In the Western Union in the 30s of the 20th century worked 14 thousand couriers delivering telegrams. America was on the verge of civil war and needed a reliable connection between the North and South. On the telegraph market of the USA at this time were operated with six large companies: American Telegraph Company, New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph, Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company, and the brainchild of Sibley & Co. - The Western Union Telegraph. Leaving the idea of expansion into Europe, Western Union took up the expansion of services in the U.S. market. In 1877, starting from September, New York City residents began to have the opportunity to check the time on clock with the "time ball", located on the roof of constructed in the same year a new corporate headquarters - Western Union Building. Money transfer is a matter of minutes, at any distance. By 1861 Western Union telegraph lines entangled the whole America. It's time to explore Europe. In 1933, by the Western Union Company were invented "singing telegrams". In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same.