Less Than No Time: Zum Verhältnis von Telegrafie und Zeit

To many nineteenth-century observers it seemed that the telegraph would eventually accomplish what the advent of railways and steamships earlier in the century had begun: the so-called annihilation of space and time. Through the telegraph, both these factors would soon have no longer impact on human communication. This article focuses on one half of this contemporary notion: It examines the relation between telegraphy and time in detail and shows how ever smaller differences in time became more and more important in communication processes; how this in turn rendered precise time measurements and the standardization of time necessary; and how being telegraphically connected could affect contemporary perceptions of time