STAMP DAY - THE FIRST TELEGRAPH OVERHEAD POWER LINE IN CROATIA

Motif: Part of the Morse telegraph device Man’s aspiration to convey a message at the speed of a thought to great distances is as old as the man himself. Unable to achieve it in practice, in the course of his long history the man has transferred this power to mythical creatures – god’s messengers. This is proved by the many myths and legends of the peoples of the ancient world. In reality, the man realized this desire in 1844 by the invention and application of the commercial electromagnetic telegraph. Up to the time of the invention of electricity and its diverse practical application, in practice people used signs - signals previously agreed upon (acoustic and optical ones), and thus relayed messages relatively fast and at great distances. For this purpose they used the natural configuration of the land or built signal towers from which they could send the messages. Among the means they applied for signalling they used fire and smoke, and drums, horns, bells, mortars, guns, cannons ..., as well as artificially constructed optical telegraphs with torches and semaphores. Croats, too, used this primitive way of transferring messages in their medieval and New Age past, particularly during war periods. There are many proofs including medieval sources and clinched peace treaties, particularly those that concern the lengthy periods of waging war against the Ottomans. There is a contractual decree to prove how important such signalling was for the war operations of that time: this decree testifies that in 1477 the Hungarian-Croatian king Matthias Corvinus took a pledge to the then superior Ottomans that he would signal the Venetians “neither by cannons or mortars nor by setting fires or releasing smoke” that their armies were advancing upon them. Though these signals were very useful, their efficacy was in many ways limited. The capitalist manner of production and the permanent desire for the ever greater profit resulted in the need for raw materials to be transported to the production premises as soon as possible as well as for the produced goods to be placed and sold on the market. Along with the new transportation means (steamship, train) the need emerged for a speedily sent and received message by the help of which it would be possible to learn everything about this new way and functioning of economic activities. Furthermore, every authority, particularly the country’s government, kept trying to centralize its administration in order to secure its superior power and shape the society according to its ideas and visions, but also to secure peace and order in the country. This is why the state authorities also found speedily sent and received messages necessary and indispensable. Great scientific inventions in the 19th century (in our case the invention of electricity and the electromagnet) and the anticipation that they could be used for the transfer of messages almost at the speed of men’s thoughts, stimulated a great number of eminent individuals of various professions to work on inventions that would make this possible. These were: Shilling, a Russian diplomat, Gauss and Weber, German professors, Cooke, Wheatstone, the English producer of musical instruments, and many others, less known and eminent persons. The Englishman Wheatstone managed to construct a signalling telegraph with hands (a magnetic needle) that was introduced into use in English trains to ensure their safety. The greatest glory for the invention of the functional and commercial telegraph goes to the American painter and pedagogue, Samuel Finley Breese Morse who transmitted a message between Washington and Baltimore on May 24, 1844. When the telegraph was being installed in Croatia, the country was within the framework of the Austrian Empire. The introduction of the telegraph into use happened relatively late in comparison to Austria itself. Austria introduced the application of this invention in 1845, soon after the United States of America, the cradle of the telegraph. The telegraph overhead power line, earlier set up between Vienna and Celje, was drawn along the road from Zidani Most to Zagreb in 1850. The work on the setting up of the telegraph line towards Zagreb started in spring of the above mentioned year. It continued with great difficulties because the local inhabitants repeatedly obstructed the work. The motives for these obstructions were primarily based on the belief that the telegraph wires were going to attract thunder and hail. Despite the difficulties, the air line was drawn to the centre of the town on September 10, 1850. Part of the insulated wire was placed beneath the ground in the town. Some time later, to be precise on September 28, the first telegraph messages were exchanged between Vienna and Zagreb. The first telegraph message from Zagreb to Vienna sent by the vice-ban Benko Lentulaj went as follows: “The telegraph is in working order”. The telegraph message that followed was from Vienna and it was the message sent by ban (provincial governor) Jelacic who was there at the time, written in the Croatian language. The words of Jelacic’s telegraph were: “It is with great joy that I received your message”. The primary function of the telegraph was only for official usage, i.e. for administrative and military service. Soon it was given application in economy, to be followed by the period of telegraph usage for the needs of the citizens, and finally for newspapers which depended on it for the placement of speedy and accurate news. After the year 1850 Zagreb became the centre of telegraph lines. In 1854 new telegraph lines were set up: Zagreb – Karlovac, Gospić – Zadar, Trieste – Pazin – Pula; these were followed by the lines Zadar – Split – Dubrovnik, Sisak – Metković, Otočac and Kaštel Novi in 1857, Slavonski Brod in 1858 and finally Kostajnica – Nova Gradiška and Knin in 1859. In the course of time the telegraph network spread further, so that by placing submarine cables islands were linked to the coastland. As early as 1860 the islands of Cres and Vir were linked to the coast. At the end of 1918 there were as many as 400 telegraph offices in Croatia. In the first period of the development of the telegraph in Croatia, apparatuses invented by Morse, Hughes and Baudot were used.