What is a telegraph?
The telegraph is a historical system of communication. It operatesby sending electric current through wires to relay a message. Before it came into existence, peoplehad to deliver messages on foot. Many contributors are owed credit to the development of this invention throughout the 1800s. As early as 1792,a French inventor named Claude Chappe created a non-electric telegraph system called the semaphore system. It required a visual path to the receiverand an alphabet code wielded by flags. German inventor Samuel Soemmering then formulated a rough telegraph model in 1809. His method involved sending electric currents through waterand a measurement of gas produced to encode a message. William Sturgeon later made ground-breaking discoveries in 1825, which led to the development of the electromagnet. When you apply electrical current to this type of material, it generates a magnetic field. The use of electromagnets would become an imperative element to the advancement of more modern telegraphs. Chemist Harrison Dyar sent the first American telegraph 3 years later, using litmus paper. He sent electrical currents through the paper, which is treated with special dyes, creating dot-shaped burn marks, which conveyed the message to be decoded. Another American inventor named Joseph Henryshowed the possibility of long distance transmission by telegraph in 1830. He sent an electric message over a mile,prompting the clash of a bellat receipt. Many physicists and inventors across the globe tried to enhance his method into something more commercially viable. New York University Professor Samuel Morsewas the one to successfully inventa telegraph system that would begin to be commercially used in 1838. His concept of a based on Joseph Henry’s research helped him to design “Morse Code”. By sendingelectrical current pulsations, which activatedanelectromagnet,a writing instrument wasprompted to relay a message on paper. The writing was later converted to dot marks. An experimental Morse Code message was successfully delivered from Washington to Baltimorewith themessage, “What hath God wrought”,on the 24May 1844. This spawned the production of telegraph companies all over the Nation. In 1851 Western Union was founded andtelegraphs began dispatching trains. Western Union built transcontinental lines along railways and The Postal Telegraph System soon merged with them. An Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi cleverly patented the radio telegraphy system in 1896. He converted the telegraphs’ transmitted messages into radio waves. This markedthe beginning of many modern inventions and set the groundworkfor fax, telephone, and even email. With the advent of the telephone, the telegraph faded away as newer and more innovative technology took its place. There would have been no telephone, had there been no telegraph first.
A telegraph is a machine which is used for transmitting messages in the form of electrical impulses which can be converted into data. A message sent via telegraph is called a telegram or cablegram, while someone who operates a telegraph machine is known as a telegrapher. Telegraphy was a major mode of communication from the middle of the 1800s until well into the 1900s, before ultimately being supplanted by inventions like the telephone and the Internet. The earliest version of the telegraph was developed in the late 1700s, primarily as a thought exercise. This early draft only existed on paper, but it laid the groundwork for various incarnations of the telegraph which appeared in the early 1800s. With the development of the electromagnet, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail were able to develop and patent a reliable electric telegraph system in 1837. Morse is often credited with being the inventor of the telegraph, but this is not the case. Numerous other inventors had patented various versi
