Re: [DL] News propagation

["John" <JNOVO@prodigy.net>]

Since I learned the following fact in a high school history class, I dont
have any references for this information (though I can work on that, if you
need verification) but the War of 1812 was over 12 days before word got out
to some of the battleships near the Gulf of Mexico, but I'm guessing that
since the invention of the telegraph and other such instruments, information
was passed on a little more quickly, so my guess would be that regionally,
4-6 days, and maybe up to 2 weeks nation wide.  I'll do some research on
that and post my findings.

John

>How quickly would news of noteworthy events (presidential
>elections, major battles, the second coming) propogate from coast
>to coast?  News could conceivably travel within hours through the
>telegraph.  As far as I know the modern "wire service" didn't
>exist yet, so I'm not  who would have incentive to send articles
>out to other cities. Given that the news would need to make it's
>way through multiple nations, things might take a bit longer.
>
>My best guess is a few days, and that the information travels
>by a mix of hand delivery and wire.  Does anyone else have an
>opinion, or even better, some facts?
>
>--
>Alan De Smet  -  chaos@highprogrammer.com  -
http://highprogrammer.com/alan
>