A common technical culture of telegraphy: The Telegraph Union and the significance of technological standardization 1865–1875

The Telegraph Union, founded in 1865, was the first supranational organization to link different countries with the aim of regulating a public service. Its objectives were: technological standardization, a set of regulations and the adoption of uniform international tariffs. The paper aims to establish how the Telegraph Union influenced the technical standardization process of the international network in the second half of the XIX century.