Franklin Leonard Pope (2 December 1840 – 13 October 1895) was an American engineer, explorer, and inventor.
67-696: The Russian–American Telegraph , also known as the Western Union Telegraph Expedition and the Collins Overland Telegraph , was an attempt by the Western Union Telegraph Company from 1865 to 1867 to lay a telegraph line from San Francisco, California , to Moscow, Russia . The route of the $ 3,000,000 undertaking (equivalent to $ 59.7 million today) was intended to travel from California via Oregon , Washington Territory ,
134-870: A $ 6 billion transaction. After acquiring the company, First Data Corporation made the decision to relaunch telegraphy services under the Western Union brand, but sold this to International Telegram in 2006. On January 26, 2006, First Data announced its intention to spin off Western Union into independent publicly traded financial services company focused on money transfers through a tax-free spin-off to First Data shareholders . The spin off occurred as planned on September 29, 2006. The next day Western Union announced that it would cease offering telegram transmission and delivery. In May 2009, Western Union announced its plan to acquire Canada-based Custom House from Peter Gustavson. The deal closed in September 2009 for
201-401: A complete strategic, operational and balance sheet restructuring of the company over the next six years. Amman executed a strategy of redirecting Western Union from being an asset-based provider of communications services, with a money transfer business as a large but less important part of the business, into being a provider of consumer-based money transfer financial services . Thus, Amman ran
268-424: A galvanized wire. I kept it as a souvenir but lost it later with a camera and some clothing when a scow was nearly overturned on Lake Laberge . Several major works are available documenting the expedition. The scientific travelogue by Smithsonian scientist W. H. Dall is perhaps the most referenced, while an English travelogue by Frederick Whymper provides additional information. Among personal accounts members of
335-778: A mobile money-transfer service with the GSM Association , a global trade association representing more than 700 mobile operators in 218 countries and covering 2.5 billion mobile subscribers. The proliferation of mobile phones in developed and developing economies provides a widely accessible consumer device capable of delivering mobile financial services ranging from text notifications associated with Western Union cash delivery services to phone-based remittance options. Western Union's mobile money transfer service offering will connect its core money-transfer platform to m-bank or m-wallet platforms provided by mobile operators and/or locally regulated financial institutions. The company launched
402-613: A publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange . WUI was acquired by Xerox for $ 207 million in stock in 1979 and subsequently sold for $ 185 million in cash to MCI Communications in 1981. MCI renamed WUI to MCI International, ceasing the use of Western Union branding. Western Union purchased the TWX system from AT&T in January 1969, the only major competitor to its own telex network. Western Union became
469-509: A purchase price of US$ 371 million. This acquisition led the company to be re-branded as Western Union Business Solutions. In January 2011, Western Union acquired Angelo Costa, a group active in money transfer and services to immigrants. Angelo Costa has a network of 7,500 points of sale throughout Europe. The agreement was signed for US$ 200 million. In July 2011, Western Union acquired Travelex 's Global Business Payments division for £ 606 million. In October 2011, Western Union completed
536-465: A road from New Westminster to Yale where it would meet the newly completed Cariboo Road . The telegraph company's only responsibility would be to string wires along it. Work began in Russian America in 1865, but initially little progress was made. Contributing to this lack of success was the climate, the terrain, supply shortages and the late arrival of the construction teams. Nevertheless,
603-605: A shared network of main lines. After the creation of the 'Six Nations' system, Western Union continued to acquire both larger & smaller telegraph companies and by 1864 had transformed from a regional monopoly into a national oligopolist with its only serious competitors being the American Telegraph Company and the United States Telegraph Company. Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph in 1861. Notably,
670-524: A special advisor who oversaw the divestiture of the four non-strategic telecommunications assets for about $ 280 million. Most of the company's business services unit including the Easylink electronic mail and Telex businesses were sold to AT&T for $ 180 million in Dec 1990. Western Union Priority Services including Mailgram, Priority Letter and Custom Letter services were not included in the deal. This marked
737-720: A third explored the area along the Amur River in Siberia, and a fourth group of about forty men was sent to Port Clarence to build the line that was to cross the Bering Strait to Siberia. The Colony of British Columbia gave the project its full and enthusiastic support, allowing the materials for the line to be brought in free of duties and tolls . Chosen as the British Columbia terminus, New Westminster gloated over its triumph over its rival, Victoria , and it
SECTION 10
#1732780882063804-517: A time gaining a virtual monopoly over the American telegraphy industry. The company also began to develop new telegraphy-related services beyond the transmission and delivery of telegrams, launching the first stock ticker in 1866, a standardized time service in 1870 and wire money transfer in 1871. In the 1870s, the company faced increased competition from newly formed rival telegraphy conglomerate Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company and from
871-646: A vast store of supplies that were put to good use by some of the First Nations inhabitants. Near Hazelton, Colonel Bulkley had been impressed by the bridge the Hagwilgets had built across the Bulkley River, but was reluctant to let his work party cross it until it had been reinforced with cable. After the project was abandoned, the Hagwilgets at Hazelton built a second bridge from cable that
938-627: The Cariboo Road and the Fraser River to Quesnel . Winter brought a halt to construction, but resumed in the spring with 150 men working northwest from Quesnel. In 1866, the work progressed rapidly in that section, fifteen log telegraph cabins had been built and line had been strung 400 mi (640 km) from Quesnel, reaching the Kispiox and Bulkley Rivers . The company's sternwheeler, Mumford, traveled 110 mi (180 km) up
1005-663: The Colony of British Columbia and Russian America , under the Bering Sea and cross the broad breadth of the Eurasian Continent to Moscow, where lines would communicate with the rest of Europe. It was proposed as a much longer alternative to the challenge of long, deep underwater cables in the Atlantic , having only to cross the comparatively narrow Bering Strait underwater between North America and Siberia. Laying
1072-524: The Dow Jones Railroad Average stock market index for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was created in 1884, Western Union was one of the original eleven companies to be included. By 1900, Western Union operated a million miles of telegraph lines and two international undersea cables . AT&T gained control of Western Union in 1909, acquiring a 30% stake in the company. However, in 1913 AT&T , under indictment for violating
1139-600: The Kennedy Trail northwest across Surrey and North Delta to the Fraser River. At Brownsville, a cable was laid across the river to New Westminster. The surveying in British Columbia had started before the line reached New Westminster on March 21, 1865. Edward Conway had walked to Hope and was dismayed by the difficulty of the terrain. In response to Conway's concerns, the Colony of British Columbia agreed to build
1206-724: The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York , the company changed its name to the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1856 after merging with several other telegraph companies. It dominated the American telegraphy industry from the 1860s to the 1980s, pioneering technology such as telex and developing a range of telegraph-related services, including wire money transfer , in addition to its core business of transmitting and delivering telegram messages. After experiencing financial difficulties, it began to move its business away from communications in
1273-659: The No Way Out 1998 and Slamboree 2000 . They sponsored UEFA Europa League from 2012 until 2015. During the 2003–04 season, Western Union served as the title sponsor for the Senior Division Football League in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The First Data Western Union Foundation donates money to charitable causes globally. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami , the Foundation donated US$ 1,000,000 to
1340-719: The North Pacific Ocean , connecting to Asia in Japan and then on to the Asian mainland. By 1861 the Western Union Telegraph Company had linked the eastern United States by electric telegraph all the way to San Francisco. The challenge then remained to connect North America with the rest of the world. Working to meet that challenge were two telegraph pioneers, one, Cyrus West Field , seeking to lay an undersea telegraph cable west to east across
1407-520: The Russian American Telegraph . After developing a system which tracked and printed the prices of gold and stocks, Pope partnered with Thomas Edison in 1869, forming the company Pope, Edison & Company Electrical Engineers, and invented a one-wire telegraph in 1870. This telegraph is now known as a stock ticker , and was widely used in large cities for exchange quotations. Pope's partnership with Edison ended shortly after it
SECTION 20
#17327808820631474-475: The Russian invasion of Ukraine . Money can be sent online or in-person at Western Union agent locations. Cash can be collected in person at any other Western Union agent location worldwide by providing the 10-digit MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number) and identification. In some cases, a secret question and answer can be used instead of identification. In October 2007, Western Union announced plans to introduce
1541-491: The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 , was forced to sell its shares in the company which once again became independent. Western Union acquired its only major competitor in the American telegraphy sector Postal Telegraph, Inc. in 1945, effectively giving the company monopoly power over the industry. After 1945 the telegraphy industry began to experience a decline as the use of telephones increased, especially in
1608-610: The Skeena River from the Pacific Coast three times that season, successfully delivering 150 mi (240 km) of material for the telegraph line and 12,000 rations for its workers. The line passed Fort Fraser and reached the Skeena River, creating the settlement of Hazelton when it was learned that Cyrus West Field had successfully laid the transatlantic cable on July 27. In British Columbia, construction of
1675-534: The Smithsonian naturalist Robert Kennicott . In Siberia, the construction and exploration was under the charge of Russian nobleman Serge Abasa. Assigned to him were Collins Macrae, George Kennan , and J. A. Mahood. Exploration and construction teams were divided into groups: one was in British Columbia, another worked around the Yukon River and Norton Sound with headquarters at St. Michael, Alaska ,
1742-572: The first transcontinental telegraph in 1861, being a part of U.S. industry's investments into developing American communications between the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean . The first messages went to then President of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln . The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was founded in Rochester, New York by Samuel L. Selden , Hiram Sibley , and others in 1851. In 1856
1809-422: The 1980s and increasingly focused on its money-transfer services. It ceased its communications operations completely in 2006, at which time The New York Times described it as "the world's largest money-transfer business" and added that the company would remain as such due to the large number of immigrants wiring money home . From the perspective of the history of technology , Western Union notably completed
1876-624: The Atlantic from North America, and the other, Perry Collins , proposing a west to east link going the opposite direction, overland from the west coast of North America across the Bering Strait and Sibera to Moscow. Field's Atlantic Telegraph Company laid the first transatlantic cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. However, it had broken three weeks afterwards and attempts to repair it had been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, entrepreneur Perry Collins visited Russia and took note that it
1943-510: The Candygram, a box of chocolates accompanying a telegram that was featured in a commercial with the famously rotund radio announcer Don Wilson . In 1963, Western Union organized its international cable system properties and its right-of-way for connecting international telegraph lines into a separate company called Western Union International (WUI), which it sold that year to American Securities . In 1967, American Securities listed WUI as
2010-665: The Cariboo was bought by the Canadian Government in 1880." In spite of the project's economic failure, many regard aspects of the effort a success on the weight of various benefits the exploration brought to the regions that were traversed. To date, no entities have attempted a communications cable across the Bering Sea, with all extant submarine communications cables that travel westbound from North America following more southerly routes across much longer stretches of
2077-573: The Koryaks and Other Tribes in Kamchatka and Northern Asia . Richard Bush, aiming to emulate Kennan's success, wrote "Reindeer, Dogs and Snowshoes". All documents and books relating to the expedition are of historical value, not only from a travel and discovery perspective but also from a cultural studies standpoint. The ethnocentric descriptions of aboriginal peoples in the places now known as British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alaska, as well as
Russian–American Telegraph - Misplaced Pages Continue
2144-622: The US, London and Russia. On July 1, 1864, the American president Abraham Lincoln granted Western Union a right of way from San Francisco to the British Columbia border and assigned them the steamship Saginaw from the US Navy . The George S. Wright and the Nightingale , a former slave ship , were also put into service, as well as a fleet of riverboats and schooners . To supervise
2211-676: The Westar satellites launched) in 1988 after Western Union suffered financial losses with their telecommunications assets starting in the early 1980s. In 1981, Western Union purchased a 50% interest in Airfone . It sold Airfone to GTE in 1986 for $ 39 million in cash. From 1982, as a result of financial services deregulation , Western Union began offering wire money transfer services globally. In 1984, after years of declining profits and mounting debts, Western Union began to negotiate with its creditors regarding debt restructuring. The restructuring
2278-628: The Western Union Connect service in October 2015, following partnership agreements with major instant messaging apps WeChat and Viber . The partnership allows users of WeChat to send up to $ 100 to China , the US and 200 other countries, while Viber users can send up to $ 100 for $ 3.99 plus exchange rate fees , with that fixed fee increasing the more money is sent up a limit of $ 499. Along with satellite telecommunications, Western Union
2345-658: The acquisition of Finint S.r.l., one of Western Union's leading money transfer network agents in Europe, with more than 10,000 subagent locations across Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In May 2015, rumors emerged over a proposed merger of Western Union and competitor MoneyGram , at a time when both companies’ revenue were declining. Western Union denied this was the case. In January 2017, Ant Financial , Alibaba ’s financial technology firm instead unsuccessfully attempted to acquire MoneyGram for $ 880 million, but this
2412-460: The cable across Siberia proved more difficult than expected. Meanwhile, Cyrus West Field 's transatlantic cable was successfully completed, leading to the abandonment in 1867 of the trans-Russian effort. A Government of Canada historic plaque adds these specifics: "In 1867 ... construction ceased at Fort Stager at the confluence of the Kispyap and Skeena rivers. The section from New Westminster to
2479-558: The case of long-distance calls, with total telegraph messages almost halving from 1945 to 1960. In 1958, Western Union began offering telex services to customers in New York City. Teleprinter equipment for the telex network was originally provided by Siemens & Halske AG and later by Teletype Corporation . Direct international telex services commenced in the summer of 1960, with limited service to London and Paris. In honor of Valentine's Day 1959, Western Union introduced
2546-465: The company as two separate companies. One business consisted of the money transfer business, which was funded and operated to take advantage of the significant growth opportunity. The second unit consisted of all the non-strategic communications assets such as the long-distance analog voice network, satellite business and undersea cable assets. In the three-year period through 1990 Amman was supported by Robert A. Schriesheim , also installed by LeBow, as
2613-411: The company had left behind. Both bridges were considered marvels of engineering and were credited as being "one of the romances of bridge building." In the long run, the telegraph expedition, while an abject economic failure, provided a further means by which America was able to expand its Manifest Destiny beyond its national boundaries and may have precipitated the US purchase of Alaska. The expedition
2680-478: The company merged with its competitor the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company , controlled by John James Speed , Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith and Ezra Cornell and, at Cornell's insistence, changed its name to Western Union Telegraph Company. In 1857, Western Union participated in the 'Treaty of Six Nations', an attempt by six of the largest telegraph firms to create a system of regional telegraphy monopolies with
2747-586: The construction, Collins chose Colonel Charles Bulkley , who had been the Superintendent of Military Telegraphs. Being an ex-military man, Bulkley divided the work crews into "working divisions" and an "Engineer Corps." Edward Conway was made the head of the project's American route and British Columbia sections. Franklin Pope was assigned to Conway and given the responsibility for the exploring of British Columbia. The task of exploring Russian America went to
Russian–American Telegraph - Misplaced Pages Continue
2814-404: The end of Western Union's telecommunications carrier business. The official name of the corporation was changed to New Valley Corporation in 1991, as part of the company's move to seek bankruptcy protection to eliminate the firm's overleveraged balance sheet while continuing to grow the money transfer business. The name change was used to shield the Western Union name from being dragged through
2881-436: The entire route through Russian America was surveyed by the fall of 1866. Rather than waiting until spring, as was the usual practice, construction began and continued through that winter. Many of the Western Union workers were unaccustomed to severe northern winters, and working in frigid conditions made erecting the line a difficult experience. Fires had to be lit to thaw out the frozen ground before holes could be dug to place
2948-561: The expedition are a diary of Franklin Pope. George Kennan and Richard Bush both wrote of the difficulties they encountered during the expedition. Kennan would later become notable for influencing American opinion of the Russian Empire. Originally very much for Russian settlement of the far East, on visiting the exile camps in the 1880s he changed his mind and later wrote Tent Life in Siberia: Adventures Among
3015-631: The first American telecommunications corporation to maintain its own fleet of geosynchronous communications satellites , starting in 1974. The fleet of satellites, called Westar , carried communications within the Western Union company for telegram and mailgram message data to Western Union bureaus nationwide. It also handled traffic for its telex and TWX services. The Westar satellites ' transponders were also leased by other companies for relaying video , voice , data , and facsimile (fax) transmissions. The Westar fleet of satellites and ground stations were sold to Hughes (who originally built all of
3082-537: The first messages went to then President of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln . The firm additionally formed the Russian–American Telegraph Company in an attempt to link America to Europe, via Alaska , into Siberia , to Moscow – a project abandoned in 1867 following the successful laying of a transatlantic cable in 1866. In 1866, Western Union acquired the American Telegraph Company and the United States Telegraph Company, its two main competitors, for
3149-609: The general region of Eastern Siberia, typify those attitudes of the time. Telegraph records provide evidence for native land claims such as those of the Gitxsan Nation of northern British Columbia. Dall's records have helped locate Smithsonian exhibits returned to their original native domiciles. Western Union Telegraph Company The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado . Founded in 1851 as
3216-429: The magazine Electrical Engineer , and edited the electrical section of The Engineering Magazine . Pope also worked as a patent attorney for Western Union Telegraph Company, and was retained as an expert in many important patent suits. Pope married Sarah Amelia Dickinson on 6 August 1873; they had four children, two daughters and two sons. His youngest child, Seth Willard Pope, died a few weeks after birth. Pope died at
3283-496: The nascent telephony industry led by the Bell Telephone Company . Western Union instead attempted to launch a rival telephony system before settling a patent lawsuit with Bell and leaving the telephone business completely in 1879. Financier Jay Gould orchestrated a merger of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company with Western Union in 1881, giving him a controlling share of the merged company. When
3350-475: The overland line was halted on February 27, 1867, as the whole project was now deemed obsolete. Nevertheless, left behind in British Columbia was a usable telegraph system from New Westminster to Quesnel, which later would be run to the Cariboo Gold Rush town of Barkerville , and a trail that had been beat through what had largely been uncharted wilderness. In addition, the expedition left behind
3417-502: The proceedings (and the resulting bad PR). Under the day to day leadership of Amman and the backing of LeBow , the company's value increased dramatically through its years operating under chapter 11. Following various restructurings, including negotiations with Carl Icahn who became a large bond holder, New Valley Corporation was sold in a bankruptcy auction to First Financial Management Corporation in 1994 for $ 1.2 billion. In 1995, First Financial merged with First Data Corporation in
SECTION 50
#17327808820633484-590: The relief effort. The Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association announced a three-year deal making Western Union the team's jersey sponsor, beginning with the 2017–18 NBA Season. Liverpool F.C. announced on August 9 2017, that Western Union would become their first ever sleeve sponsors, from the start of the 2017–18 season. They signed a £25m deal for 5 years as Liverpool's sleeve sponsor. Franklin Pope He
3551-617: The route, and over 45 mi (72 km) of line had been completed in Russian America. Despite the fact that so much progress had been made, in July 1867 the work was officially ceased. When that section of the line reached New Westminster, British Columbia, in the spring of 1865, the first message it carried was of the April 15 assassination of Abraham Lincoln . In May 1865 construction began from New Westminster to Yale and then along
3618-427: The route. In his book The Yukon Story he describes the state of the trail thirty years after it was abandoned All evidence of the right-of-way and poles were gone, but in a few instances we found pieces of old telegraph wire imbedded several inches in the spruce, jack-pine and poplar trees that had long-since grown up and over the wires that touched them. I found one of the old green glass insulators still attached to
3685-505: The telegraph poles. For transportation and to haul the supplies, the only option the work crews had was to use teams of sled dogs . When the Atlantic cable was successfully completed and the first transatlantic message to England was sent in July 1866, the men in the Russian American division were not aware of it until a full year later. By then telegraph stations had been built, thousands of poles were cut and distributed along
3752-517: The telegraph route became part of the Ashcroft trail used by gold seekers during the Klondike gold rush . Of all the trails used by the stampeders the Ashcroft was among the harshest. Of the over fifteen hundred men and three thousand horses left Ashcroft, British Columbia , in the spring of 1898, only six men and no horses reached the goldfields. Walter R. Hamilton was among those who completed
3819-635: The towns in Northwestern British Columbia can trace their initial European settlement back to the Collins Overland Telegraph. Some examples of these are Hazelton, Burns Lake , Telkwa and Telegraph Creek . The expedition also laid a foundation for the construction of the Yukon Telegraph line which was built from Ashcroft to Telegraph Creek and beyond to Dawson City, Yukon in 1901. Portions of
3886-447: Was also active in other forms of telecommunication services: Most of these services were discontinued by Western Union in the late 1980s due to a lack of profitability, with the company's divisions providing said services being divested and sold to other companies, such as the 1988 sale of WU's satellite fleet and services to Hughes Space and Communications , and the sale of WU's Airfone service to GTE in 1986. In 1914, Western Union
3953-562: Was blocked by the U.S. government citing national security concerns. In 2018, the company moved its headquarters from Englewood, Colorado to the Denver Tech Center . The Englewood office complex was sold in 2020 for $ 40 million. In November 2020, Western Union acquired a 15% stake in the digital payments unit of Saudi Telecom Company for $ 200 million. In 2022, Western Union suspended operations in Russia and Belarus due to
4020-522: Was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in December 1840, the son of Ebenezer Pope and Electra Wainwright. He was a telegrapher , electrical engineer , explorer , inventor , and patent attorney . He was also a major contributor to the technological advances of the 19th century. He was one of the leaders of the explorations related to the Collins Overland Telegraph, otherwise known as
4087-433: Was completed in 1987 when investor Bennett S. LeBow acquired control of Western Union through an outside of chapter 11 process that was a complex leveraged recapitalization. The transaction was backed by a total of $ 900 million in high-yield bonds and preferred stock underwritten by Michael Milken 's group at Drexel Burnham Lambert as part of an exchange offer. LeBow installed Robert J. Amman as president and CEO who led
SECTION 60
#17327808820634154-401: Was formed. Pope was awarded several patents for his work in railroad semaphore lock signal systems, the most important of which was his 1872 invention for the rail circuit for automatic control of the electric-block signal system, which was widely used by the major U.S. railways. Pope was president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers from 1886 to 1887. Pope was an editor of
4221-447: Was later discontinued by CyberSource effective December 31, 2007. Western Union was a major shirt-sponsor of the Sydney Roosters NRL team from 2002 to 2003. The company still sponsors the team, but not as a shirt-sponsor. Globally Western Union sponsors numerous community events that help support the diaspora communities that use the global Money Transfer service. They also sponsored numerous WWE and WCW pay-per-view events such as
4288-427: Was making good progress extending its telegraph lines eastwards from Moscow over Siberia. Upon his return to the States, Collins approached Hiram Sibley , head of the Western Union Telegraph Company with the idea of an overland telegraph line that would run through the Northwestern states, the colony of British Columbia and Russian Alaska. Together, they worked on promoting the idea and obtained considerable support in
4355-404: Was predicted in the British Columbian newspaper that "New Westminster, traduced and dreaded by its jealous neighbor, will now be at the centre of all these great systems." The right of way for the telegraph line followed the shoreline west from the US border, then traversed the high ground of what is now White Rock and South Surrey to the Nicomekl River. From Mud Bay the telegraph line followed
4422-435: Was responsible for the first examination of the flora , fauna and geology of Russian America and the members of the telegraph project were able to play a crucial role in the purchase of Alaska by providing useful valuable data on the territory. The Colony of British Columbia meanwhile could further explore, colonize and communicate with its northern landscapes beyond what had been done by the Hudson's Bay Company . Many of
4489-434: Was the first to issue a charge card. As the Internet became an arena for commerce at the turn of the millennium, Western Union started its online services. BidPay was renamed "Western Union Auction Payments" in 2004 before being renamed back to BidPay. BidPay ceased operations on December 31, 2005, and was purchased for US$ 1.8 million in March 2006 by CyberSource Corp. who announced their intention to re-launch BidPay. BidPay
#62937