Towers for Telegrams: The Western Union Telegraph Company and the Emergence of Microwave...

Towers for Telegrams: The Western UnionTelegraph Company and the Emergence of

Microwave Telecommunications Infrastructure

David S. Rotenstein

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The American landscape changed significantly in 1945 whentelecommunications companies began building microwaverelay networks throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Relay siteswith towers and equipment buildings seeded antenna farmsas the Federal Communications Commission and the commu-nications industry planned for deploying new technology afterthe end of World War II. The Western Union Telegraph Com-pany was one of the firms leading the build out of newmicrowave relay sites. Between 1944 and 1948 the companyplanned for and built two microwave relay systems thatbecame the first successful private-sector entity to carry com-mercial traffic using the new technology. This paper exploreshow Western Union secured the necessary resources of technol-ogy, licenses, and land to build its first-generation microwavenetwork linking New York, Philadelphia, Washington, andPittsburgh.

IntroductionIn 1944 and 1945, engineers and real estate specialistsrepresenting American telecommunications compa-nies fanned out across the Mid-Atlantic states in searchof properties on which to build microwave relay sites.Advances in radio technology achieved during WorldWar II and significant regulatory changes by the fed-eral government opened up new opportunities for pri-vate sector uses of radio spectrum. The Western UnionTelegraph Company, American Telephone and Tele-graph (AT&T), Raytheon, the Radio Corporation ofAmerica (RCA), Philco, and International BusinessMachines (IBM) were among the firms jockeying forFederal Communications Commission (FCC) licensesand prime relay sites in a slice of the American land-scape extending from Boston, south to New York,Philadelphia, and Washington and westward to Pitts-burgh (see figure 1).

Between 1944 and 1948 dozens of microwave relaysites sprung up on mountaintops, in farm fields andsuburban backyards, and on urban rooftops as the firstfootprints were set in the construction of new infra-

structure corridors that opened up the informationage. Like the turnpikes, canals, and railroads that pre-ceded them a century earlier, these new telecommuni-cations corridors would make indelible imprints in theAmerican landscape. Radio towers began to break thehorizon along such historic corridors as the NationalRoad (U.S. 40) and the Lincoln Highway (U.S. 30)and in rural areas where water towers, grain silos, tele-phone and telegraph poles, and electricity transmis-sion lines once defined the vertical limits of engineer-ing potential. The descendants of the first-generationmicrowave relay sites may be seen throughout thecountry in the thousands of wireless telecommunica-tions facilities dotting the landscape at the turn of the21st century, providing cell phone coverage andbroadband Internet access.

This study of microwave relay sites begins in the corpo-rate offices and laboratories of Western Union, hotelmeeting rooms where work groups from the commu-nications industry planned for postwar developments,and FCC hearing rooms. Western Union, along withAT&T, was a first mover in microwave telecommunica-

Figure 1. “Hill for Sale” cartoon by Alan Dunn published in the NewYorker 4 October 1947. © The New Yorker Collection 1947 Alan Dunnfrom cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

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IA The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology Vol. 32, no. 2 (2006)

INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY VOLUME 32, NUMBER 2, 2006

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tions. Between 1944 and 1948, the company built twomicrowave systems with two dozen relay and terminalsites in five states and the District of Columbia (see fig-ure 2). Western Union became the first to successfullygo online as a common carrier using the new technol-ogy. The template for microwave relay sites developedby Western Union became the basis for most of thewireless telecommunications infrastructure built afterthe end of World War II. By examining how WesternUnion secured technology, licenses, and land formicrowave relay sites, researchers can get a glimpse atthe prototype onramp to the information superhighway.

Sources and ApproachIn 2002 the author began a survey of Western Unionmicrowave relay sites in the Mid-Atlantic. At the time,the FCC was negotiating with representatives of thetelecommunications industry and historic preservationinterests to develop a streamlined approach to ensurethe agency’s compliance with Section 106 of theNational Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).1 Amongthe limitations of the two programmatic agreementsexecuted in 2001 and 2004 stemming from the FCCproceedings were exclusions from considerationunder Section 106—a provision in the 1966 NHPArequiring federal agencies and their licensees to con-sider the effects of federal actions like licensing andpermitting on properties listed in or eligible for listing

in the National Register of Historic Places thatincluded existing communications towers.2 Excludingexisting communications facilities would eliminate awide array of historic properties from Section 106 con-sultations and potentially would result in the demoli-tion or alteration of significant engineering propertiesalready listed in the National Register or meeting theeligibility criteria for listing.3

The first Western Union site documented was thecompany’s Washington terminal: an Art Deco concreteand limestone structure located in the District ofColumbia’s Tenleytown neighborhood. The surveywidened to sites in neighboring Maryland, Pennsylva-nia, Delaware, and New Jersey. Each site was visited toevaluate its condition (intact, altered, demolished, orreplaced), and research was conducted in local landrecords to determine if the site was owned or leased byWestern Union and any other relevant land use infor-mation (Table 1). The Historic American EngineeringRecord (HAER) documented one relay site in 2005,the former Jennerstown (Laurel Hill) relay in West-moreland County, Pennsylvania, approximately 44miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Archives consulted included the Western Union Tele-graph Company Records in the Archives Center of theNational Museum of American History and theRecords of the FCC in the National Archives at Col-

Figure 2. The Western Union microwave network.

TOWERS FOR TELEGRAMS

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Table 1. Western Union Telegraph Company Microwave Relay Sites

Site name State County Tower Height (1947)/feet Ownership

DelawareBrandywine DE New Castle 100 owned

MarylandSevern MD Anne Arundel 120 ownedCub Hill MD Baltimore 100 leasedElk Neck MD Cecil 100 leasedGambrill Park MD Frederick 60 leasedLittle Savage MD Garrett 120 ownedSideling Hill MD Washington 100 owned

New JerseyMt. Laurel NJ Burlington 100 ownedBordentown NJ Burlington 100 ownedWoodbridge NJ Middlesex 100 ownedNeshanic NJ Somerset 100 ownedNew Brunswick NJ Somerset 100 leased

PennsylvaniaFort Site PA Allegheny 100 ownedSellersville PA Bucks 100 ownedHoney Brook PA Chester 60 ownedMt. Holly PA Cumberland 60 ownedBlue Mountain PA Franklin 60 leasedBakersville PA Somerset 100 ownedAllegheny PA Somerset 60 ownedJennerstown PA Westmoreland 100 ownedRed Lion PA York 100 owned

lege Park. The FCC records included docketed pro-ceedings related to the allocation of radio spectrumand the licensing of microwave common carriers. Alsoconsulted were files related to the licensing of WesternUnion’s microwave network and the construction andmarking of tower structures. Because Western Unionconsulted extensively with the U.S. Forest Service inthe selection of an appropriate tower structure, therecords of the U.S. Department of Agriculture alsoprovided a wealth of primary documents.

Although the literature of telecommunications tech-nology and regulation is voluminous, there are few

thematic and site-specific studies of the material cul-ture of telecommunications infrastructure. Exceptionsto this include archaeological testing of 19th-centuryDutch optical telegraph sites on Curacao in theNetherlands Antilles and HAER documentation ofCold War-era White Alice stations in Alaska and Cali-fornia’s Chollas Heights Naval Radio TransmittingFacility.4 Studies in Europe include English Heritage’ssurvey of six Cold War-era microwave sites thatresulted in the designation of London’s BT Tower as aprotected national monument.5 The history ofmicrowave telecommunications, and specifically West-ern Union’s endeavors, is documented in FCC annual


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reports, the media, journal articles written by WesternUnion engineers, and syntheses of developments inmicrowave technology.6 These sources informed thisstudy of the Western Union microwave network.

Historical ContextThe economic, social, and technological changes thataccompanied the large-scale transformation of energyinto consumer products, workshops into factories, andyeomen into wage laborers joined with individualentrepreneurship to define the first industrial revolu-tion in the years bracketing the turn of the 19th cen-tury. During the mid- to late-19th-century, corporateentrepreneurship and managerial hierarchies pre-vailed in the market. They combined with a communi-cations infrastructure anchored by railroads and tele-graph companies, expanded workforces, and theeconomy as distance was eliminated as a significantbarrier to production and trade. These events framethe boundaries of the second industrial revolution. Inthe aftermath of World War II, government regulatoryagencies wielded a firm visible hand over innovationsin telecommunications, aviation, and electronics tomark the 1940s and 1950s as the opening years of thethird industrial revolution that is known as the infor-mation age.7

Infrastructure is a common thread linking many of thetechnological and economic transformations associ-ated with the events generally described as the “indus-trial revolution,” and telecommunications is one offour infrastructure modes that form the foundation ofmodern society.8 Wired, point-to-point communica-tions require technology for transmission and recep-tion, rights-of-way, poles, cable, and labor to ensureand maintain connectivity. Telegraphy, telephony,broadcasting, computers, and the present search forthe ultimate wireless grail are industrialization’s quin-

tessential material culture. “In the nineteenth century,high chimneys in the landscape were appreciated assymbols of industrial progress. Similarly, in the twenti-eth century, telecommunications towers became thevisible signs of the information society,” wrote Dutchengineer Anton Huurdeman.9

The electromagnetic spectrum is unlike coal, iron ore,trees, and water: it is a natural resource that cannot bemined, packed, diverted, or shipped by rail. Its ecolog-ical relationship to culture is directly related to thetechnological sophistication of the people trying tomake use of it.10 Spectrum is divided into regions bymeasuring the characteristics of its transmission, i.e.,the number of cycles per second (frequency) of elec-tromagnetic current. Small portions of it are visible,while other portions are only accessible and measura-ble by electronics. The visible portion—light—occu-pies the part of the spectrum between infrared andultraviolet light, whereas sound (e.g., vibrations) thatis converted into radiation can only be detected byelectronic means.

The portion of spectrum known as the radio spectrumoccupies the range between 3KHz and 300 GHz (seefigure 3). The technologies making the radio spec-trum commercially viable have been in use since thelast quarter of the 19th century. Although inventorGuglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) is popularly creditedwith “inventing” wireless communications, his work,like that of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas AlvaEdison, broke beyond the technical milestones ofother inventors to become accessible to the wider pub-lic and profitably reproducible by industry.11

In the years following Marconi’s 1899 wireless report-ing of the America’s Cup races in New York Harbor,amateurs, the government, and shipping companiesrapidly entered the wireless realm. Experiments in

Figure 3. The electromagnetic spectrum. Adapted from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Office of Spectrum Management, U.S. Frequency Allocation Chart.


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receiver and transmitter technology as well as content,including voice and pictures, spurred an acceleratedrate of culture change in the U.S. Key technical mile-stones during the first few decades of wireless telecom-munications include the ability to transmit and receivevoice and music signals (Reginald Fessenden and thecontinuous wave alternator) and the capability todetect and amplify, i.e., tune to, a specific frequency(Lee DeForest and the Audion vacuum tube). Wirelessoffered the public a release from corporate monopolyin telephony and telegraphy while simultaneously cre-ating a need for government oversight to police theuse of spectrum and ensure its use did not interferewith maritime safety and national defense.

The federal government recognized the need to regu-late telecommunications by passing such laws as theRadio Act of 1912, the Radio Act of 1927, and theCommunications Act of 1934.12 The latter created theFCC and combined the regulation of telephony andtelegraphy with broadcasting; these laws purportedlysought to prevent interference and protect Americanmoral values by treating the radio spectrum as a scarcepublicly owned resource. Marconi’s entrepreneurialand technological successes opened the path to wire-less telegraphy and telephony. After 1899 there werefour periods of intensive telecommunications infra-structure development and concomitant regulatoryregimes. The first period, from c. 1900 to 1917, sawthe appearance of coastal commercial and militarywireless facilities and the proliferation of amateurantennas across the nation. Commercial broadcast-ing’s birth in 1920 spurred the rapid construction ofradio stations up to the start of the Great Depressionin 1929, comprising the second period of infrastruc-ture development. The third period, beginning in1945, was facilitated by landmark spectrum allocationhearings held by the FCC the year before that resultedin major allocations and frequency assignments toindustry. Finally, the fourth period may be linked tothe Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the intensifi-cation of cellular and personal communications serv-ices (PCS) facilities siting.

In addition to controlling spectrum and equipmentstandards, the FCC also was responsible for regulatingbroadcast tower sites in coordination with the Aero-nautics Branch of the Department of Commerce (theprecursor to the Bureau of Air Commerce and laterthe Federal Aviation Administration). Radio and com-mercial and private aviation came of age at the same

time, and broadcasting’s infrastructure, towers, werepotential “obstructions to air navigation.”13 The earliesttower-marking schemes introduced in the 1930sincluded beacon lights and alternating painted towersegments: alternating bands of chrome yellow andblack or bands of white and black.14 In 1936 new mark-ing standards were recommended, and these wereadopted in the summer of 1937. The new standardsincluded painting certain towers in alternating bandsof “international orange” and white, the standard thatpersists into the 21st century.15 Towers were to belighted based on their height and proximity to aero-nautical facilities (i.e., airports, landing areas, or desig-nated landing approaches). For example, towers 200feet or higher above the ground were required to belighted and painted, while lower towers were to bemarked at the discretion of the FCC and Bureau of AirCommerce. The government wanted to ensure allbroadcasters got the message and embarked on a pub-lic relations campaign that included sending colorchips that illustrated the “international orange” stan-dard to newspapers throughout the U.S.16 The cam-paign worked well. On 14 September 1937, The Wash-ington Post carried this headline: “Attire of Orange andWhite Ordered for Radio Antennae.”17

Western Union predated the creation of the FCC byalmost a century. It was incorporated in 1856, 12 yearsafter Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872) and his collabora-tor, Alfred Vail (1807–1859), demonstrated their elec-tromagnetic telegraphy system, complete with transmis-sion and reception technology (keys, wires, and poles)and a software system, Morse code, using a Baltimore toWashington telegraph line.18 Formed by the consolida-tion of several smaller telegraph companies using elec-trical telegraphy as the means for long distance commu-nications, the company expanded in concert withrailroads to create the first national telecommunica-tions network.19 For two decades Western Union had anatural monopoly, and then in 1876 Alexander GrahamBell perfected and patented the telephone. Patent liti-gation and competition united American Bell Companyand Western Union in an uneasy telecommunicationsoligopoly lasting nearly a century.20

The 1930s were a period marked by significant techno-logical advances in radio. Engineer Edwin Armstrong(1890–1954) invented frequency modulation (FM)radio in 1933 as a static-free alternative to amplitudemodulation (AM) radio. FM radio differed from AMby the way broadcast signals were encoded and trans-


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mitted. By effecting changes in a radio wave’s fre-quency (measured in cycles per second), broadcasterscould reduce signal fading and interference thatresults in static caused by natural phenomena andother transmitters.21 Also at this time, engineers weredeveloping other ways to use the radio spectrum. InEurope, French engineers successfully tested the firstmicrowave communications technology in 1931.Three years later, a microwave network linking aero-dromes in Calais, France, and Lympne on the Englishcoast provided telephone and teleprinter communica-tions.22 Microwaves are super high-frequency radiowaves used in radio for point-to-point communica-tions, and the microwave spectrum is located at thehigher end of the radio spectrum in the 1 GHz (giga-hertz or billion cycles per second) range. Higher fre-quencies allowed for directional beam technology thatdid not require large and expensive antennas becausemicrowaves travel in straight lines. American engi-neers rapidly began experimenting with microwavetechnology, and in 1936 RCA initiated experimentsbetween its Camden, New Jersey, headquarters andNew York City.23

Microwave technology was found to be useful indetecting obstacles by bouncing high frequency wavesoff objects via parabolic reflector antennas. The newradar technology initially was deployed to detect ice-bergs at sea and during World War II was adapted tomilitary use.24 World War II stimulated experimenta-tion in radio technology, especially in the develop-ment of radio tubes and in propagation.25 “Experimen-tation and development have occurred in almost everyfield of radio including television, facsimile, frequencymodulation, direction-finding, and selective callingdevices,” the FCC reported in its Annual Report for1942.26 Many of the advances made in the 1930s, televi-sion and FM radio among them, were put on hold dur-ing the war, and their commercial use was delayedbecause of the conflict. Planning for the postwarperiod began in 1943 with the formation of an indus-try working group known as the Radio Technical Plan-ning Board (RTPB).27

One year later, the FCC began spectrum allocationhearings to act upon the findings made by the RTPB.The proceedings, known as Docket 6651, began withhearings in November 1944 and concluded with aseries of orders issued in early 1945 that allocatedradio spectrum to nongovernmental entities, i.e.,industry and private citizens. Up to the licensing of

cellular telephone systems in the 1980s, the Docket6651 hearings were considered the most significantrealignment of radio spectrum in U.S. history, andthey set the FCC’s spectrum allocation paradigm forthe following four decades.28 Outcomes of Docket6651 included the shift of FM frequencies to a higherband, creation of the UHF television band, and citi-zens band (CB) radio. The new allocations alsoexpanded industrial radio applications for aviationand railroad, and they allowed for mobile telephony—early car telephones, the precursor technology to cel-lular telephones.

During the spectrum allocation hearings, WesternUnion vied with AT&T, Raytheon, and IBM for com-mon carrier relay licenses and frequencies.29 The hear-ings provided the vehicle for Western Union and itscompetitors to begin the arduous process of trans-forming laboratory experiments into infrastructure inthe field and economically viable consumer services.Microwave telecommunications held the key to thefuture, promising “economy, dependability, and capac-ity,” Western Union vice president Fernand d’Humytold the FCC in a 1943 hearing. He added, “The writ-ing on the wall tells us that the bulk of the overheadcommunications wires criss-crossing this continent aredestined to come down.”30

Telecommunications companies racing to build outtheir microwave networks in the 1940s recognized thechallenges of implementing a costly system that reliedon uninterruptible service, facilitated by automatedremote stations that were packed with expensive radioequipment. “To be commercially feasible, relay points,many of which will be located in relatively inaccessibleplaces, must be designed for unattended operation,”explained General Electric Company’s H. B. Fancherin testimony before the FCC.31 In its October 1944application to the FCC for microwave spectrum in theDocket 6651 proceedings, Western Union detailed itstechnical requirements and the equipment and infra-structure necessary to implement its plans for anationwide relay network. The application includedbandwidth requirements and detailed how the com-pany planned to ensure the system would not interferewith other telecommunications systems. WesternUnion estimated that it would require stations spaced“25–35 miles at the relay points over typical terrain.”32

At the same time Western Union was petitioning theFCC for spectrum, it was also filing applications to


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construct experimental relay stations. In October1944, Western Union filed an application to build fourexperimental stations: one at its New York City head-quarters, two portable stations in New Jersey near NewBrunswick and Bordentown, one in Camden, andanother in Philadelphia. Together, these stationswould comprise the nodes of an experimental networklinking, at first, New York and Camden. FCC attorneysand engineers who reviewed the application wrote,“The applicant’s objective is to determine the practica-bility of the use of radio relay circuits in lieu of wire orcable circuits for the transmission of its common car-rier traffic upon a regular basis.” This application wasapproved at the FCC’s 20 March 1945 meeting.33

On 7 November 1945, FCC commissioners approved bycirculation Western Union’s application for additionalexperimental relay station construction permits. In thisapplication, Western Union sought consent for “a chainof twenty-two (22) Experimental Class 2 microwaverelay stations to extend between terminals at New YorkCity, Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia.”34

The network Western Union proposed, including theearlier New York to Philadelphia relays, would consist offive separate but interconnected systems, equipped withtransmitters and receivers from RCA linking the urbanterminals (Table 2). Western Union estimated its net-work would cost $1,487,008, a sum that included

$168,950 for towers and antenna equipment; $64,000for land, power lines, and access roads; and $50,000 tobuild the new Washington terminal tower.

By the end of the first quarter of 1945, Western Unionhad its radio equipment selected and its applicationsfor spectrum had been filed. It was working on secur-ing construction permits from the FCC and had settledon an architectural and engineering configuration forall of its relay sites. In designing a network, telecommu-nications companies can select from two basic relay siteconfigurations. One configuration involves a concretetower that encases all of the radio equipment and sup-ports antennas mounted atop it. AT&T used this con-figuration for its first relay network that linked NewYork and Boston, which was licensed in 1944 and firstpublicly tested in the fall of 1945 (see figure 4). Theother configuration involves building a self-supportingantenna structure (tower) and constructing an equip-ment building at its base to house equipment.35 West-ern Union elected to go with a variation on the latterdesign, using a steel forest-fire lookout tower as anantenna-support structure and a ground-level concreteequipment building. Western Union’s design includedmounting radio transmitters and receivers inside thelookout’s cabin. Each relay site would have the sameelements: an access road or drive, fenced compound,concrete block equipment building, and a tower. The

Table 2. Western Union Telegraph Company Microwave Relay Systems Applied for in 1945

System System Name Relays

System No. 1 New York City to Philadelphia New Brunswick and Bordentown (New Jersey)

System No. 2 New York City to Philadelphia Neshanic and Mt. Laurel (New Jersey)

System No. 3 New York City to Washington Neshanic and Mt. Laurel (New Jersey),Brandywine (Delaware), Elkton, Cub Hill, andSevern (Maryland)

System No. 4 Pittsburgh to Washington Laurel Hill/Jennerstown (Pennsylvania), LittleSavage, Sideling Hill, and Gambrill Park(Maryland)

System No. 5 New York City to Pittsburgh Neshanic (New Jersey), Sellersville, HoneyBrook, Red Lion, Allegheny, Bakersville, andPittsburgh (Pennsylvania)


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Figure 4. AT&T microwave relay station;photograph submitted as an exhibit filed in FCCDocket No. 8963. Records of the FederalCommunications Commission, NationalArchives at College Park.

company’s standards and specifications for terminaland relay sites were published in several company doc-uments and journal articles (see figure 5). These speci-fications include directions for assembling antennaand radio units in the cabs and equipment-installationinstructions for the equipment buildings.36

Relay TowersAfter receiving its initial permits from the FCC, West-ern Union had to finalize the designs for its facilitiesas well as select and acquire relay sites. With RCA pro-viding radio equipment and installation specifications,all that remained for Western Union was to find anappropriate antenna support structure and standard-

ize the plans and specifications for each relay site.Western Union evaluated several alternative towerdesigns in developing a standardized antenna supportstructure for its network. The company eliminatedfrom consideration masonry and “tubular steel” towersand settled on a design based on U.S. Department ofAgriculture Forest Service fire lookout towers.37 Costsrather than technological considerations appear tohave fueled this decision.

In March 1945, Western Union engineer H. A.Haenseler began corresponding with the Forest Servicein search of an appropriate tower model to suit thecompany’s engineering needs. “We contemplate build-ing for our use a 100 ft. tower which would have a small


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Figure 5. Western Union microwave relay tower and building. Proposed Construction Drawings (1946).

building on top,” wrote Haenseler. “As you no doubthave had considerable experience with steel towers thathave small enclosed buildings on top, in connectionwith your forest fire protective service, it occurred to methat you perhaps have developed definite specificationscovering such structures 100 ft. in height.”38 The ForestService responded by sending drawings and specifica-tions of its “E-Improvements-Lookout Towers.”39

Subsequent correspondence in spring 1945 betweenHaenseler and various Forest Service staff concern spe-cific issues such as stairway design and safety. WesternUnion was mainly interested in Forest Service accidentrates involving ice and snow on tower stairs. Haenselerwrote the Forest Service on 20 April 1945: “We are verymuch interested in the subject of towers at the presenttime, and in this connection I am wondering if the open-stair towers present a considerable hazard in ascendingand descending during sleet and snow storms.”40

By late June 1945, Western Union had determined thatthe specifications for “the light tower” sent by the ForestService “would be definitely inadequate” for the com-pany’s program. “It is our opinion, however, that your

standard lookout tower for 14 ft. square cab would besuitable for our requirements covering a radio beamtransmission tower,” Western Union lines engineer H.H. Wheeler wrote to Forest Service acting chief of engi-neers H. R. Jones.41 Unlike earlier radio towers that sim-ply provided basic support for transmitting and receiv-ing antennas, the new microwave towers requiredadequate support for an enclosure at the top of thetower to house radio equipment that had to be close tothe antennas and parabolic reflectors, protected fromthe weather, and accessible to Western Union maintain-ers.42 It is worthwhile to quote at length the remainderof Wheeler’s 22 June 1945 letter because it lays outWestern Union’s engineering requirements for the pro-posed antenna support structures:

In arriving at this opinion, we were strongly biased by the knowl-edge that you have had wide experience with towers and thebelief that the tower for 14 ft. square cab has been fully satisfac-tory to you.

If you can consistently do so, I would appreciate receiving a copyof your latest complete specifications including stair and platformdetails for your standard lookout towers, 30 to 120 ft. high for acab 14 ft. square. I, also, would be pleased to receive drawings cov-ering a steel cab on this tower, if such drawings are available.


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In making the above request, I have in mind furnishing towermanufacturers with a photostat of your tower drawings togetherwith stair and platform details. We would add to these drawingsdetails of a special cabin that we will require on the top of thetower. We would also incorporate in our request to the towermanufacturers the information outlined in your letter of April24th regarding gusset plates and channels for stair stringers. Ifyou have any objection to the use of your drawings as indicatedabove, I will be glad to have you advise me.

The towers we will require for radio transmission will range from60 to 120 ft. in height, and it is desirable that they have only lim-ited deflection at the top. To help secure rigidity, we propose touse a cab 12 ft. square, and thus reduce the wind pressure on thestructure.

It occurred to me, in connection with the matter of the rigidity ofthe tower, that you might be able to suggest some changes in thetower members or in tolerances covering bolt and rivet holes,which would help secure additional rigidity with relatively smallincrease in cost. If you have any such recommendations, I wouldbe gratified to receive them.43

The Forest Service complied with Western Union’srequests and sent the company plans and specifica-tions for a steel lookout tower and a 14-foot cab. TheForest Service recommended that Western Union con-tact the International Derrick and Equipment Com-pany to meet its needs for a specially designed steelcab and the Aermotor Company for steel towers. Inresponse to Western Union’s query regarding thereduction of wind stresses, the Forest Service recom-mended eliminating the standard shutters and reduc-ing the glazed area of windows in the cab.44

Western Union found the information useful and pur-sued a tower design based on the Forest Service’s L-1601 design, detailed in the agency’s 1938 StandardLookout Structure Plans.45 Starting in 1912, the U.S. For-est Service began purchasing Aermotor lookout tow-ers, and the company rapidly became the leading sup-plier for federal and state lookout towers. TheAermotor Company was founded in Chicago in 1888as a fabricator of windmills, water pumps, and theirsupport towers.46 In the years bracketing the turn ofthe 20th century, Aermotor windmills rapidly spreadthroughout the Midwest and eastern U.S. as a moredurable substitute for earlier wood windmill struc-tures.47 Aermotor’s galvanized steel support structurebecame the standard for lookout towers in the yearsbefore World War II. Capitalizing on its technical capa-bilities and functional knowledge, Aermotorexpanded its production portfolio to other structuressuch as electricity transmission towers, radio towers,and emergency siren towers. “For over 50 years Aer-

motor Company has been designing and building gal-vanized steel towers for a variety of uses,” boasts one1959 company brochure.48

In fall 1945, Western Union finalized its engineeringrequirements for its microwave towers, and its planswere reported in October 1945 on the front page ofthe New York Times: “The rural area towers will be steelstructures with cabins twelve feet square at the top.”49

All of the relay-station antenna support structures(towers) in the Philadelphia-New York and the NewYork-Washington-Pittsburgh systems were constructedusing Aermotor galvanized steel towers.

Western Union’s towers were the most prominent fea-tures at the company’s relay sites. Each square-plantower was constructed on concrete piers and includedthe tower structure, cab, catwalks, stairs, electroniccomponents, and conduits. The self-supporting latticetowers were constructed of rolled, L-section members,furnished by the Bethlehem Steel Company. Modifica-tions making the towers suitable for telecommunica-tions needs included the galvanized metal cab thathoused the antennas and radio equipment. The inte-rior of the cab at the Jennerstown relay site comparesfavorably with illustrations published by WesternUnion shortly after the network was completed (seefigure 6). The square-plan cab, surrounded on allsides by a metal catwalk and metal pipe rail, has awood floor and is reached by an exterior stairway lead-ing from the 100-foot tower’s uppermost landing tothe catwalk on the top platform. The cab is accessedby a metal door, manufactured by the Richards-WilcoxCompany of Aurora, Illinois, in its north façade.

The cab, clad with corrugated galvanized steel, has apyramidal galvanized steel roof, pierced at the peak bya round ventilator. There is a single casement window,three lights per frame, in the south wall. Rectangularpiercings in the west and south walls are covered byradio-frequency-transparent fiberglass panels that areperforated for ventilation. Power junction cabinetsand cable conduits are attached to the interior of thenorth wall, east of the door (see figure 7).

There are four bolted-steel L-beams placed diagonallyinside the cab at approximately 10 feet above the floor.These beams served as supports for the verticalantenna and radio equipment box (head-end units)mounting racks. The antennas, which would havebeen mounted side by side on the racks facing the RF-


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transparent panels, are missing; however, the mount-ing brackets remain connected to the racks. The head-end unit cases, paired in each rack (transmitters andreceivers for each direction, i.e., towards Washingtonand towards Pittsburgh) are intact, but all of the radioequipment has been removed. Each unit is hinged toopen downward, and the face of each is marked withsystem identifiers along with the appropriate label,“RECV” for receivers and “TRANS” for transmitters.

Additional modifications to the towers include cableruns that lead from the cabs to the equipment build-ing and platforms, which were constructed to houseadditional radio equipment. During testing along theNew York-Philadelphia system, engineers encounteredsignal fading that was caused by atmospheric condi-tions. To compensate for the reception problems cre-ated by the fading and to stabilize the signal, addi-tional receivers (“diversity receivers”) were placed onplatforms located 20 to 25 feet below the cab and thetower’s top platform.50

Equipment BuildingsTo house its main radio equipment and auxiliarypower plant, Western Union designed a building to beconstructed at the base of each relay tower. The com-pany’s design was for a one-story rectangular concrete-block building with a shed roof (see figure 8), twodoors, and one window. The main part of the buildingwas entered through a door in the long axis, whichopened into a radio that housed a pair of metal radioequipment cabinets. The remainder of the main inte-rior space was divided into a battery room and anengine room (see figures 9 and 10). A square heaterroom was accessed by a door in the building’s rear.Because of the remoteness of the relay station loca-tions, each building was secured against intrusion bysolid-core doors, deadbolt locks and exterior padlocks,and metal shutters bolted from the inside.

Security and protection from the elements weighedheavily in the building’s design. Each building housedthe station’s main radio equipment and apparatus for

Figure 6. View inside Western Union tower cab. Photograph from theWestern Union Telegraph Company Annual Report, 1948; WesternUnion Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of AmericanHistory, Smithsonian Institution.

Figure 7. Jennerstown relay site (HAER No. PA-636); interior of the towercab with radio cases and antenna mounts. Photo courtesy of the HistoricAmerican Engineering Record.


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Figure 8. Jennerstown relay site (HAER No.PA-636) equipment building. Photocourtesy of the Historic AmericanEngineering Record.

Figure 9. Jennerstown relay site (HAER No.PA-636) equipment building, radio room,and battery room. Photo courtesy of theHistoric American Engineering Record.

ensuring an uninterrupted power supply. The relayswere connected to commercial power lines by above-ground wires, carried on poles. If power was inter-rupted by damage to the lines or at the generatingsource, voltage regulators in the buildings switched tothe station’s battery banks stored in the battery roomas an interim power supply until the gas-powered 10kw generator in the engine room was operating. Atthat point, the power was switched to the locally gener-ated alternating current until the commercial electric-ity could be restored.51

A window in the side of the building housing theradio-equipment cabinets provided daylight to main-tainers working in the relay. The engine rooms weredesigned with a pair of louvered vents, operated bymotors that are activated when the engine is running.The vents are protected outside the building by

screened metal hoods.52 To fuel the engine, eachbuilding was equipped with a 120-gallon undergroundgas storage tank. Poured concrete fill guards securedthe tanks, and the fuel was conveyed to the engine viaconduits in the concrete slab floor.

The buildings were engineered to ensure stable oper-ating temperatures and humidity levels. The oil-burn-ing furnaces in the heater room prevented condensa-tion in the radio equipment and ensured that thebuilding’s temperature would not drop below 40degrees Fahrenheit. When occupied by maintainersworking in the winter, the heater had the added capac-ity to ensure warm working conditions.53 A concrete-block chimney ventilated the furnace.

SitesWith its engineering standards set and refinementsunderway to its operating parameters, Western Unionturned its attention to acquiring sites for its relaysthroughout the Mid-Atlantic region. No records docu-menting Western Union’s site selection process havebeen located; however, in Pennsylvania the companyused its Philadelphia-based real estate subsidiary, theTelegraph Realty Company, to acquire sites through-out the state, whereas the remainder of the sites wasacquired directly by the New York corporate headquar-ters. Western Union had to select sites based on accessto highways and telephone and electrical lines as wellas site topography and vegetation to ensure an unbro-ken line of sight. The company also had to ensure thateach location was within a jurisdiction with zoningconducive to the construction of a relay tower.54 Thesiting of relay stations was determined by economicand technological factors. The economic factors calledfor constructing the least number of relay stations,spaced as far apart as technologically feasible, i.e.,maintaining the lines of sight to the connecting relays.According to Elmer W. Engstrom, the engineer whochaired RTPB Panel 9 (Radio Relay Systems), theproperty costs and initial equipment costs were a sig-nificant investment in the creation of a relay network.55

Western Union sited all of its relay stations in groupsto ensure timely and cost-effective maintenance andrepair. In addition to locating the relays on or nearsuch major transportation routes as U.S. 40 and U.S.30, the company also recognized that, despite itsefforts to power each station from the commercialelectricity grid, situations would arise where there


17

Figure 10. Jennerstown relay site (HAER No. PA-636) equipment building,engine room. Photo courtesy of the Historic American EngineeringRecord.


18

would be power-supply interruptions, hence the incor-poration of auxiliary power supplies at each relaypoint.56 Between June 1945 and January 1946, WesternUnion bought 17 parcels and leased 5 on which itbuilt its relays and Washington’s Tenley terminal; in1947 the company had to acquire another property inWoodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey, to correctobstructions in the link between New York City andthe New Brunswick relay. The properties were small,square or rectangular outparcels between one-quarterto one acre in area. Each relay site had an access roadand a utility right-of-way for electricity poles and lines(see figure 11). The relay sites conformed to the com-pany’s standardized design: a steel Aermotor tower,topped by a 12 by 12-foot metal pyramidal roof cab,and a concrete-block equipment building inside acyclone fence compound. All of the relay sites werecompleted by May 1947. The landmark Tenley site—the network’s Art Deco-influenced architectural gemand futuristic symbol—was completed in March 1947(see figure 12).

Going Online“The era of the pole-less telegraph was heralded here,”reported the Christian Science Monitor the day afterWestern Union demonstrated its experimentalmicrowave relay network on 22 October 1945.57 West-ern Union executives and engineers, in the telegraph

company’s Manhattan headquarters, unveiled thenation’s first commercial microwave relay network tothe media and the world. In a scene reminiscent ofMorse’s 1844 demonstration of the first electromag-netic telegraph line linking Baltimore with Washing-ton, DC, Western Union engineers sent a messagefrom Washington, DC, to Philadelphia via wire andthen from Philadelphia to New York by “radio beam,”using two New Jersey relay stations. A teleprinter pro-duced a greeting from Western Union’s Washington,DC, manager, while simultaneously a facsimilemachine across the room printed a handwritten mes-sage from Western Union vice president T. B. Gittingsin a preview of the nation’s first commercial wirelessbroadband network. The event captured WesternUnion’s vision of the future of telecommunications inits capacity to simultaneously transmit 2,048 messages(see figure 13).58

Figure 11. 1949 state highway plat map showing the Sideling Hill relay station.

Figure 12. Architectural drawing of the Tenley terminal site in Washington,DC. Western Union Collection, Archives Center, National Museum

of American History, Smithsonian Institution.


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Experiments continued throughout 1945 and 1946while the company was acquiring site control over itsrelay locations and the Washington, DC, terminal. Con-struction of all the facilities in the New York-Philadel-phia network and the New York-Washington-Pittsburghtriangle was completed by the end of 1947. By early1948, both networks were online and carrying commer-cial traffic.59 Even before the first networks were com-pleted, Western Union was contemplating extendingits microwave system west to Chicago, Minneapolis,Kansas City, and beyond. Also, technology was chang-ing rapidly, and improvements in antenna technologyand radio circuitry spurred the company to considerthe next phases in its microwave program, includingthe addition of commercial video (television) signals.

Western Union was an industry leader in telecommu-nications: first in wireline telegraphy in the 19th cen-tury, next with commercial facsimile services in thefirst half of the 20th century, and, ultimately, with

microwave telecommunications in the postwar years.Despite its path-breaking innovations, the companyrepeatedly found itself losing its market share to theBell system. Telephony made it possible to bringtelecommunications into the office and home. West-ern Union’s attempts to reinvent itself through tech-nological innovation repeatedly failed. Its microwavenetwork, which was part of a $62 million, seven-yearcapital-improvement program, was hailed by WallStreet as a potential cure to the company’s financialand labor woes in the 1940s.60 The promising outlooksignaled by the adoption of the new technology, how-ever, was short-lived.

ConclusionsThe first-generation microwave network that wasauthorized after the FCC’s Docket 6651 hearingsquickly morphed into a transcontinental system withintwo decades, and some of the lookout-tower antennasupport structures were replaced by higher paired andguyed “periscope-feed” towers with passive reflectorantennas (see figure 14); others were abandoned andsold to the federal and state governments, regionalmicrowave communications companies, or to emerg-ing entities in mobile telephony. Throughout the1940s and 1950s, Western Union modified its system toenable some of the sites (e.g., Neshanic and Mt. Lau-rel in New Jersey) to relay television signals and otherservices. Changes in technology, including the intro-duction of satellite communications in the late 1960s,wireless telephony in the 1970s and 1980s, and theInternet in the 1990s, made the postwar microwaveequipment obsolete. As its technological needschanged, Western Union abandoned its first-genera-tion microwave sites, starting in the early 1960s.

The sites’ elevations and existing infrastructure madethem attractive to new users in the public and privatesectors. In 2005, 16 of the original relay sites remainedin place with varying degrees of physical integrity; onlythe Jennerstown relay was fully abandoned and notdemolished or recycled into another sector of thetelecommunications industry. Tenley terminal inWashington, DC, remains a valuable piece of verticalreal estate and is used by its owner, American TowerCorporation, as an urban antenna farm. WesternUnion’s microwave network failed to save the ailingcompany. AT&T’s monopoly on telecommunicationsservices and infrastructure eroded. New long-distancecarriers like MCI entered the market. New technolo-

Figure 13. 1947 Western Union advertisement. Collection of AlbertLaFrance.


20

gies, such as satellites and packet networks added tothe new competition, rendered Western Union obso-lete. The company was sold in 1994 to First FinancialManagement Corporation; its brand name survived asa money-transfer network, and the final WesternUnion telegram was sent in January 2006.61

The architectural and engineering site template ofunmanned remote relay sites envisioned by WesternUnion and its contemporaries has been continued intothe 21st century with the proliferation of personal wirelessservices facilities that consist of an access road leading to afenced compound with a one-story equipment buildingand antenna support structure (tower). Western Union’smicrowave system changed the American landscape byopening up isolated mountaintops and backyards to high-tech industrial development and contributed towards thecreation of a vertical real estate market that was exploitedby commercial telecommunications companies. Travelersalong the Lincoln Highway and the old National Roadduring the postwar years saw towers rising above the forestcanopies and silhouetted on the horizon. When they werebuilt, the towers were welcomed. However, by the turn ofthe 21st century, many people considered the industrialstructures to be blight and unwelcome visual intrusions.

Sites like Jennerstown and the other surviving WesternUnion relays, plus Washington’s Tenley terminal, are keyrepositories of architectural and engineering informationthat can provide insights into economic, technological,and social history.

AcknowledgementsI thank the Historic American Engineering Record forits generous assistance in documenting the Jenner-stown relay site; Christopher Marston, Larry Lee, andJet Lowe provided invaluable assistance. The site’s doc-umentation would not have been possible without theenthusiastic support given by owner Robert Mallet.The U.S. National Museum of American HistoryArchives Center assisted with research in the WesternUnion papers and graciously allowed me to use imagesfrom the collection in this paper. Finally, Cold Warcommunications researcher Albert LaFrance’s WesternUnion website fueled some of my initial questions intothe system’s historical significance, and Albert has putup with many email queries about everything fromtower architecture to sources for his amazing collec-tion of Western Union materials. As always, I take fullresponsibility for any errors or omissions in this paper.

Figure 14. Western Union second-generationmicrowave tower; Bakersville relay, Somerset County,Pennsylvania. Photo by author.


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Notes1. David S. Rotenstein, “Towering Issues and the FCC,” Forum News

10, no. 6 (Aug. 2004): 1–2, 6 [Newsletter of the National Trustfor Historic Preservation Forum].

2. Federal Communications Commission, Report and Order FCC04-222, “Nationwide Programmatic Agreement Regarding theSection 106 National Historic Preservation Act Review Process”(5 Oct. 2004).

3. David S. Rotenstein, “Radio Towers: New Federal PoliciesThreaten the Legacy of America’s Communications Industry,”Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter 32, no. 3 (Summer 2003):1–2; David S. Rotenstein, “New Federal Policies Endanger His-toric American Engineering Sites,” Society for Industrial ArcheologyNewsletter 34, no. 3 (Summer 2005): 17.

4. “Chollas Heights Naval Radio Transmitting Facility,” HAER No.CA-154, Historic American Engineering Record, National ParkService, U.S. Department of the Interior, Library of Congress,Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC; “RabbitCreek White Alice Site,” HAER No. AK-23, Historic AmericanEngineering Record, National Park Service, U.S. Department ofthe Interior, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Divi-sion, Washington, DC; Jay Haviser, “Archaeological Testing atOptical Telegraph Sites on Curacao,” Proceedings of a Symposiumon the Optical Telegraph, 21–23 June 1994 (Stockholm, Sweden:Telemuseum Press, 1994), 25–31; Jay Haviser, “ArchaeologicalInvestigation at Optical Telegraph Sites on Curacao” (Willem-stad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles: Archaeological-Anthropo-logical Institute, 1994) [Report on file, National Museum of Sci-ence and Technology, Stockholm, Sweden].

5. Wayne D. Cocroft, Cold War Monuments: An Assessment by the Mon-uments Protection Programme (London, England: English Heritage,2001); Wayne D. Cocroft and Roger J. C. Thomas, Cold War:Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946–1989 (London, England:English Heritage, 2003), 218–24.

6. Donald C. Beelar, “Cables in the Sky and the Struggle for TheirControl,” Federal Communications Bar Journal 21 (1967): 26–41;Gerald W. Brock, The Telecommunications Industry: The Dynamics ofMarket Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981);Philip L. Cantelon, The History of MCI: The Early Years, 1968–1988(Washington, DC: MCI Communications Corp., 1993); Philip L.Cantelon, Technology and Culture 36, no. 3 (1995): 560–82; JulianZ. Millar, “A Preview of the Western Union System of RadioBeam Telegraphy, Part I,” Journal of the Franklin Institute 241, no.12 (Jun. 1946): 397–413; Julian Z. Millar, “A Preview of the West-ern Union System of Radio Beam Telegraphy, Part II,” Journal ofthe Franklin Institute 242, no. 1 (Jul. 1946): 23–40; J. Z. Millar,“Two Thousand Telegrams Per Minute by Microwave,” WesternUnion Technical Review 1, no. 1 (Jul. 1947): 1–8.

7. Louis Galambos, “Recasting the Organizational Synthesis: Struc-ture and Process in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries,”Business History Review 79 (2005): 3; Louis Galambos and EricJohn Abrahamson, Anytime, Anywhere: Entrepreneurship and the Cre-ation of a Wireless World (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,2002), 254–55; Richard N. Langlois, “The Capabilities of Indus-trial Capitalism,” Critical Review 5, no. 4 (1991): 526.

8. Robert Britt Horwitz, The Irony of Regulatory Reform (New York,N.Y.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989), 11–12.

9. Anton Huurdeman, The Worldwide History of Telecommunications(New York, N.Y.: J. Wiley, 2003), 393.

10. Thomas W. Hazlett, “The Wireless Craze, the Unlimited Band-width Myth, the Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline

to Ronald Coase’s ‘Big Joke’: An Essay on Airwave Allocation Pol-icy,” Harvard Journal of Law and Technology 1443, no. 2 (Spring2001): 335–469; David E. Nye, “Shaping Communication Net-works: Telegraph, Telephone, Computer,” Social Research 64, no.36 (Fall 1997): 1067–91; Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies withoutBoundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1990).

11. Susan J. Douglas, Inventing American Broadcasting: 1899–1922(Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1987).

12. G. Caldwell, “The Standard of Public Interest, Convenience orNecessity as Used in the Radio Act of 1927,” Air Law Review 1, no.3 (Jul. 1930): 295–330; Ronald H. Coase, “The Federal Commu-nications Commission,” Journal of Law and Economics 2 (1959):1–40; Hugh Slotten, Radio and Television Regulation: BroadcastTechnology in the United States, 1920–1960 (Baltimore, Md.: JohnsHopkins Univ. Press, 2000); Robert Carleton Smith, “LegalPhases of Radio Communication,” Journal of Business of the Univer-sity of Chicago 2, no. 3 (Jul. 1929): 291–311.

13. Federal Communications Commission, “Regulations GoverningEstablishment and Certification of Aeronautical Lights andInstructions for Marking Obstructions to Air Navigation,” 1August 1930, Department of Commerce, Aeronautics Branch,National Archives and Records Administration, Records of theFederal Communications Commission, Record Group 173, Box477, File 130-3, Washington, DC [hereafter National Archives].

14. Federal Communications Commission, “Marking Obstructionsto Air Navigation” (see n. 13).

15. D. Fagg to Secretary of the Federal Communications Commis-sion, 1 June 1937, National Archives (see n. 13); Federal Com-munications Commission to the Department of Commerce, 18August, 1937, “Subject: Antenna Tower Marking,” NationalArchives (see n. 13).

16. R. S. Boutelle to the Secretary of the Federal CommunicationsCommission, 10 July 1937, National Archives (see n. 13).

17. “Attire of Orange and White Ordered for Radio Antennae,” TheWashington Post (14 Sep. 1937): 11.

18. Russell W. Burns, Communications: An International History of theFormative Years (London, England: Institution of Electrical Engi-neers), 80–86; George P. Oslin, The Story of Telecommunications(Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, 1992).

19. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolu-tion in American Business (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press,1977), 195–203; Daniel D. Czitrom, Media and the American Mind:From Morse to McLuhan (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Univ. of North Car-olina Press, 1982), 3–29.

20. John Brooks, Telephone, The First Hundred Years: The WondrousInvention That Changed a World and Spawned a Corporate Giant(New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1976); Claude S. Fischer, AmericaCalling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 (Berkeley, Calif.:Univ. of California Press, 1992); David Hochfelder, “Construct-ing an Industrial Divide: Western Union, AT&T, and the FederalGovernment, 1876–1971,” Business History Review 76 (Winter2002): 705–32.

21. Hugh Slotten, Radio and Television Regulation: Broadcast Technologyin the United States, 1920–1960 (Baltimore, Md.: Johns HopkinsUniv. Press, 2000).

22. Burns, Communications, 577 (see n. 18).23. “Microwave Radio Circuit of the Radio Corporation of America,”

Science 83, no. 2164 (19 Jun. 1936): 600–02.24. Burns, Communications, 577–84 (see n. 18).25. Slotten, Radio and Television Regulation, 154–55 (see n. 21).


22

26. Federal Communications Commission Twelfth Annual Report: FiscalYear Ended June 30, 1946 (Washington, DC: Federal Communica-tions Commission, 1942).

27. W. R. G. Baker, “Statement of Operations of the Radio TechnicalPlanning Board, Summary of Operations of the Radio TechnicalPlanning Board,” 27 September, 1944, Records of the RadioTechnical Planning Board Meetings, 1942–1948, NationalArchives, Box 3 (see n. 13).

28. John O. Robinson, Spectrum Management Policy in the United States:An Historical Account, OPP Working Paper No. 1558-62 (Washing-ton, DC: Office of Plans and Policy, Federal CommunicationsCommission, 1985); Gregory L. Rosston and Jeffrey S. Steinberg,“Using Market-Based Spectrum Policy to Promote the PublicInterest,” Federal Communications Law Journal 50, no. 1 (Dec.1997): 88–89; Hugh Slotten, “Rainbow in the Sky: FM Radio,Technical Superiority, and Regulatory Decision-Making,” Technol-ogy and Culture 37, no. 4 (Oct. 1996): 686–720; Slotten, Radio andTelevision Regulation, 119–27 (see n. 21).

29. “Western Union Relay Network,” 31 October 1944, FCC hearingson Radio Technical Planning Board, Docket 6651, NationalArchives and Records Administration, Records of the FederalCommunications Commission, Record Group 173, Box 42,Washington, DC [hereafter Docket 6651].

30. “Transmission of Telegrams by Radio Beams Seen W.U.’s Ulti-mate Goal,” The Christian Science Monitor (25 Aug. 1943): 15.

31. “Relay Systems,” 31 October 1944, Testimony of H. B. Fancher,Docket 6651 (see n. 29).

32. “Radio Relay Network of the Western Union Telegraph Com-pany,” Docket 6651 (see n. 29).

33. Law, Engineering and Accounting Departments (FCC) to theCommission (FCC), “Minutes of the 20 March 1945 Commissionmeeting (Telegraph Matters),” 14 March 1945, interoffice mem-orandum, National Archives (see n. 13).

34. “Minutes of the 7 November 1945 Commission Meeting, W.U.Relay Applications,” National Archives (see n. 13).

35. Helmut Carl, Radio Relay Systems (London, England: Macdonald,1966), 171–74.

36. Millar, “Western Union System, Part II” (see n. 6); RCA VictorDivision, Engineering Products Department, Microwave RadioRelay Equipment Instructions, (Camden, N.J.: Radio Corporation ofAmerica, 1947).

37. Western Union Telegraph Company, “Engineering Progress1945–1950,” uncompleted manuscript, Archives Center, NationalMuseum of American History, Western Union Telegraph Com-pany Records, Box 2, Folder 9, n.d., Smithsonian Institution,Washington, DC [hereafter W.U. Co. Records]; Millar, “WesternUnion System, Part II,” 33 (see n. 6). Prefabricated towers couldbe carried on truck beds and assembled at each site, therebyreducing the costs of transporting and constructing materials fora concrete building. The lookout tower design enabled engi-neers to place radio equipment close to the antennas in space. Aguyed or narrow tower would not have allowed for the place-ment of radio equipment close to the antennas.

38. H. A. Haenseler, Western Union, to the U.S. Forest Service, 31March 1945, National Archives and Records Administration,Records of the Forest Service, Record Group 95, Box 53, Wash-ington, DC. [hereafter Forest Service].

39. H. R. Jones, U.S. Forest Service, to H. A. Haenseler, WesternUnion, 2 April 1945, Forest Service (see n. 38).

40. H. A. Haenseler, Western Union, to H. R. Jones, U.S. Forest Ser-vice, 20 April 1945, Forest Service (see n. 38).

41. H. H. Wheeler to H. R. Jones, U.S. Forest Service, 22 June 1945,Forest Service (see n. 38).

42. H. P. Corwith and W. B. Sullinger, “Western Union’s MicrowaveRelay System,” Western Union Technical Review (July 1948): 105; P.J. Howe, compiler, “A Brief Outline of the Technical ProgressMade by the Western Union Telegraph Company, 1935–1945,”Box 3, Folder 1, n.d., W.U. Co. Records (see n. 37); WesternUnion, “Engineering Progress,” (see n. 37).

43. Wheeler to Jones, 22 June 1945 (see n. 41).44. H. R. Jones to H. H. Wheeler, Western Union, 27 June 1945, For-

est Service (see n. 38).45. T. W. Norcross, Standard Lookout Structure Plans (Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1938), 3-3C.46. Lindsay Baker, A Field Guide to American Windmills (Norman, Okla.:

Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1985), 37–40; Wes Haynes, “Fire Observa-tion Towers of the New York State Forest Preserve,” National Registerof Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form (Washing-ton, DC: Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2001), F2;Peter L. Steere, “National Forest Fire Lookouts in the SouthwesternRegion, USDA Forest Service,” National Register of Historic PlacesMultiple Property Documentation Form (Washington, DC: Depart-ment of the Interior, National Park Service, 1987), item 8, p. 25.

47. Haynes, “Fire Observation Towers,” F1–F2 (see n. 46).48. “Aermotor Galvanized Steel Towers” photocopy of the original

in the collection of Michael Pfeiffer, U.S. Department of Agricul-ture, U.S. Forest Service, Washington, DC.

49. “Radio to Supplant Telegraph Wires,” The New York Times (23Oct. 1945): 1.

50. Western Union, “Engineering Progress” (see n. 37); Howe, “His-tory of Technical Progress” (see n. 42).

51. Millar, “Western Union System,” 33–36 (see n. 6); H. M. Ward,“Power Supplies for Microwave Relay Systems,” Western UnionTechnical Review 3, no. 4 (Oct. 1949).

52. Ward, “Power Supplies,” 136 (see n. 51).53. Ibid., 135.54. J. J. Lenehan, “Factors Affecting Location and Height of Radio

Relay Towers,” Western Union Technical Review 4, no. 4 (Oct.1950): 143–48; Millar, “Western Union System,” 29–33 (see n. 6).

55. “Relay Systems,” testimony of Elmer W. Engstrom, Docket 6651(see n. 29).

56. Millar, “Western Union System” (see n. 6); Ward, “Power Sup-plies,” 133–42 (see n. 51); G. B. Woodman, “Maintenance of aRadio Relay System,” Western Union Technical Review 5, no. 4 (Oct.1951): 141–47.

57. R. Mullen, “Era of Pole-Less Telegraph Heralded by WesternUnion,” The Christian Science Monitor 23 (Oct. 1945): 3.

58. Millar, “Two Thousand Telegrams” (see n. 6); Mullen, “Era ofPole-Less” (see n. 57).

59. Lenehan, “Factors Affecting,” 95 (see n. 54); Western Union,Box 2, Folder 9, n.d., W.U. Co. Records (see n. 37).

60. “W.U. on the Air: Telegraph Company Adopts High FrequencyRadio for Use on Heavy Traffic Circuits. System Dooms Conven-tional Pole Lines,” Business Week (27 Oct. 1945): 20; “ElectronicsPuts Young Blood in Old Company,” Business Week (27 Aug.1960): 86–96; Twelfth Annual Report, 26–29 (see n. 26); HaroldFleming, “Telegraph Industry Facing Revolution,” The ChristianScience Monitor (7 Feb. 1947): 17.

61. Valerie Bauerlein, “Western Union’s Last Telegram Marks theConclusion of an Era,” The Wall Street Journal (3 Feb. 2006): B3;Mike Musgrove, “The Telegram, 1844–2006,” The Washington Post(3 Feb. 2006): D-1.

THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY IFOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHEOLOGY

Volume 32, Number 2 2006

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EDIT0 RIAL 3

ARTICLES Towers for Telegrams: The Western Union Telegraph Company and the Emergence of Microwave Telecommunications Infrastructure

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DavidS.Rotenstein 5

The Evolution of the Warren, or Triangular, Truss DavidGuise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

REVIEW ARTICLE Current Research on the Art of Industry-Artists at Work: Imaging Place, Work, and Process

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Cooling Towers, by Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher Todd Gilens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Building the World: An Encyclopedia of the Great Engineering Projects in History, 2 vols, by Frank P. Davidson and Kathleen Lusk Brooke

Terry S. Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

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Charles K. Hyde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

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The Seattle Bungalow: People and Houses, 1900-1 940, by Janet Ore

Alison K. Hoagland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

The Textile Industry of South-West England: A Social Archeology, by Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson

Lance E. Metz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Watkins Mill: the Factory on the Farm, by Louis W. Potts and Ann M. Sligar

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David Shayt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

From a Few to All: Long-Term Development of Water and Environmental Services in Finland, ed. by Petri S. Juuti and Tapio S. Katko

Nancy Farm Mannikko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

Brief History of Wells and Toilets: The Case of Finland (Kaivot Ja Kaymilat: Johdatus Historiaan Esimerkkina Suomi), by Petri S. Juuti, English translation by Katri Wallenius

Larry Mishkar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

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Alicia Valentino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Short Takes The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2nd ed., by Carroll Purse11 .77

Forging America: The Story of Bethlehem Steel, by The Morning Call (Bethlehem, Penn.) . . . . . . . . . .77

The History of Munson Brothers &' Company, by Marilyn Loft Houck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

A Guide to United States Patents for Windmills and Wind Engines, 1793-1950, by T. Lindsay Baker . . . . . . . . . .78

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CONTRIBUTORS 79

COVER: Western Union microwave relay tower and building. See "Towers for Telegrams: The Western Union Telegraph Company and the Emergence of Microwave Telecommunications Infrastructure," pp. 5-22.

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