Relationships Over the Hot Wires!

Being so struck with love, a woman in Boston caught her loved one in New York before his ship would sail to England. She asked him to find a magistrate, who then performed their "on-line" wedding; the first one known of. Many other relationships and flirtations were held along the wires as bored operators would send notes and jokes to eachother, sometimes in different rooms or even different states and countries. One surprising love twist was known to take place between John Stansbury, an operator in Arizona, and an acquaintance operator in California known as "MAT". The two had expressed interest in fishing over the wires and made plans to vacate together in the mountains. Stansbury became ill and delerious, unable to take the trip. After returning to consciousness, he was pleased to find a woman caring for him. He was even more pleased to find out she knew the details of their vacation as was, in fact, "MAT"; his future bride!

Not all relationships surrounding the telegraph were pleasant. The partnership formed between Wheatstone and Cooke was particularly uneasy and unpleasant. Wheatstone, prickly in character, demanded that his name always appeared first. In public he would regularly take credit alone over Cooke. As their rivalry grew, they once asked two mutual friends to act as arbitrators and decide who should be considered solely responsible for the invention of the telegraph. Both were given credit with contributing, and their bickering continued. Just before Wheatstone died in 1875 he was known to refuse the honor of the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of Arts because it was also offered to Cooke.