Technology Adoption, Standardization, and Lock-In in the 19th Century U.S. Telegraph Industry

Abstract

The paper examines the economic forces that influenced technology adoption and diffusion in the American telegraph industry. Reviewing the history of innovation, standardization, and consolidation in the U.S. telegraph industry in the nineteenth century, attention is drawn to institutional factors and technological lock-in that perpetuated inefficient ways to transmit telegrams.

Keywords: standardization, network effects, lock-in, Morse code, telegraph

JEL Classification: L15, N81, O33