Date: May 05, 2003 at 21:15:16 From:Becky Morgan, [209-240-9-135.tc2.st-clairsville.oh.dial.1st.net] Subject: Re: Telegraphing?
Supposedly because the captain of the steamer "Telegraph" came up with the idea of hinging the stacks to clear low bridges (like the Wheeling Suspension Bridge.) After the bridge collapsed during a storm in (I seem to recall) 1852, the captain of the Pennsylvania made a great show of dropping his stacks as he went by the ruins. He was soundly clobbered with all the rotten vegetables the populace of Wheeling could pitch at him. That was the height of the Wheeling-Pittsburgh rivalry, during which the bathrooms in Pittsburgh were briefly called "wheelings".
