Telecommuting in 1860 ?

The recent biography of Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw has a mentioning of an early telecommuting experience in the USA, pre Civil-War, in the year 1860.

Upon getting promoted to the superintendent of the Pittsburgh section of the Pennsylvania Railroad company at the very young age of 25, Andrew Carnegie returned to Pittsburgh from Altoona in 1860 and settled in the Homewood (now Point Breeze) neighborhood, eight miles away from the dark sooty air of downtown. Running the railroad was a 24 hour job, requiring him to stay in constant contact with his work crews, who were always on the job repairing broken rails. Being an experienced telegraph operator from his teens, Carnegie promptly had a telegraph extension wire installed to his house from the East Liberty railroad office which allowed him to run the business from home.

True telecommuting, 16 years before telephones were invented, and at least 110 years before the term itself was coined!

Posted at 03:02PM Apr 01, 2007 by Peter Schow in Industry  |