The Telegraph : The First Form Of Communications And Rise Of Modern Technological Networks

Ben Franklin was a very curious and inventive thinker. He kept thinking about different ways to experiment with electricity so he came up with an experiment with only a few materials (wire,mobile kite, handkerchief,and two sticks).(”Benjamin Franklin and Electricity”) Franklin

Since the first Transatlantic telegraph cable was laid out in 1858, the world as we know has continued to shrink (Mercer, 2006, p.17). Suddenly people could communicate around the world almost instantly, sharing information, ideas, or just greetings. This trend continued when Alexander Graham

The telegraph quickly became popular between people that wanted to send messages over long distances easier and faster than ever before. The telegraph also improved ways of communicating across continents. The first telegraph line was laid across the Atlantic Ocean in 1866; later in 1940 40 lines were laid across the Atlantic Ocean. History.com also states that:

The telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse in 1844, and telegraph wires soon sprang up all along the East Coast” (http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/civil-war-innovations/). During the Civil War, there were 15,000 miles of cables laid for the telegraph, mainly for military reasons. The telegraph also helped news reporters to be able to spread the news more quickly. Obviously now we don’t use telegraphs anymore, but since the Civil War technology has developed and now the telegraph has basically become the telephone. Today, we have updated the telegraph to fit modern society, but the basic principle of the telegraph is still used

The Era of 1800 to 1860 proved to be some of the most technologically advanced years of the 19th century. This Era saw a rapid technological change in communications, travel. Through these advances helped the United States grow and prosper. Communication was now possible from the most populated to the least populated areas of the country. Telegraph wires stretched from north to south and east to west. The introduction of the Pony Express allowed the physical movement of mail from the east to as far west as California and as far North as Wyoming. Transportation was at its heyday, via water, rail or land, people moved across the country faster than any other time in history. This era showed

In the book, The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s On-line Pioneers, author Tom Standage discusses the highly anticipated discovery and advancement of the telegraph telegraphic communications. Mr. Standage is a well-known and reputable British deputy editor at The Economist who specializes in science and technology. The meticulous and informative selection about historical communication, The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage presents an ideal title, which reminds the people that today’s Internet is just an interpretation of what had already been discovered and that its controversies

Before railroads, cities were normally built on coasts or rivers, because the most effective way to ship goods was by boat. Traveling on land required horses and wagons, that mean it took extremely long time and had very low capacity. This meant that people could not transport fresh goods nor big loads of foods more than a few miles. Many people settled nearby rivers and coasts, so that they can receive goods they needed, or they could ship anything they produced. By 1828, the nation's first commercial railroad began, 32 years later the railroad network had grown to 30,000 miles long. It offered fast, reliable, had massive capacity, and made inland trade possible. Then cities began to emerge along the railroad lines, and big numbers of people began to move to these new cities for profit and new opportunities west of the Mississippi River. During the same time, the telegraph made it possible for much smoother communication throughout the nation. Using Morse code, a method of transmitting messages could be sent over electric wires, with each letter and number represented by its own pattern of electrical pulses. Initially, the telegraph was a service meant for businesses, and especially newspapers, rather than personals. It help speed the flow of information and brought uniformity to prices throughout the

Technological improvements saw an increase in the ease of communication and transportation. In terms of making a big world smaller, the 1870s saw two of America’s most famous inventors make their mark: Alexander Graham Bell, with the telephone, and Thomas Edison, with the electric light bulb. Before Bell, the primary means of communication was with a pen and

The inventor that I chose for this project is Samuel Morse, born April 27, 1791, who invented the electric telegraph in 1835 with the help and inspirations of others such as Alfred Vail.

At the peak of expansion in the 1800’s, communication between the east and west was at the forefront of importance. A document from the State of Pennsylvania regarding railways in 1825 remarked that there is extreme “importance and necessity of effecting a communication between the eastern and western divisions of the commonwealth” (Wade, 5). The appearance of the railroads in the early 19th century decreased and nearly diminished the communication gap as it provided a reliable and speedy method of communication. As the railroads became more prominent across the United States, the western states naturally became linked to the Midwestern and eastern states through the Union Pacific Railroad. This railroad running from the east coast to the west coast opened up new doors in trans-continental communication. Businesses between the east and the west were able to communicate more effectively, and thus, trans-continental trade became more defined throughout the United States. The mail services began using railroads as well, which was a large factor in improving communication across the US. Trans-continental communication was broadened simply by the increased number of people traveling across the country. And, even when the railroads seemed an impractical method of transportation, “they might make possible long

Samuel Morse designed the Telegraph in 1835, which was used as a means of communication from Washington DC to Baltimore and later to Maryland. The telegraph was a breakthrough in the communication, and this contributed to economic growth because it transformed the long distance communication. With the introduction of the telegraph, communication was made easy as the traders and the settlers could communicate with other people across the continent. Apart from the Telegraph, the US postal service was used, which enhanced how information was shared among people thus strengthening the growth of the US economy. Moreover, the improvement of communication systems helped in information dispersal in the field of transport and agriculture (Lindert & Williamson, 2016). In addition, farmers moved into large markets where they could exchange their products with manufacturers thus expanding their trade, and advancing the American economy. Therefore, the changes in the communication systems with the use of the telegraph and postal services improved trade throughout the country thus improving the

Before the invention of the telegraph in 1844 by Samuel Morse and his colleagues, news and messages traveled at a much more laborious and protracted rate. While businesses and individuals could communicate by interpersonal communication through

The telegraph was the first major advancement in communication technology. In 1838, Samuel Morse perfected and demonstrated the first telegraph machine. His machine used Morse code to send electronic currents along a wire, allowing the first high speed long distance communications. By the 1850s, the telegraph was widespread. In 1861, Western Union installed the first trans-continental line and by 1866, the first trans-Atlantic line was completed. At this time, telegraphs were all keyed by hand and transcribed from Morse code to English by ear. Fredrick Creed invented a way to convert Morse code into text in what became known as the Creed Telegraph System. That was in 1900, and by 1914, these automatic transmissions handled twice what a

As communication has evolved from Ancient times of cravings in rocks to pictograph, ideograms and alphabets to 1500 -1800 where printing was invented. Now for the 19th through the 21st Century communications is far more efficient from postage to radio broadcasting to internet which has become an important form of communication.

The telegraph did wonders to speed up process of communication; however, it was still not ideal for everyday interaction between families and neighbors. The telegraph Morse invented was a single telegraph, sending one message at a time, so Alexander Graham Bell tried to create a multiple telegraph, sending more than one message over the same wire. At the same time, Bell and Thomas Watson, an electrician, were working on another idea in secret – the telephone. On June 2, 1875, Alexander Graham Bell discovered he could hear a sound over an electric wire, the sound of a twanging clock spring. On March 10, 1876, Bell explained in his notebook entry that his experiment was finally successful. That day he said the famous first words spoken into a telephone, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” Finally solving the problems of the telegraph, Bell invented the telephone. The telegraph system was in place for about thirty years already, taking the telephone quite