History of the Telegraph
By Owen Grubb
In 1832 Samuel F. B. Morse, assisted by Alfred Vail, conceived of the idea for an electromechanical telegraph, which he called the "Recording Telegraph."
Electricity, provided by Joseph Henry's 1836 "intensity batteries," was sent over a wire. The flow of electricity through the wire was interrupted for shorter or longer periods by holding down the key of the device. The resulting dots or dashes were recorded on a printer or could be interpreted orally.
The first commercial telegraph line was completed between Washington, DC, and New York City in the spring of 1846 by the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Shortly thereafter, F.O.J. Smith, one of the patent owners, built a line between New York City and Boston.
At this time other telegraph systems based on rival technologies were being built. Some companies used the printing telegraph, a device invented by a Vermonter, Royal E. House, whose messages were printed on paper or tape in Roman 1851, there were over 50 separate telegraph companies operating in the United States.
By the time of the Civil War, there was a strong commercial incentive to construct a telegraph line across the western plains to link the two coasts of America. Many companies, however, believed the line would be impossible to build and maintain.
Throughout the remainder of the 1800s, the telegraph became one of the most important factors in the development of social and commercial life of America. In spite of improvements to the telegraph, however, two new inventions-the telephone (1800s) and the radio (1900s)-eventually replaced the telegraph as the leaders of the communication revolution for most Americans.
I chose this for my project because it changed the way americans lived. instead of rideing a horse for hours or even days, they could simply camunicate with a tap of a button.