On November 15, 1867, the first stock ticker (named for the sound its type wheel made) debuted on the NYSE. Invented by Edward Augustus Calahan of the Gold & Stock Telegraph Company in 1863, it enabled stock price quotes to be printed on streams of paper, allowing for the first time, seamless transmitted price updates directly from the exchange floors to brokers and investors across the country.

Prior to Calahan’s invention, messengers literally ran with stock price updates from the exchange floor to brokers’ offices but with the stock ticker, the NYSE could telegraph the name and price of the stock sold, allowing for wider dissemination of market actions. The stock ticker also served as a catalyst for later inventions that eased the way for the growth of the NYSE via a centralized order flow and improved liquidity – consolidating a business that had been scattered amongst other exchanges.

Born in Boston, Edward Calahan was just another school dropout … who changed the course of communication history. At the tender age of eleven, he worked as a telegrapher for what is now the Western Union Company. He was promoted to Chief Telegrapher at Western Union’s NYC office then a chance encounter with a group of scurrying messenger boys near one of the many New York based exchanges inspired Calahan to find a better method to convey financial data.

news@doubledownmedia.com

11/7/07