Telegraphy in Kingston

Telegraphy was the only means of timely intercity communication long before the advent of telephones, fibre-optics, the internet, email and satellites. This post describes some of the developments and changes Kingston's telegraphical history.  (Top photo - 1941 CP telegram)

• 1847 - Montreal Telegraph Co. (MTC) completes its Toronto to Montreal line. The first telegraph office in Kingston is located at Mink's Inn at 5 Clarence Street.
• 1852 - Canada Grand Trunk Telegraph Co. is established, later absorbed by MTC.
• 1857 - MTC moves its office to Iron's Hotel on Ontario St., operated by J.W. Stokes.

• 1877 - Great North Western Telegraph Co. (GNW) operates over lines leased from MTC. Their Kingston office is established at 34 Clarence St. (Above - 1921 GNW telegram)
• 1893 - Thomas Alfred Hanley (1865-1918), son of Hanley Station proprietor Thomas Hanley begins his work as GNW telegraph operator, and was manager of the GNW office at the time of his death.
• 1915 - Canadian Northern Railway acquires control of GNW.
• 1918 - A.C. Hanley (1890-1955) becomes manager.

• 1923 - Canadian Northern becomes part of Canadian National Railways. The former GNW is then known as Canadian National Telegraphs (CNT). (Above - 1942 CN telegram)

1942 Help Wanted Whig ad

• 1935 - CNT relocates from 34 Clarence Street to 145 Princess St.

• 1944 - CNT relocates again to 115 Princess St. Mahood Building, except for a one-year temporary move to 377 Princess St. after to the December 23, 1951 fire. Aftermath of the fire (Below - Queen's University Archives, George Lilley Fonds, V25.5-17-107)

• 1963 - CNT relocates to 95 Princess St., the north-east corner of Wellington St. (Below - August 29, 1966 the fourth day of a Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers strike against CN. Queen's University Archives, Kingston Whig-Standard Fonds, V142.3-229)

• 1969 - CNT and CP Telegraphs merge, with an agreement to retain one office open, alternating, in each community and known as CNCP Telecommunications. CP Telegraphs office was to close May 29, 1968 (Below - Whig clipping - click on image for larger version)

• 1970 - Kingston is deemed a CNT-exclusive community.
• 1972 - CNCP Telecommunications relocates to the Seaway Building at 312 Bagot St.
• 1983 - CNCP Telecommunications closes its office, with operations handled out of Toronto.
• 1987 - CNCP Telecommunications becomes Unitel Communications, still later AT&T Canada Long Distance then Allstream in 2012.

The history of CN's repeater station, located behind the former CN enginehouse and across the parking lot from the CN Outer Station at 810 Montreal St:

• 1928 - The 30x70-foot repeater station is built at a cost of $60,000. The station houses Carrier Channel system repeater equipment, marking the transition from Morse.
• 1938 - Radio equipment is added to the repeater station.
• 1940 - CNT rebuilds its mainline pole line with 48 poles to the mile. Each pole is 30-feet, 8 inches diameter at top and 12 inches at bottom. A double 'H'-pole marks each quarter-mile. Each pole comprises five crossarms with 22 copper and six iron wires. Wires are for dispatcher use, railway telephone circuits, CBC broadcast circuit and 44-channel Carrier Channnel telegraph system and stock market ticker circuits.

The late Gordon Smithson's seminal work At The Bend in the Road - Kingston was an excellent source for the above information. Gordon was born in 1933, started work with CNT in 1951 as an apprentice-telegrapher, transferring to Kingston in 1969  to work as a technician at the repeater station before retiring in 1988, leaving us in 2013. Gordon worked with George Robinson, whose career is profiled in this post.