1980 - for the first time in the history of Western Union revenues from money transfers exceeded the income from the telegraph service. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. 1970 - a new service called In 1879 Western Union left the telephone business after losing a lawsuit against Alexander Graham Bell - the patent holder on the phone. The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.