In the early forties of the 20th century, Western Union has used the first time a commercial intercity microwave transmission system. The presence of Western Union Gold Card at the client greatly simplifies the process of further processing of money transfers of and reduces the operation time for the sending of money, as the "Gold Card" is a carrier of the personal information about the client. In 1920, Western Union has implemented the world's first transmission of images over the ocean. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Thanks to cooperation with Western Union the Associated Press at the end of the XIX century took almost monopolistic position in the U.S. market news. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.