Western Union public fax services, 1960 [Telecom]
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
information about Western Union's public facsimile services.
Western Union ran several advertisments in the New York Times for its
public "wirefax"/"telefax" service. I found ads for 1959-1962.
The maximum size of a document was 8.5" x 11", and the transmitted
portion was roughly 1" shorter on all sides (7.5" x 10").
Transmission took five minutes.
The service was offered in New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Los
Angeles, and San Francisco. In the time span I checked no additional
cities were added.
The material had to be taken to a Western Union office. WU would pick
it up at an additional charge for their messenger. It would be
delivered by Western Union messenger without charge to any place
within the city limits of the destination city.
The first 4" vertically between NYC and Chicago cost $2.40 and 40
cents for each additional inch. plus Federal tax. The first 4"
between NYC and San Francisco cost $4.00 and 65 cents for each
additional inch plus Federal Tax.
So, a full page letter (with margins) to Chicago would cost about
$3.60 per page, to San Francisco would cost about $5.95 per page, both
plus Federal Tax (10%?), in 1960 dollars, plus the expense of delivery
to the central WU office. By today's dollars that seems quite
pricey.
An engineering drawing would probably be larger than regular office
size and need to be cut up for transmission in multiple pages. Legal
contracts are usually multiple pages. Thus, a typical business
document would be very expensive to transmit. Given that high price I
can't help but wonder if a business might be willing to wait a day or
two for air mail and special delivery, at a fraction of the cost.
Other alternatives might be a Night Letter telegram or a Telex/TWX
message. The business world moved a bit slower in those days*.
I presume there was some sort of air express service by 1960, but I
have no idea what they'd charge for a small package back then. I
believe Railway Express Agency (REA) offered expedited shipping on the
fast overnight trains between New York and Chicago (eg the Twentieth
Century Limited), but again I don't know the charges.
Certain documents would not be faxed such as photographs, or legally
prohibited, such as drug prescriptions, naturalization certificates,
legal tender, etc. I could understand prohibiting legal tender, but
drug prescriptions and naturalization certificates are the kind of
documents a traveller might need transmitted in a rush.
--NYT, 12/3/1959, display ad.
*I am amazed that anyone can sit at their desk today and, at no
charge, receive stock quotes, stock history, and current analysis
from many newspaper websites; that information that once was only
available in a stockbroker's office to regular customers.
Stockbrokers used the Western Union "900 speed" ticker to keep up.
The Bunker Ramo company had stock-lookup computer terminals in the mid
1960s.
[public replies, please]
Reed
> Per our recent discussion on Western Union services, I found some
> information about Western Union's public facsimile services.
>
Anyone remember FedEx's ill-fated ZapMail fax service ?
David Clayton
> *I am amazed that anyone can sit at their desk today and, at no charge,
> receive stock quotes, stock history, and current analysis from many
> newspaper websites; that information that once was only available in a
> stockbroker's office to regular customers. Stockbrokers used the Western
> Union "900 speed" ticker to keep up. The Bunker Ramo company had
> stock-lookup computer terminals in the mid 1960s.
>
a company that provided "real time" financial market information
world-wide.
In Australia the whole thing was fed (back in the mid-1980's) by one
9600bps dedicated data link from the USA, with two dial-up modems as back
up.
Now, this link cost absolute mega-bucks in those days and it served
hundreds of local customers who were on various multi-drop polled network
nodes - all connected by 1200bps 4 wire dedicated links.
The service itself cost thousands per month per terminal, but every money
market in the country had at least one - and these days the same data can
be served hundreds of times quicker at a fraction of the cost!
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
> Anyone remember FedEx's ill-fated ZapMail fax service ?
There used to be some public stores (eg copying stores, stationery
stores) that offered fax service for about $1/page, there may have
even been self-service machines.
Is that still even offered?
Not everyone has a fax machine in their home or office, particularly
retired people. Remember, a lot of everyday people out there do not
have a computer in their home. Even those that do and can use the
built in fax modem don't have the capability to scan a document, only
fax text typed in.
But Western Union's prices seem awfully high, plus the cost of getting
to their central office. I don't know the conversion factor for
inflation for 1960, I'd guess maybe 8, so a single page to Chicago
would be $29.00 in today's money. That's not cheap, and if the
document was multiple pages . . . .
John Mayson
> On Mar 17, 12:50 pm, Reed <re...@rmi.net> wrote:
>> Anyone remember FedEx's ill-fated ZapMail fax service ?
>
> There used to be some public stores (eg copying stores, stationery
> stores) that offered fax service for about $1/page, there may have
> even been self-service machines.
>
> Is that still even offered?
Yes, Office Depot and FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) continue to offer
this service. We don't own a fax machine and every once in a blue
moon have to use their services to send a fax.
John
--
John Mayson <jo...@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Curtis R Anderson
> On Mar 17, 12:50 pm, Reed <re...@rmi.net> wrote:
>> Anyone remember FedEx's ill-fated ZapMail fax service ?
>
> There used to be some public stores (eg copying stores, stationery
> stores) that offered fax service for about $1/page, there may have
> even been self-service machines.
>
> Is that still even offered?
My credit union offers a public fax service for its members, something
like $1 plus toll charges, but I'd have to call the office for exact
pricing.
> Not everyone has a fax machine in their home or office, particularly
> retired people. Remember, a lot of everyday people out there do not
> have a computer in their home. Even those that do and can use the
> built in fax modem don't have the capability to scan a document, only
> fax text typed in.
My mother tells me that at her retirement community, there is a "public"
fax for its residents at the big administrative building, which they
call the "big house". Many seniors probably don't want to bother
excessively with fax unless they must.
ObTelecom: When my mother switched her landline phone number in her
dwelling at the retirement community, the admins at the community wanted
to make sure that 911 would work okay when going from the ILEC, EMBARQ,
to Atlantic Broadband. At 80+ years of age, she wanted her high speed
cable internet access!
As a standby, the community has those "pull the cord for assistance"
signaling systems in the bathrooms and bedrooms which signal an
attendant at the Big House.
--
Curtis R. Anderson, Co-creator of "Gleepy the Hen", still
Email not munged, SpamAssassin [tm] in effect.
http://www.gleepy.net/ mailto:gle...@intelligencia.com
mailto:gle...@gleepy.net (and others) Yahoo!: gleepythehen
danny burstein
>> There used to be some public stores (eg copying stores, stationery
>> stores) that offered fax service for about $1/page, there may have
>> even been self-service machines.
>>
>> Is that still even offered?
> Yes, Office Depot and FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) continue to
> offer this service. We don't own a fax machine and every once in a
> blue moon have to use their services to send a fax.
As does just about every other "copy" and printing shop, and plenty of
others. Typical rate would be $1.50 for the first outgoing (domestic)
page and $1.00 for the following ones, and similarly $1.00 each for
incoming. Lots of variation.
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
> My mother tells me that at her retirement community, there is a "public"
> fax for its residents at the big administrative building, which they
> call the "big house". Many seniors probably don't want to bother
> excessively with fax unless they must.
I suspect for many seniors today a fax is a valuable service. Seniors
often have medical needs which means lots of billing and medical forms
which need to get sent to multiple providers and health-care
insurers. The paperwork seniors have just from medical care is
enormous.
Seniors may be assisted by their children, who may live in a different
place, and transmit financial documents to/from them.
I visited a senior in a facility and there was a common-use photocopy
machine, with an honor paper cup for 10c a copy.
> ObTelecom: When my mother switched her landline phone number in her
> dwelling at the retirement community . . .
At my mother's care facility, the door entry was interlinked with her
phone. But it took forever for the community to set it up, which
meant visitors couldn't get in conveniently. Apparently the phones
were maintained by a parent organization that operated the facility.
***** Moderator's Note *****
N.E.T. experimented with Apartment Door Answering Service (ASAS), on
the Boston University centrex, at Back Bay in the late 70's. The local
pairs were wired to an ADAS frame, and from there to the dial tone on
the 617-353 exchange, which was served by a #5XB. I don't know what
became of it.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
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