Beatrice Lang
The electric telegraph was a groundbreaking invention that revolutionised long-distance communication in the 19th century. Before its advent, sending messages across long distances relied on physical transportation methods such as mail or visual signalling systems, which were slow and inefficient. The development of the electric telegraph emerged from a scientific evolution in the field of electricity, with early experiments in electrical telegraphy dating back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While Samuel Morse is often credited as the inventor of the electric telegraph, he built upon the work of earlier pioneers such as Joseph Henry and Charles Wheatstone, who made significant contributions to the field of telegraphy.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Year | 1813 |
| Inventor | No clear inventor, but Georges-Louis Le Sage created an early electric telegraph in 1774. |
| Other notable developments in 1813 | N/A |
| Later key developments | 1820: Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that a magnetic needle could be deflected by an electric current. |
| 1825: William Sturgeon discovered the multiturn electromagnet. | |
| 1831: Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry refined electromagnetism, making it possible to design practical electromagnetic devices. | |
| 1837: Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone obtained a patent for a telegraph system. | |
| 1837: Samuel F.B. Morse gained confidence in his system and applied for federal government funding. | |
| 1838: Samuel Morse invented the Morse system and code. | |
| 1844: Samuel Morse sent his famous message "What hath God wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore. | |
| 1850: Submarine telegraph cables allowed for rapid communication between continents. | |
| 1861: Western Union built its first transcontinental telegraph line. | |
| 1894: Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraphy, the first means of radiowave telecommunication. |
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What You'll Learn
Samuel Morse's electric telegraph
The electric telegraph was invented by Samuel Finley Breese Morse, who was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1791. He was a former portrait painter who turned to inventing to make his fortune.
Morse's interest in telegraphy began in 1832, when he was travelling from Europe to the United States on a ship and he overheard a conversation about electromagnetism. This inspired his idea for an electric telegraph. He developed a working model of an electric telegraph between 1832 and 1837, using crude materials such as a homemade battery and old clockwork gears. He also acquired two partners, Leonard Gale, a professor of science at New York University, and Alfred Vail, who offered his mechanical skills and his family's New Jersey ironworks to help construct better telegraph models.
Morse's first telegraph device, unveiled in 1837, used a one-wire system, which produced an EKG-like line on tickertape. By the following year, he had developed an improved system; he created a dot-and-dash code that used different numbers to represent the letters of the English alphabet and the ten digits. This coding system was significantly better, as it did not require printing or decoding but could be "sound read" by operators. In 1838, at an exhibition of his telegraph in New York, Morse transmitted ten words per minute using the Morse code that would become standard worldwide.
In 1842, Morse convinced Congress to provide $30,000 in support of his plan to "wire" the United States. On May 11, 1844, Morse sent the first intercity message from the chamber of the Supreme Court to the Mount Clair train depot in Baltimore. The message, borrowed from the Bible, was "What hath God wrought?". This successful test of the electromagnetic telegraph changed the potential for worldwide communication forever.
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Earlier visual telegraphs
The idea behind the telegraph originated in the early 1700s, and by 1798 a rough system was used in France. Visual telegraphs or "semaphore" systems were used to communicate over distances before the invention of the electric telegraph. Visual signals given by flags, torches, smoke, fire, drums, and reflected rays of the sun were used for short-range communication. In the 18th century, such systems used an observer who would decipher a signal from a high tower on a distant hill and then send it on to the next station.
One of the earliest electric telegraphs was realised by Georges-Louis Le Sage in 1774. The telegraph had a separate wire for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, but its range was limited to two rooms in his home. In 1800, Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, providing a continuous current of electricity for experimentation. This became a source of a low-voltage current that could be used to produce more distinct effects and was far less limited than the momentary discharge of an electrostatic machine.
Another early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an "electrochemical telegraph" created by the German physician, anatomist, and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering in 1809, based on an earlier 1804 design by Spanish polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo. Messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometres, with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid.
In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted of Denmark discovered that an electric current produces a magnetic field that will deflect a compass needle. In the same year, Johann Schweigger invented the galvanometer, with a coil of wire around a compass, that could be used as a sensitive indicator for an electric current.
In 1831, Joseph Henry published an article containing details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph. In 1832, Samuel F. B. Morse, a professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York (later New York University), became interested in the possibility of electric telegraphy and made sketches of ideas for such a system. In 1835 he devised a system of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers, and in 1837 he was granted a patent on an electromagnetic telegraph.
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The impact of the electric telegraph
The electric telegraph was one of the first telecommunications technologies of the industrial age. It revolutionised communication by transmitting information quickly over long distances. The technology was based on earlier experiments in electrical telegraphy, such as the electrostatic telegraph proposed in 1753 by an anonymous writer in the Scots Magazine, and Georges-Louis Le Sage's early electric telegraph in 1774, which used a separate wire for each letter of the alphabet.
The electric telegraph superseded optical telegraph systems, becoming the standard way to send urgent messages in the 1840s. It allowed instant communication over vast distances for the first time in human history. By the 1850s, the telegraph cable was stretched from coast to coast, reducing the time taken to send messages from days, weeks, or months to just minutes. This had a profound impact on politics and business, which had previously been constrained by geography. The world became much smaller, and knowledge of national and international news improved.
The electric telegraph also facilitated the growth of railroads, consolidated financial and commodity markets, and reduced information costs within and between firms. It was used by railway companies to provide signals for train control systems, minimising the chances of train collisions.
The first extensive telegraph network was the visual telegraph, invented by the Frenchman Claude Chappe in 1791. However, the electric telegraph quickly rendered it obsolete. By the 1860s, the telegraph was widely used, with Western Union operating 44,000 miles of wire in 1864. The Morse system, invented by Samuel Morse in 1838, became the standard for international communication in 1865.
The electric telegraph was eventually replaced by newer technologies such as the telephone, radio, and the internet and email in the 1990s. However, it laid the foundation for modern telecommunications and transformed the way people communicated and accessed information.
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The evolution of the telegraph
The idea behind the telegraph—sending electric signals across wires—originated in the early 1700s, and by 1798 a rough system was used in France. In 1800, Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, providing a continuous current of electricity for experimentation. This became a source of low-voltage current that could be used to produce more distinct effects and was far less limited than the momentary discharge of an electrostatic machine.
In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted discovered that an electric current produces a magnetic field that will deflect a compass needle. The same year, Johann Schweigger invented the galvanometer, with a coil of wire around a compass, that could be used as a sensitive indicator for an electric current. An early electric telegraph was realised by Georges-Louis Le Sage in 1774, with a separate wire for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, but its range was limited to two rooms in his home.
In 1832, New York University professor Samuel F.B. Morse began working on his version of the telegraph. He developed Morse Code, a set of sounds that corresponded to particular letters of the alphabet, in 1835. By 1837, Morse had enough confidence in his new system to apply for federal government appropriation, and during the next year, he conducted tests. In 1838, he presented his concept to the US and invented the archetype of the Morse system and the code associated with it. In 1844, the first message was sent with the system: "What hath God wrought?".
In 1850, submarine telegraph cables allowed for the first rapid communication between people on different continents. The telegraph's nearly instant transmission of messages across continents had widespread social and economic impacts. The electric telegraph led to Guglielmo Marconi's invention of wireless telegraphy, the first means of radiowave telecommunication, in 1894.
In the early 20th century, manual operation of telegraph machines was slowly replaced by teleprinter networks. The increasing use of the telephone pushed telegraphy into only a few specialist uses, and its use by the general public dwindled to greetings for special occasions. The rise of the internet and email in the 1990s largely made dedicated telegraphy networks obsolete.
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Other key inventors
While Samuel Morse is often credited as the inventor of the electric telegraph, he built upon earlier concepts and technologies in the field of telegraphy. Many other inventors contributed to the development of the electric telegraph, which was the result of a scientific evolution that had been taking place since the 18th century.
One of the earliest electric telegraphs was realised by Georges-Louis Le Sage in 1774. Le Sage's telegraph had a separate wire for each letter of the alphabet, and it could only transmit messages between two rooms of his home. In 1800, Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile, providing a continuous current of electricity for experimentation. This became a source of low-voltage current that could be used to produce more distinct effects and was far less limited than previous sources of electricity. Another early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an "electrochemical telegraph" created by the German physician, anatomist, and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering in 1809, based on an earlier 1804 design by Spanish polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo.
In 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted of Denmark discovered that an electric current produces a magnetic field that will deflect a compass needle. This discovery was a key development in the creation of the electric telegraph. In the same year, Johann Schweigger invented the galvanometer, which could be used as a sensitive indicator for an electric current. In 1825, William Sturgeon discovered the multiturn electromagnet, and in 1831, Michael Faraday of Britain and Joseph Henry of the United States made significant contributions to the science of electromagnetism, providing a foundation for the design of practical electromagnetic devices.
In 1837, British inventors Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone obtained a patent for a telegraph system that employed six wires and five needle pointers. This system became the first commercial needle telegraph and the most widely used of its type. Morse's system, which he patented in 1838, became the standard for international communication in 1865. However, Morse's work was influenced by that of Joseph Henry, who had published details suggesting the idea of an electric telegraph in 1831. Henry's experiments and advice, along with the assistance of Leonard D. Gale and Alfred Vail, were key to Morse's success.
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Frequently asked questions
Samuel F.B. Morse is often credited as the inventor of the electric telegraph. However, he built upon earlier concepts and technologies in the field of telegraphy.
The first two practical electric telegraphs were invented at almost the same time in 1837. One was invented by British inventors Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone, and the other by Samuel F.B. Morse.
The electric telegraph revolutionised communication, providing a faster and more efficient means of transmitting messages over long distances. It used coded signals to send messages over wires. In Morse's system, the sender would input the message on a telegraph key, which produced electrical impulses corresponding to the code. The impulses were transmitted through wires to the receiving end, where an operator would decode the electrical signals by listening to clicks produced by an electromagnet and transcribing them into letters and words using a Morse code chart.
