summary of Union Pacific Communications History Book
By Gene H Kuhn
For IEEE Engineering & Technology History Wiki
When Abraham Lincoln signed the “Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Act” on July 1, 1862 he recognized the importance of reliable communications to the efficient operation of a railroad. Many books have been written about construction of the transcontinental railroad. These books did include incidental information of communications systems used by the railroads. No other book has been devoted to the communications systems used to support operation of this transportation system.
This book covers the “Telegraph Department” of the Union Pacific Railroad (and later changes in name to “Communications Department”, and “Telecommunications Department”) from the original telegraph constructed along with track construction. It follows the original telegraph construction and development of later wireline voice services, and the addition of wireline carrier voice and telegraph/data systems. Later microwave systems, train radio, fiber optic cable communications, international VSAT service were added, and pole lines were eliminated by adding SCADA radio systems and services.
It documents the Union Pacific Communications Department leadership from its first Superintendent of Telegraph during construction of the railroad, through the author’s retirement at the end of 1992. These men led the construction of communications facilities and implementation of modern communications services.
It summarizes the railroad industry’s communications progress through the Union Pacific years at the beginning of the book, followed by a detailed history of Union Pacific Communications progress. As technology developed the original telegraph wires were transposed into voice communications circuits and then expanded to support carrier voice and data systems. Microwave technology greatly expanded voice and data services. Railroad Radio improved railroad efficiency by permitting train crews to talk directly to the dispatchers. Mobile radio released desk bound officials to communicate action instructions from track side to their offices and receive responses from prior communications. Fiber optics greatly expanded implementation of new communications technologies for improved operational efficiency. SCADA ratio control of signals and switches allowed pole line elimination and improved personal safety by eliminating hazardous work.
In an appendix the author documents the Federal Communications Commission rules which resulted in the loss of microwave frequencies to the Personal Communications Service industry which resulted in cellular phone service.
Another appendix documents the establishment of Federal Communications Commission rules which established the Railroad Radio Service.
An excerpt from
Union Pacific Communications History
by Gene H. Kuhn:
Union Pacific Railroad
Officials’ Involvement in
Nebraska Telephone History
In 1876, Louis H. Korty, then Chief Operator of Telegraph
for the Union Pacific Railway, was one of the founders of the
telephone industry in Nebraska. He had become acquainted with
Mr. Theodore N. Vail while the latter was a resident in Omaha.
Mr. Vail was a one-time Iowa farmer and NE railway mail
clerk. He was chief clerk in a mail car running from Omaha to
Cheyenne. His genius for organization, great executive ability,
and ceaseless energy soon brought him promotion to division
superintendent, then shortly thereafter to superintendent of the
railway mail service of the United States.
The Boston men—Bell, Watson and others—who were trying
hard to make the telephone popular and successful financially,
concluded that they must secure the best general manager
possible, so Thomas A. Watson, who had heard the first words
ever spoken in a telephone, was sent to Washington to interview
and report on the noted railway superintendent, Mr. Vail. He
would soon be asked to come to Boston, organize the telephone
business, plan its future, and further its development.1
Mr. Korty, while visiting the Centennial Exhibition at
Philadelphia in the summer of 1876, saw Dr. Alexander Graham
Bell and his invention of the telephone. He saw the potential of the
telephone and kept an eye on its development. He convinced his
superior, Mr. J. J. Dickey, of the possibilities of the instrument that
was causing telegraphers to question whether it would supplant
the telegraph.
In 1877, he secured two telephones from Bell. On November
18, 1877, the two telephones were connected between his office in
the Union Pacific Office in Omaha, and Mr. Dickey’s office at the
Union Pacific Transfer in Council Bluffs.2
Mr. Korty and Mr. Dickey formed a partnership and acquired
the license rights for a portion of Iowa, all of Nebraska, Wyoming,
Utah, Montana and Idaho. During the following year they
established various private lines throughout western Iowa and
eastern Nebraska. The partnership between these two men was
disrupted for a short time as a result of the strong competition and
fight for patent rights between the Western Union and the Bell
people. Mr. Korty was employed in the telegraph department of the
Union Pacific Railroad, while Mr. Dickey was superintendent of
the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company.3 The later firm was
sold to the Western Union Telegraph Company. They required Mr.
Dickey to make an end his relationship with the Bell Company, and
to support the inventions of Thomas A. Edison and Elisha Gray.4
After cessation of hostilities in the East between the two
competitors, Mr. Dickey and Mr. Korty resumed their alliance.5
On April 15, 1879, Mr. Vail wrote Mr. Korty appointing him
agent of the National Bell Telephone Company; “I enclose your
appointment as agent as made with Mr. Madden. It is affording me
more than usual pleasure in doing this for I had some fears that
Omaha would not avail herself of the advantages of our systems
for some time to come and, remembering all the associations I
had more than the usual desire to see Omaha provided. Trusting
you will succeed.”6
Mr. Korty and John J. Dickey, who was the district superintendent
of the Western Union Telegraph Company and Superintendent of
Telegraph of Union Pacific Railroad, as founders of the telephone
industry in the west, organized the Omaha Electric Co. and opened
Omaha’s and Nebraska’s first telephone exchange early in 1879.
Thereafter, the demands of other Nebraska cities for telephone
service became insistent and Messrs. Dickey and Korty, with
their associates Silas H. H. Clark (president of the Union Pacific
Railroad), Thomas L. Kimball (passenger agent), and J. W. Gannett,
incorporated the Nebraska Telephone Co on July 1, 1882.7
In 1879, with cooperation of Mr. S. H. H. Clark, then president
of the Union Pacific Railroad, the organized and opened the first
telephone exchange, known as the Omaha Electric Company.
Omaha Electric Company received the appointment as agent
for the surrounding territory from the National Bell Telephone
Company.8
Mr. Theodore Vail advised the gentlemen to consult Mr. Watson
about the installation of a switchboard and let him supervise the
construction of the central office system. A letter dated April 15,
1879 from Vail to Korty reads, “…I think it would be well to let
our Mr. Watson supervise the construction of the apparatus for
your central office system, as he can bring upon it an experience
of over two years.”9
Not long after bringing the telephone to Omaha, the following
occurrence was reported in the Omaha Daily Bee:
“The value of the telephone exchange system
was admirably demonstrated Wednesday
morning. Upon the receipt at 3 o’clock of the
dispatches concerning Ute Indians, the central
telephone office called Fort Omaha. The regular
operator was in the city, but the constant ringing
of the signal bell awakened the night watchman,
aroused General Williams who was telephonically
informed of the dispatches, which were repeated to
him word for word by C. E. Mayne at the central
office. Mr. J. J. Dickey superintendent of Union
Pacific telegraph service was then awakened by
telephone, and informed that communications was
desired with Major Furay, depot quartermaster.
Mr. Dickey then awoke Major Furay, next door,
and in a few moments Major Furay came into Mr.
Dickey’s residence and was put in communications
with Gen. Williams who issued orders to him to
arrange transportation of the troops. To do this,
communications had to be obtained with Mr.
Nash, secretary of assistant general superintendent
J. T. Clark of the Union Pacific. Mr. Nash has
no telephone in his house, but Mr. Korty, living
next door, has one, and therefore, Mr. Korty was
awakened by telephone and upon learning what
was wanted, he called Mr. Nash into his house,
and then Major Furay arranged the transportation
with him. All this was done in the course of half an
hour.”10
While Mr. Dickey, Mr. Korty, and Fort Omaha had telephones,
many officials on the Railroad and in the military did not.
Other exchanges were established in the same year. Korty,
Dickey, General G. M. Dodge and others built the Council Bluffs
Telephone Exchange Company. The Lincoln Telephone Exchange
Company was created in Lincoln as the second Nebraska
telephone exchange. Exchanges were established in other
Nebraska towns: Fremont and Grand Island in 1880; Stuart 1883;
North Platte 1885; Norfolk and West Point 1888; Lexington and
McCook 1897; Sidney 1898; Alliance and Broken Bow 1899. “The
beginning of telephones in most Nebraska towns…was a pay
phone for community use in the town’s drug store. The popularity
of the town’s one phone caused rapid expansion.”11
The first telephone directory for Omaha was published on July
10, 1879 with only 124 names. Soon others towns and communities
in eastern Nebraska were demanding telephone service and a
telephone exchange. Mr. Dickey and Mr. Korty were kept busy
during the next few years supplying this call for service.12
The demands of several Nebraska towns became so insistent that
the Nebraska Telephone Company was incorporated July 1, 1882.
Those who signed their names to the Articles of Incorporation
were L. H. Korty, J. J. Dickey, S. H. H. Clark, Thos. L. Kimball,
and J. W. Gannett. The general nature of the business was to
build and operate telephone and telegraph lines within the state
and between other states, to establish and maintain systems of
messenger service, and to deal in telephone and electrical supplies.
The amount of capital stock prescribed by the Articles was seven
hundred-thousand dollars, divided into shares of one hundred
dollars each, subject to be increased to a total of one million
dollars’ worth of shares. The highest amount of indebtedness or
liability to which the Nebraska Telephone Company could at any
time subject itself was fifteen thousand dollars.
This corporation quickly absorbed all the other telephone
companies then existing in Nebraska. On August 7, 1882, the
company purchased the property of the Beatrice Telephone
Company; December 27, 1882, it purchased properties belonging
to L. H. Korty at Blair and Arlington: on February 14, 1883 it
purchased certain toll lines and on April 14, 1883, the Nebraska
Company purchased the property of the Omaha Electric Company.
Other properties were soon purchased across the state.14
Thoughts on Corporate Leadership
by Telegraphers
Andrew Carnegie’s first employment was in telegraph service.
Reportedly, he served as a telegraph messenger boy.15
Edgar Eugene Calvin, President of Union Pacific Railroad,
served as President of the Union Pacific from July 1916 to
November 1918. “It is Second Nature… Why do telegraph
operators become railroad presidents?”
Besides listing UP President Calvin, the article lists 10 other
telegraphers who became railroad presidents.16 Other notables
who began careers as telegraphers was Edwin M. Herr President
of Westinghouse Electric Company, and Honorable Emanuel S.
Philipps, governor of Wisconsin, who began his business career
as a telegraph operator. Both Mr. Herr and Governor Philipps
worked for the Union Pacific Railroad at one time, Mr. Herr as
a telegraph operator, and governor Philipps as a general agent.17
William Martin Jeffers, President of Union Pacific Railroad,
started at age twenty as a telegraph operator in Sidney, NE. He
became president of the Union Pacific in October 1937 and
remained in that position until February 1946.18
As stated above, the railroad industry had a tradition of
recognizing talent within its organization and promoting
individuals to leadership positions. However, some individuals
started on the railroad and rose to positions of great leadership
elsewhere. For example, Theodore Vail rose from being a
railroad mail clerk on the Union Pacific to president of AT&T
and Western Union Telegraph (holding the positions at one time
simultaneously).19
Similarly, the Communications Department promoted men
like John B. Sheldon, who rose from being a clerk in the Telegraph
Department to Superintendent of Telegraph, as well as Glen Van
Eaton to the same position from his humble start as station agent
in Sloan, NV. In 1934, Van Eaton was promoted to wire chief in
Las Vegas. In 1937, he was promoted to manager of telegraph;
in June 1941, he was promoted to Assistant Superintendent of
Telegraph with headquarters in Salt Lake City; and two months
later, his title was changed to Superintendent of Telegraph of the
South-Central District until his promotion to Superintendent
of Telegraph with headquarters at Omaha, NE. (This was later
changed to Superintendent of Communications).20
Robert H. Brenneman rose from dishwasher to Superintendent
of Communications.
Hugh Robertson, after serving time in the US Coast Guard,
was hired as an equipmentman, communications Engineer,
Assistant Superintendent Communications, and eventually rose
to Superintendent of Communications.
Mike Ahern, after serving in the US Navy, was hired as a
groundman, rose through equipmentman, Equipment Supervisor,
Communications Engineer, Assistant Director of Communications,
and then to General Director Communications.
Recognition of talent, and regular promotion up the ranks,
provided incentive for all employees to do a sure and diligent job
and use their own initiative to perfect their role.
As the Bible says, “To one who is given talent, much is expected.”
This book is available in print or Kindle form from Amazon.
