Sam Johnson: the Experience and Observations of a Railroad Telegraph Operator

"One of the most entertaining books in the whole library of railroad literature." -Railroader, 1883
"Great popularity, a treasure of entertainment." -Electrical World, 1883

While early telegraph lines often ran alongside railroad tracks in the United States, it was not until 1851 that the telegraph was first used for train routing by Charles Minot, Superintendent of the Erie Railroad. As the practice gained wider acceptance in the 1860s and 1870s, telegraphers would be stationed in individual...