I was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, but I have never heard any mention of the Philadelphia Reading and Pottsville Telegraph Company or PR&PT. As I found more and more information, it was obvious to me that I should put it down in book form. This book consists of many articles written in the 1800s and 1900s by various people or organizations. As transportation progresses from stage coach to canals and finally to the railroads, so does the communication systems of the US progress. Messages that would take days, weeks or months now are carried over a wire called the telegraph in minutes! No longer does geographical separation isolate communities. This book looks at this phenomenon on a rather micro-level with Reading, Pennsylvania at the center, but the whole world was morphing in to a smaller place at the same time.