Inventor: Samuel Morse

The telegraph system replaced the much slower system of using messengers on horseback which was in place at that time.  It used the technology of the electromagnet to send messages across long distances.  Joseph Henry was able to accomplish this first by sending an electric current across a mile of wires to an electromagnet on the other side which rang a bell.  Samuel Morse was then able to use this discovery in a large scale commercial level.  He used the current to change the position of a marker on the other end which would make a series of dots and dashes.  Samuel Morse was able to create an entire language using dots and dashes, which we know as Morse Code.  Both Henry and Morse worked together to create a telegraph relay or repeater that made long distance communication possible.  Morse was also the first pioneer in “wireless” communication.  Although wireless signals today travel through the air, Morse was able to successfully transmit a signal through water.  The telegraph was the predecessor to the telephone, which has revolutionized communication to this day.

*Pictures from <http://www.ptti.ru/eng/museum/n3.html>

SOURCES:

Bellis, Mary. “The History of the Telegraph and Telegraphy”, 17 Jan 2004, < http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelegraph.htm>

• This page has a concise description of the origins of the telegraph

Cellular-news.  “History of Wireless Telecoms”, 17 Jan 2004, <http://www.cellular-news.com/history_of_telecoms/history_
of_cellphones.shtml>

• This site is a timeline of important events in communications technology