As the Covid-19 pandemic wears on, more and more of life has moved online — school, playdates, conferences, civic events, court proceedings, and even weddings. According to Wired, more than 450,000 couples were married between March and May 2020, at the height of coronavirus lockdowns. A whole industry has sprung up around Zoom weddings, with services like

隨著Covid-19大流行病的蔓延，越來越多的生活已轉移到網上-學校，活動日期，會議，公民活動，法院訴訟程式甚至婚禮。 根據《連線》雜誌的報道，在2020年3月至2020年5月之間，正值冠狀病毒封鎖的高峰時期，有超過450,000對夫婦結婚。 Zoom婚禮席捲整個行業， Wedfuly等服務提供專業製作的活動，包括虛擬攝影師，DJ和可容納多達1000位客人的頻寬。

Most people assume that online weddings are a new thing. But they’re not. The first online wedding occurred almost 150 years ago, in 1876.

大多數人認為為o n第婚禮是一個新事物。 但事實並非如此。 第一次線上婚禮發生在將近150年前的1876年。

As Tom Standage describes in his book The Victorian Internet, the telegraph was the hot, new technology of the time. Every bit as revolutionary and world-changing as today’s internet, the telegraph allowed people to communicate via electronic networks across vast distances almost instantaneously. Messages that would previously take up to a year to send could suddenly be sent in minutes. Even the term “online”

正如湯姆·斯坦迪奇(Tom Standage)在他的《維多利亞時代的網際網路》中所描述的那樣，電報是當時最熱門的新技術。 電報與當今的網際網路一樣具有革命性和世界變化性，它使人們幾乎可以立即通過遠距離的電子網路進行通訊。 以前可能需要一年時間才能傳送的郵件可能會在幾分鐘內突然傳送出去。 甚至“線上”一詞源於電報行業—“線路”部分指的是物理電報線路。

Faced with the possibility of calling off his wedding, Storey had an idea.

面對取消婚禮的可能性，斯托裡有個主意。

As Standage writes, people used the telegraph for nearly everything — conducting business, sending news, transferring money, and committing crimes. It was only a matter of time before someone used the brilliant new technology to conduct a remote wedding. One of the first documented couples to do so were William Storey and Clara Choate, who were married over a telegraph line in 1876. This story of their marriage is recounted in Standage’s book, as well as in the 1891 edition of the telegraph journal Western Electrician.

正如Standage所寫，人們幾乎使用電報機進行一切事情，包括開展業務，傳送新聞，匯款和犯罪。 某人使用出色的新技術進行遠端婚禮只是時間問題。 最早記錄在案的夫婦之一是威廉·斯托裡(William Storey)和克拉拉·喬特(Clara Choate)，他們於1876年通過電報線結婚。斯坦達奇的書以及1891年的電報期刊《西方電工》( Western Electrician)都講述了他們的婚姻故事。 。

At the time, Storey was serving as the telegraph operator at Camp Grant in Arizona. He applied for military leave to travel, by wagon, to San Diego to marry his fiancee, Clara Choate, who was living there with her family. His request was denied, and there was no minister to perform the ceremony at Camp Grant, or within 100 miles of the remote army base. Faced with the possibility of calling off his wedding, Storey had an idea. As a telegrapher, he knew that contracts executed over telegraph lines were binding. “Why,” he wondered, “can we not be married by telegraph?”

當時，Storey在亞利桑那州的格randint營地擔任電報運營商。 他申請馬車休假，乘貨車旅行到聖地亞哥，與未婚妻克拉拉·喬阿特(Clara Choate)結婚，後者與家人住在一起。 他的要求被拒絕，也沒有部長在格randint營地或偏遠軍隊基地100英里內舉行儀式。 面對取消婚禮的可能性，斯托裡有個主意。 作為一名電報員，他知道通過電報線路執行的合同具有約束力。 他想知道：“為什麼，我們不能通過電報結婚嗎？”

It turns out that the couple could. Storey hatched a plot to bring Choate to him at Camp Grant, and then telegraph a minister in San Diego, who would perform the ceremony remotely. Storey invited Choate to travel to Camp Grant, and she made the 650-mile wagon journey to join him in person. The couple’s plan caught the attention of Lieutenant Philip Reade, who was in charge of government telegraph lines between San Diego and Camp Grant. He apparently loved the idea of a remote wedding, and issued an order to all the operators along the line:

事實證明，夫妻倆可以。 斯托裡策劃了一個陰謀，將格randint(Choate)帶到格randint營(Camp Grant)，然後給聖地亞哥的一名電報員打電話，他將遠端執行儀式。 斯托裡邀請喬阿特前往格randint營，她進行了650英里的旅行旅程，親自與他一起。 這對夫婦的計劃引起了菲利普·裡德中尉的注意，他負責聖地亞哥和格randint營地之間的政府電報線路。 他顯然喜歡遠端婚禮的想法，並向沿線的所有操作員發出了命令：

You are hereby informed that the wires of this division after 8 pm, April 24th will be used for the purpose of conducting a marriage ceremony by telegraph between San Diego and Camp Grant, and you and your friends are specially invited to be present on the occasion, to assist if necessary and to see that good order is maintained.

特此通知您，4月24日晚上8點之後，該部門的電線將用於在聖地亞哥和格randint營地之間進行電傳婚禮，並特別邀請您和您的朋友出席該場合，以在必要時提供幫助並確保維持良好的秩序。

At 8:30 on the 24th, Storey and Choate stood together in front of the telegraph key at Camp Grant. Over 600 miles away, the Reverend Jonathan L Mann of Methodist Episcopal church stood with Choate’s father and other guests in San Diego. Choate’s father wired the message, “Greetings to our friends at Camp Grant. We are ready to proceed with the ceremony,” and the reply came back, “We are ready.”

在24日的8：30，Storey和Choate一起站在格randint營地的電報鑰匙前。 在600英里之外，循道衛理公會教堂的牧師喬納森·曼恩牧師在聖地亞哥與Choate的父親和其他客人站在一起。 Choate的父親傳達了一條資訊，“向格randint營地的朋友們致以問候。 我們已經準備好進行儀式了，”答覆又回來了，“我們已經準備好了。”

Mann read the complete wedding ceremony, which was tapped out word-for-word by an expert operator in San Diego, and read aloud by another operator at Camp Grant. Telegraphers at the time could send up to 40 words per minute according to Standage, so the reverend needed to speak slowly, but otherwise the ceremony took place almost in real time. When it was time to say “I Do,” both Storey and Choate tapped on the telegraph key, and then signed their transmissions with their names.

曼恩(Mann)閱讀了完整的婚禮，由聖地亞哥的一位專業操作員逐字逐句地朗誦，並由格randint營地的另一位操作員大聲朗讀。 根據Standage，當時的電報員每分鐘最多可以傳送40個單詞，因此牧師需要講得慢一些，否則儀式幾乎是實時進行的。 是時候說“我願意”了，斯托裡和喬特都點選了電報鍵，然後用他們的名字簽名了。

Over the wire, the reverend transmitted “As a token of your sincerity will you please join your right hands?” and the couple sent back “It is done.” Mann finished the service, and Storey and Choate were officially married. Congratulations flooded in from operators at stations all along the line, who had tuned in to assist and to witness the unique event. A band played in San Diego, and the operator at that station wired to Camp Grant that the band “is…giving you and your bride a serenade.”

通過電話線，牧師傳達“作為您的誠意，您是否願意加入您的右手？” 然後這對夫婦發回郵件說：“完成了。” 曼恩完成了服務，斯托裡和喬阿特正式結婚。 沿線各站的操作員紛紛向他們表示祝賀，他們接聽並協助並見證了這一獨特的事件。 一支樂隊在聖地亞哥舉行演出，那個電臺的接線員接到格randint營地的電話，認為該樂隊“正在……給你和你的新娘一個小夜曲。”

Storey and Choate went on to reportedly lead a happy life and had five children together. Storey made a fortune in the 1886 real estate boom in California. For the rest of his life, Western Electrician reports, Storey would often go to send a telegram, meet the operator, and hear “Storey! Let me see, wasn’t you married by telegraph? Well, well, I was a guest at your wedding. I heard the whole ceremony at the telegraph office in ________, Arizona”.

據說Storey和Choate過著幸福的生活，並育有五個孩子。 在1886年的加利福尼亞房地產熱潮中，斯托裡發了大財。 西方電工報告說，在他的餘生中，斯托裡經常去傳送電報，與接線員會面，並聽到“斯托裡！ 讓我看看，您不是通過電報結婚了嗎？ 好吧，好吧，我是你婚禮上的客人。 我在亞利桑那州________的電報局聽到了整個儀式。”

Today’s Zoom weddings are a good deal more sophisticated than Storey and Choate’s online wedding 144 years ago. If the couple’s wedding was held today, they could have heard the band that played their serenade. And while Zoom can be laggy, it can certainly transmit more than 40 words per minute.

今天的Zoom婚禮比144年前Storey和Choate的線上婚禮要複雜得多。 如果這對夫婦的婚禮今天舉行，他們可能已經聽見了演奏小夜曲的樂隊。 儘管Zoom可能比較落後，但它肯定可以每分鐘傳輸40個以上的單詞。

But the basic concept is the same as it was nearly a century and a half ago. Love endures even the craziest of circumstance. And it doesn’t wait. With a little ingenuity — and a big dose of the latest tech — couples will keep tying the knot, no matter the circumstances of the world they find themselves living in.

但是基本概念與近一個半世紀以前一樣。 愛情甚至可以忍受最瘋狂的情況。 而且它不會等待。 情侶們只要有一點點創意和大量的最新技術，無論他們生活在哪個世界的情況下，他們都將繼續保持聯絡。