“Reconstructing the Jehus”: How the Telegraph Tamed “the Hack Nuisance” in San Francisco

Abstract

In the late 1870s, the American District Telegraph (ADT) in San Francisco introduced an intra-urban telegraph network, marketed to businesses and upper-class homes. Subscribers, needing no knowledge of telegraphy, used dial-to-order preset services, such as messengers, police, and coal delivery. One of the service’s most noted innovations was the ability to summon hired carriages through the call box. To provide hack service through its network, the ADT bought up many of the city’s carriages and consolidated them into the United Carriage Company (UCC), one of the first dispatch-oriented cab fleets anywhere. By controlling cab dispatch, the UCC also promised to reform the unruly occupation of hackdrivers. Although the telegraph box was soon supplanted by the telephone, it had put in motion a reorganization of the city’s cab industry, which quickly became intricated with the politics of class and control in public space.