What Hath God Wrought? Daniel Walker Howe, American Heritage. Zach Dillard

W HAT H APPENED T HAT L ED U P TO THE T ELEGRAPH ? “In 1809, a crude telegraph was invented in Bavaria by Samuel Soemmering. He used 35 wires with gold electrodes in water and at the receiving end 2000 feet the message was read by the amount of gas caused by electrolysis.” – Mary Bellis “In 1825, British inventor William Sturgeon ( ) revealed an invention that laid the foundations for a large scale evolution in electronic communications: the electromagnet.” -Before Samuel F.B. Morse came up with the telegraph, there were other inventions that set the footsteps for the communicational invention.

D ID THE T ELEGRAPH ACTUALLY CHANGE THE LIVES OF THE VAST MAJORITY OF A MERICANS ? “Most people lived on isolated farmsteads, their lives revolving around the weather and the hours of daylight. Many people grew their own food; many women made their children’s clothes.” – Daniel Walker Howe “Improvements in transportation and communication liberated people from isolation (economic, intellectual, and political) and brought Americans progressively deeper into a global economy.” – Daniel Walker Howe The following quotes stated by Daniel Walker Howe show the before and after effect of the Americans’ lives. This revolutionary invention made life all the easier. It created a better social interaction, and reduced the costs of business transactions.

D ID THE T ELEGRAPH MAKE REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES AT THE TIME AND IN THE LONG RUN ? Since the telegraph brought Americans out of isolation, it obviously made a revolutionary change in the way people communicated whether it was simply talking to a friend, or making business transactions. In the future, the trans-atlantic cable was invented and the telegraph laid the foundations for other inventions, such as the telephone.

D ID T HE T ELEGRAPH C REATE A H ISTORICAL T REND ? “Dispatching trains by telegraph started in 1851, the same year Western Union began business. In 1881, the Postal Telegraph System entered the field for economic reasons, and merged with Western Union in 1943.” – Mary Bellis Mary Bellis gives great examples of how the telegraph spread over the country and influenced how trains were regulated. Later of course, the telegraph led to the invention of the telephone, which led to the invention of cell phones.

W HAT W AS T HE O VERALL S IGNIFICANCE A BOUT T HE T ELEGRAPH ? “What Hath God Wrought?” – The first message that was sent through electric signals by the telegraph’s inventor, Samuel F.B. Morse. “In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse perfected and demonstrated his electric telegraph, a device that would make it possible to communicate rapidly over the expanse of a continental nation.” The fact that this message was sent successfully proved possible for electronic communication, which changed America and soon the rest of the world. Changing lives by bringing people out of economic, social, and political isolation was a huge significant result of the invention of the telegraph.

B IBLIOGRAPHY /S OURCES Daniel Walker Howe, American Heritage – “What Hath God Wrought?” Mary Bellis, about.inventors.com – “The History of the Telegraph and Telegraphy.” Robert A. Divine – America Past and Present Tony Long, This Day In Tech. “July 27, 1866: Trans-Atlantic Cable Connects the Old World to New.”