The telegraph is a piece of equipment used to transmit information in a form different than the traditional written form of the time. The very first telegraphs were optical in nature, and involved the use of smoke signals to send messages. They were also capable of sending reflected light.
The telegraph has a very long history dating back to 1794 when Claude Chappe first invented a non-electric telegraph. This early telegraph used a flag-based alphabet and depended on the line of sight in order to communicate. This dated telegraph was soon replaced by another telegraph in 1804, which used many wires and electrodes which were placed in water. This telegraph was invented by Sam Soemmering.
Nineteen years later in 1828, a telegraph created by Harrison Dyar was made in the United States. This telegraph used electric sparks traveling through paper, producing dots and dashes.
However, it was a British scientist, William Sturgeon who laid the groundwork for future inventions where electromagnets were used in the telegraph. Used with wires, Sturgeon’s electromagnet was able to send current thanks to its use with a single battery.
In the 1840’s however, it was Samuel Morse who was able to improve on previous electromagnetic telegraphs. Originally, in 1835, Morse was able to prove that signals could be sent through wires. With his studies, Morse was able to show that current could deflect the electromagnet causing signals or codes to be produced on paper. These codes became known as the Morse code and were improved upon the next year when the codes became a series of dots and dashes.
Morse’s invention originally allowed for the sending of codes for approximately forty miles. Eventually with help from colleagues, Morse was able to extend his telegraph line as far away as Philadelphia and New York. Originally able to transmit forty to fifty words a minute, the newer Morse telegraph lines were able to transmit twice as much.
While Morse’s telegraph was spreading, some smaller companies’ telegraphs were spreading around the country, with Western Union building its first transcontinental line in 1861.
In the early 1900’s Western Union was able to create a system where eight messages were able to be transmitted at the same time. A few years later Western Union was able to introduce its first automatic devices. Around 1959 Western Union was able to offer its subscribers something called TELEX, a system where people could talk to each other more directly.
TELEX used a rotary phone type system to send messages, a system first employed in Germany in the 1930’s. This method, which was used to great success by Western Union in the United States, was one of the most cost effective methods for transmitting messages across long distances.
Source: Wikipedia
