1. Communicating by Wire The Telegraph

2. Introduction  The electronic revolution in communications began in the 1800s with the invention and development of the telegraph.  Electronic signals were sent over the wires for the first time to send messages from one place to another.  Because electronic signals travel over wires at nearly the speed of light, communication of short messages became almost instantaneous.

3.  Improvements in the telegraph led to the invention and development of the telephone.  In the more than 100 years since the invention of the telephone, there have been many changes and improvements in telephone technology and service.  The telephone remains the cornerstone of modern electronic communication.

4.  The word telegraph means to draw or make signs at a distance.  The first telegraphs were optical telegraphs that signaled distant locations visually.

5.  During the French Revolution, Claude Chappe developed an optical telegraph system that used high towers located five to six miles apart.  Each tower had wooden arms that could be swung into different positions to signal messages.  The positions of the arms were read by a telegraph operator who stood at the top of the tower and read the signals through a telescope.

6.  Although there were many early electric telegraphs proposed or built in the early 1800’s, the first to have commercial success in the United States was built by Samuel F. B. Morse.  Morse’ s first telegraph used an electromagnet to deflect a pencil.  An electromagnet is a coil of wire that makes a magnetic field (force) when current flows through the wire.  The pencil made marks on a strip of paper moving under it.

7.  It became apparent that it was just as easy for an operator to interpret the clacking of the electromagnet as it was to interpret the marks made on the paper.  The telegraph became an audio rather than a visual device.

8.  In 1843, Morse got a $30,000 grant from the United States Congress to build a telegraph system between Baltimore MD and Washington, D.C.  In 1844, he finished the system and sent the first famous message, “What hath God Wrought”

9.  Soon newspaper reports were using the telegraph to send news releases.  Railroads used the telegraph to dispatch trains and set signals.  In 1856, The Western Union Company was started. In the 10 years that followed, they strung 75,000 miles of telegraph wire.

10.  The telegraph system grew very fast both in Europe and the United States.  Thousands of miles of telegraph cable were strung across the land.  Continents and islands were still isolated by the water separating them.  While some cables were laid across rivers and small lakes, the first important body of water to be spanned was the English Channel, which separates England from the rest of Europe.

11.  Other larger bodies of water were then crossed by cables.  These made larger and larger telegraph communication networks.  The big challenge was to provide instant communication across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to the United States.  This difficult task took years and years of trying and several failures before success was achieved.

12.  The first cable to be successfully laid on the ocean bed from England to North America was finished in 1858 by Cyrus Field, an American Entrepreneur.  It stopped working in less than a month but proved that transatlantic cable was possible.  In 1866, Cyrus Field laid a new transatlantic cable that was stronger and worked well.  His transatlantic cable was the first in a long series of long distance underwater cables that linked the continents to provide instant telegraphic communication.