Nobody particularly likes to be overheard when making a private call on the phone and it seems like back in 1892, similarly with telegraph equipment, that same sort of privacy was needed.
Complaints came in from the public in May and June 1892 about the Post Office on Glasgow Road, Blantyre, on account of there not being enough privacy when collecting or sending a telegraph message. A great example of the need for early privacy regarding communications.
Miss Walker, the sub postmistress at those premises had a back room which she used to conduct her own business, not associated with the post office. It was the ideal room to set up the telegraph machine, where communications could privately be send and received without the general public seeing. An ideal place indeed, which had seen the machine being moved from near the front window, to this private back room.
However, in the months of May and June 1892, it became known to the public that three times a day, the postmen were using this back room to sort letters and could easily glance over and read incoming telegrams should they so have wished! This invasion of privacy didnt sit well with the public, some people taking to writing in to complain to the post office directly and send their opinions on the matter into the Hamilton Advertiser for publication.
I’m not sure what the solution was, but suspect privacy was quickly restored for those paying for telegrams, given how public the complaint was!
Pictured: Blantyre Post Office in a slightly later decade.
