if there was to be 10, one central figure, was hiram sibley. he really did two things. he was able to convince a number of merchants and capitalist people in what seemed to be failed inventions. the telegraph corporation almost never was making money. he convinces these rochester, new york buddies from the man who helped him when he was a poor boy, he had been helped by these wealthy merchants and they're very skeptical. he convinces them to put a lot of money into the corporation that became known as western union, which he was then -- he would use the capital to buy out the number of companies. the second key insight or key innovation besides a certain amount of capital. like all the capital that is raised, at one point in time -- the other two innovations of sibley's was he figured out a way to get a monopoly in a political economy in which state governments were encouraging the establishment of lots of telegraphing. established exclusive rights contracts with individual railroads. if you can get an exclusive contract, say between detroit and chicago along a particul