telegraph

the first telegraph

1794

The first telegraph was devised by Claude Chappe in 1794, although it was not an electric telegraph. Fundamentally it was a visual system that used a flag based on the alphabet and needed a line of sight for communication.

the electric telegraph

1809

Later, this system was replaced by the electric telegraph. In 1809 a new telegraph was created in Bavaria by Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring. This German physicist used 35 cables with gold electrodes in water. The communication ended at a distance of about 609 meters, and was detected by the amount of gas produced by electrolysis.

the making of the electromagnet

1825

the foundations for the large-scale development of electronic communications were established in 1825, with the making of the electromagnet by physicist William Sturgeon. Showed the power of the electromagnet thanks to the lifting of about 4 kg. using only a piece of iron of about 200 gr. that it was covered with cables through which the current of a battery flowed. However, the power of the electromagnet is its role in the fabrication of countless inventions in the future.

tthe first US telegraph

1828

In 1828, the chemist and inventor Harrison Gray Dyar invented the first US telegraph, which sent electric sparks thanks to a paper tape that was chemically treated to record points and dashes.

he potential of the Sturgeon electromagnet

1830

In 1830, the American physicist Joseph Henry taught the potential of the Sturgeon electromagnet for an employee in long-distance communications. For this, an electronic communication was sent through a cable that measured 1.6 kilometers that activated an electromagnet, which rang a campaign.

perfected the invention of Joseph Henry

1830

it was the American Samuel Morse who engineered the electromagnet and perfected the invention of Joseph Henry.Samuel was an inventor and painter, made the sketches of a magnetized magnet in Henry's work. He was a teacher of art and design at New York University, Morse proved that signals could be transferred by cable. He used current pulses to deflect an electromagnet, was responsible for moving a marker to generate codes written on a strip of paper (what is known as Morse code).

Telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore.

1838

Samuel Morse held a public demonstration in 1838, but had to wait five years for Congress to finance the project and give him $ 30,000 to build a 64-kilometer experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore.

Improvement of Samuel Morse's original telegraph

1844

This button is from 1844-1845 and was developed by Alfred Vail as an improvement of Samuel Morse's original telegraph. Alfred Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving electrical signals on a cable, as they were able to demonstrate successfully in 1844.

First telegram

1844

First telegram sent by Samuel Morse in 1844

first transcontinental telegraph line

1881

In 1861, Western Union manufactured its first transcontinental telegraph line through railroad tracks. In 1881, the telegraphic postal system reached rural areas for economic reasons, and was linked to Western Union in 1943.

the original morse code

1914

The original Morse code was printed on a ribbon. However, in the United States it is the key-by-ear operation. Life cycle between 40 and 50 words per minute. The automatic transmission was introduced in 1914 and got more double that amount.