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Telegraph network

The first telegraph lines were introduced in the Romanian Principalities in 1854–1855, during the period of the Crimean War, when the two countries were occupied by Austrian troops. Telegraph offices were established at Iaşi, Focşani, Tecuci and Galaţi, and one of the lines, functional in July 1855 connected Iaşi to Galaţi (through Vaslui, Bârlad and Tecuci). In 1857, when the Austrian army withdrew from Moldavia, the service was nationalised and operated by the state. In the same year, the European Commission of the Danube established the telegraph lines Galaţi – Ismail and Galaţi – Sulina. The initial tariff for the correspondence telegraphed from Iaşi to Galaţi was 20 lei for 25 words. For every extra ten words five more lei were charged[1].

By the end of the 19^th century, the telegraph–postal office was organised as a first rank branch, with a staff paid annually with a total of 43,020 lei. In 1889–1890 its income was 97,650 lei from domestic telegrams and 70,011 lei from external ones, other amounts coming from extra taxes. Commercial and industrial correspondence occupied almost two thirds of the total activity. In 1889–1890 there were received / sent 73,720 internal telegrams and 43,340 external ones. Adding 5,036 official telegrams, the total number was 122,096 telegrams. Most of the external correspondence was sent to Austria (6,720), Russia (5,560), England (4,332), Ottoman Empire (2,380) and France (2,004), and most telegrams arrived from Russia (4,152), Austria (2,304), France (1,672), Germany (1,616) and England (1,352). As the number of telegrams sent / received in Romania was about 1.4 million a year, the telegraphic office in Galaţi contributed with the twelfth part of the total, but in terms of incomes it charged the eighth part of the total incomes at a national level[2].

By the mid 1880s a telephone line was established between the fire fighters’ office, the main police station and the observation tower settled in the belfry of a local church. In 1886 there were operational five telephone offices, and the use of these devices greatly increased both for public institutions and for private customers. In 1911 the telephone network in the county of Covurlui covered 610 kilometres of wires[3].

Table 4.2.5.2_1

Telegraphic machines, network, tools, and offices (1873–1913)[4]

Year		Network – used lines (km)	Telegraphic wires (km)	Printing machines	Telegraph offices
1873		3,420	6,089	494	81
1874		3,737	6,632	-	83
1875		3,821	6,842	390	90
1876		3,757	6,993	417	91
1877		3,954	7,928	424	101
1878		4,368	8,733	476	97
1880		4,484	9,039	500	104
1881		4,641	9,450	-	108
1882		4,747	9,698	-	111
1883		4,750	10,146	-	-
1884		5,021	10,747	-	-
1885		5,093	10,841	-	250
1886		5,232	11,341	-	317
1887		5,397	11,911	266	321
1888		5,495	12,424	230	323
1889		5,632	12,809	207	353
1890		5,771	12,963	218	381
1891		5,798	13,334	222	395
1892		5,871	14,543	220	-
1893		6,047	14,900	228	-
1894		6,444	14,737	206	-
1895		6,832	16,211	226	-
1896		6,874	16,343	226	-
1897		6,903	16,592	302	-
1898		6,850	17,590	285	-
1899		6,931	17,860	287	-
1900		6,972	18,023	240	-
1901		6,995	18,110	242	-
1902		6,964	18,194	241	-
1903		7,012	18,388	242	-
1904		7,013	15,511	250	-
1905		7,284	19,426	260	-
1906		7,679	20,086	182	-
1907	7,660		21,208	145	-
1908	7,762		21,787	-	-
1909	7,651		19,311	-	-
1910	7,321		20,841	-	-
1911	7,706		21,661	-	-
1912	8,332		24,073	-	-
1913	9,062		25,308	-	-

Table 4.2.5.2_2

Domestic and international telegrams, 1870–1915 (thousand units)[5]

Year	Sent domestic telegrams	Sent international telegrams	Received international telegrams
1870	433	74	72
1871	479	76	73
1872	651	87	97
1873	675	95	90
1874	712	93	92
1875	765	96	95
1876	608	92	94
1877	668	130	124
1878	683	189	192
1879	661	118	124
1880	686	123	130
1881	828	150	153
1882	877	160	157
1883	897	158	164
1884	885	146	149
1885	917	150	152
1886	915	140	136
1887	933	142	140
1888	976	177	136
1889	948	178	158
1890	965	183	161
1891	1,086	229	209
1892	1,092	238	215
1893	1,146	225	226
1894	1,361	238	189
1895	1,642	268	227
1896	1,707	263	226
1897	1,540	287	255
1898	1,779	331	273
1899	1,589	254	247
1900	1,455	272	240
1901	1,569	306	276
1902	1,687	338	313
1903	1,632	339	334
1904	1,827	285	279
1905	1,919	382	366
1906	2,055	468	408
1907	2,028	415	398
1908	2,033	388	395
1909	2,023	403	390
1910	2,249	492	462
1911	2,160	602	619
1912	2,368	587	624
1913	2,631	596	599
1914	2,634	591	550
1915	2,676	401	388

Table 4.2.5.2_3

Telephone devices, stations and circuits, 1894–1913[6]

Year	Telephone stations			Telephone circuits
	Offices	Cabins	Posts	Urban	Interurban
	number	number	number	km	km
1894	3	10	177	404	1,599
1895	3	11	326	1,298	2,376
1896	10	20	672	1,700	2,445
1897	10	20	2,627	2,365	3,312
1898	41	173	2,737	2,554	5,263
1899	52	306	2,883	3,634	8,078
1900	157	1,010	1,303	3,045	10,981
1901	370	1,425	2,391	4,250	16,492
1902	494	1,965	3,030	5,536	21,186
1903	128	2,682	3,127	6,075	25,906
1904	158	2,738	3,688	7,669	27,413
1905	198	2,897	4,410	9,190	28,921
1906	805	347	8,005	10,562	31,369
1907	805	347	8,828	12,094	31,675
1908	770	386	10,134	13,552	32,912
1909	838	3,018	11,170	16,213	41,634
1910	868	3,026	15,422	17,114	43,019
1911	945	3,212	16,226	25,570	42,869
1912	919	3,220	16,130	33,984	51,881
1913	1,108	3,304	17,979	39,086	55,899

Table 4.2.5.2_4

Telephone calls, by categories, 1894–1914[7]

Year	Total	Urban	Interurban
1894	55	55	-
1895	135	135	-
1896	445	444	1
1897	774	772	2
1898	967	883	84
1899	1,936	1,820	116
1900	1,527	1,324	203
1901	4,036	3,757	279
1902	2,025	1,609	416
1903	2,757	2,294	463
1904	2,521	2,216	305
1905	3,229	2,691	538
1906	4,885	4,227	658
1907	9,412	8,683	729
1908	6,683	5,835	848
1909	12,353	11,135	1,218
1910	13,544	12,257	1,287
1911	17,893	16,402	1,491
1912	17,761	16,410	1,351
1913	22,338	20,894	1,444
1914	26,050	24,360	1,690

[1] Paul Păltănea, Istoria oraşului Galaţi de la origini până la 1918, second edition, edited by Eugen Drăgoi (Galaţi: Editura Partener, 2008), vol. II, 44–45; details in Leonid Boicu, “Introducerea telegrafiei în Moldova (Contribuţii la cunoaşterea ocupaţiei austriece din 1854–1857 a Principatelor Române)”, Studii şi cercetări ştiinţifice, Iaşi, Istorie 8:2 (1957), 279–305 and Tezaur documentar gălăţean, edited by Cezar Bejan, Alexandru Duţă, Stelian Iordache, Viorica Solomon (Bucharest: Direcţia Generală a Arhivelor Statului, 1988), 144–146.

[2] Moise N. Pacu, Cartea judeţului Covurluiu. Note geografice, istorice şi în deosebi statistice, (Bucharest: Stabilimentul Grafic I. V. Socecu, 1891), 272–276; other details in Păltănea, Istoria, II, 209.

[3] Pacu, Cartea, 278; D. Hagi Anton, Expunerea situaţiunei judeţului Covurlui prezentată Consiliului Judeţian la deschiderea sesiunei ordinare de la 15 octombrie 1911 (Galaţi: Stabilimentul de Arte Grafice “Moldova”, 1911), 55–56; Păltănea, Istoria, II, 209.

[4] Victor Axenciuc, Evoluţia economică a României. Cercetări statistico-istorice, 1859–1947, vol. I, Industria (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 1992), 366–367 (Table 337: Telegraphic machines, network, tools and offices, during the period 1873–1938).

[5] Ibid., 367–368 (Table 338: Domestic and international telegrams, during the period 1870–1938, in thousand units).

[6] Ibid., 374–375 (Table 343: Telephone devices, stations and circuits, during the period 1894–1913).

[7] Ibid., 375 (Table 344: Phone calls, by categories, during the period 1894–1914).

References

Websites:

Archival sources:

Serviciul Judeţean Galaţi al Arhivelor Naţionale (The National Archives, Galaţi Branch), Primăria oraşului Galaţi (The Municipality of Galaţi), files starting with 1831.

Bibliography:

Axenciuc, Victor, Evoluţia economică a României. Cercetări statistico–istorice, 1859–1947, vol. I, Industria [Romania’s Economic Evolution. Statistical–Historical Researches, 1859–1947, vol. I, The Industry] (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 1992).

Boicu, Leonid, “Introducerea telegrafiei în Moldova (Contribuţii la cunoaşterea ocupaţiei austriece din 1854–1857 a Principatelor Române)” [The Introduction of Telegraphy in Moldavia (Contributions to the Knowing of the Austrian Occupation of the Romanian Principalities (1854–1857)], Studii şi cercetări ştiinţifice, Iaşi, Istorie 8:2 (1957), 279–305.

Enciclopedia României, vol. IV, Economia naţională. Circulaţie, distribuţie şi consum [Romania’s Encyclopedia, vol. IV, The National Economy. Circulation, Distribution and Consumption], edited by Dimitrie Gusti at alii(Bucharest: Imprimeria Naţională, 1943).

Hagi Anton, D., Expunerea situaţiunei judeţului Covurlui prezentată Consiliului Judeţian la deschiderea sesiunei ordinare de la 15 octombrie 1911 [The Exposition of the Situation of Covurlui County Presented to the County Council at the Opening of the Ordinary Session of 15 October 1911] (Galaţi: Stabilimentul de Arte Grafice “Moldova”, 1911).

Pacu, Moise N., Cartea Judeţului Covurlui. Note geografice, istorice şi în deosebi statistice [The Book of Covurlui County. Geographical, Historical and Mainly Statistical Notes] (Bucharest: Stabilimentul Grafic I. V. Socecu, 1891).

Păltănea, Paul, Istoria oraşului Galaţi de la origini până la 1918 [The History of Galaţi from Its Beginnings to 1918], second edition, edited by Eugen Drăgoi (Galaţi: Editura Partener, 2008).

Tezaur documentar gălăţean [Tresure of Documents on Galaţi], edited by Cezar Bejan, Alexandru Duţă, Stelian Iordache, Viorica Solomon (Bucharest: Direcţia Generală a Arhivelor Statului, 1988).

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