History Of The Telegraph

The telegraph was the first form of communication that could be sent from a great distance and was a landmark in human history. For the first time man could communicate with another from a great distance changing everything from how wars were fought to how people dated and fell in love. It’s creation, along with the steam engine, was one of the key inventions to the industrial age. Letters took hours, day, and even months to arrive at their destination making most information irrelevant. However, with the advent of the telegraph, messages were transmitted instantaneously, and as it became ever more efficient the telegraph was able to relay more complex messages farther and farther till it connected people from around the world by pressing a few buttons.
In 1843, Morse and Vail received funding from the U.S. Congress to set up and test their telegraph system between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent Vail the historic first message: “What hath God wrought!” The telegraph system subsequently spread across America and the world, aided by further innovations. Among these improvements

However, widespread and successful use of the device required a unified system of telegraph stations among which information could be transmitted. The Western Union Telegraph Company, founded in part by Cornell, was at first only one of many such companies that developed around the new medium during the 1850s. By 1861, however, Western Union had laid the first transcontinental telegraph line, making it the first nationwide telegraph company. Telegraph systems spread across the world, as well. Extensive systems appeared across Europe by the later part of the 19th century, and by 1866 the first permanent telegraph cable had been successfully laid across the Atlantic Ocean; there were 40 such telegraph lines across the Atlantic by