Samuel Morse initially tried using a system of numbers for words that would indent on a paper tape as the electric current was sent through the wire (Kovarik 197). He continued to develop his idea and sought ways to simplify it. This led to the invention of using dots and dashes for letters, which is known as Morse code to this day. Morse now looked for investors to get funding for his telegraph. Eventually, Congress approved a patent in 1842, and the first official telegram using Morse code was sent on May 24, 1844 (“Imagining the Internet”). The demonstration was a wide success, and public enthusiasm for the telegraph grew in the United States. With this success and funding, Morse founded the Magnetic Telegraph Company in 1845. At the same …show more content…
For example, the United States saw the most rapid growth, starting at one forty-mile long line that Morse established in 1846 to an astonishing 12,000 miles just four years later (Crowley and Heyer 105). In 1852, the network grew to 23,000 miles. Alongside the number of miles established, independent telegraph companies also rose to take advantage of the telegraph boom. As many as twenty companies owned telegraph lines in the United States in 1852, and it is estimated that at one point, over 500 companies competed in the market (Kovarik 199). Soon, one company rose above the rest in dominance: the Western Union. Some estimates place that between 1857 and 1867, the Western Union “grew 11,000 percent” (“Imagining the Internet”). In 1870, most of the telegraph wires in the United States, approximately 120,000 miles worth, were owned by the company (Kovarik 199). In Britain, growth of the telegraph was not as fast, but still present. In 1850, 2,215 miles of telegraph wire were in Britain. New companies and competition for the Electric Telegraph Company rose, pushing expansion of the telegraph (Crowley and Heyer 107). Initially only being built along railways, private British companies started branching off independently. However, unlike the United States, the British government stepped in and made the telegraph a federal entity, transitioning away from private companies to a system akin to the federal postal system (Kovarik