Their first edition, from one to three in the morning, would be snapped up by newsboys lining up early.
The reason they could be this fast, aside from the strong information collection ability of the overseas department, was mainly due to the speed of messenger transmission.
While other newspapers were still using postal services to send manuscripts from the European Continent, The Times' agents were already waiting in Dover. When the steamships from Calais and Ostend arrived in Dover, they would immediately receive the packages and send them to London via express train.
Every major occasion, or when a headline-grabbing sudden European news occurred, The Times would even spend heavily to charter a special train to quickly transport the reports recorded by resident reporters back to London.
However, after the invention of telegraph technology, The Times had gained a more convenient and faster choice.
