Electrical Telegraph is a device that uses electrical signals to instantaneously send and receive messages over great distances via telecommunication lines or radio. The originator of this way of communication was electromagnetic telegraph from early years of 19th century which enabled first transfer of coded messages between vast amounts of land. Electrical telegraph (most commonly called just telegraph) was first introduced by several scientists from United States and America, but most common name associated with it is Samuel Morse who won the patent rights to this device and was one of the contributors in the creation of Morse code. This new technology and Morse's coded language enabled human race to start instantly communicating with one another across continents and oceans, creating great impact into our social and economic way of life.
The early days of telegraph started in mid 1750s when scientist started exploring the properties of electricity. French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet conducted an experiment by gathering around 200 monks in a circle. After discharging electricit...
Wireless is a methodical account of the early development of wireless telegraphy and the inventors who made it possible. Sungook Hong examines several early significant inventions, including Hertzian waves and optics, the galvanometer, transatlantic signaling, Marconi's secret-box, Fleming's air-blast key and double transformation system, Lodge's syntonic transmitter and receiver, the Edison effect, the thermionic valve, and the audion and continuous wave. Wireless fills the gap created by Hugh Aitken, who described at length the early development of wireless communication, but who did not attempt "to probe the substance and context of scientific and engineering practice in the early years of wireless" (p. x). Sungook Hong seeks to fill this gap by offering an exhaustive analysis of the theoretical and experimental engineering and scientific practices of the early days of wireless; by examining the borderland between science and technology; depicting the transformation of scientific effects into technological artifacts; and showing how the race for scientific and engineering accomplishment fuels the politic of the corporate institution. While the author succeeds in fulfilling these goals, the thesis, it seems, is to affirm Guglielmo Marconi's place in history as the father of wireless telegraphy.
“Electricity”─ It’s a word you did not hear often before the 1920’s. With the invention of the hydroelectric dam in the early 1920’s many citizens could now afford electricity in their homes. Along with that came inventions such as the telephone, revolutionizing the way that we communicated. Before the telephone, communication could only happen through mail. Depending on the situation, that could take 6-7 days. Then came inventions like the electric refrigerator, stove, iron and radio.
He used a comparison pattern to describe telegraph invention with the internet, and how was more important to invent this device similar to the internet invention. Reading through the book gives a different criterion of the implementation and evolution of the telegraph device in Europe and United States. Although Standage’s book lacks deep technical aspects, he tells the story of telegraph invention in simple and interesting chronical way. In fact, he started his first chapter by mentioning the rumors of inventing a magical device to transfer letter between people mile apart in the late of the sixteen century. By 1791 two French scientist brothers Claude and Rene Chappe invented the first version of the Telegraph. The working principle of this device was mechanical and optical, which had failed in the dark. The Chappe brothers continued their trials until 1793 they succeeded to invent the first dependable device to transmit messages over long distances. At this time, the telegraph first named tachygraph from the Greek word tachy which means fast, then they changed to telegraph. The new invention became fully operational by 1794, where it played an important role to send a report of the capture of town from the Austrians and Prussians. The success of using the telegraph in civilian and military matter encouraged Napoleon to build wider telegraph network by 1804. During the nineteen century, the telegraph machine evolved to a wider global communication network to cross the continents especially in England and the United States, where Samuel Morse developed a newer version of the telegraph by
The tools of communication have long served a single purpose, that of transmitting information from people to people. Direct communication was long ago realised with sign language and speech, but when people spread out, a kind indirect communication was needed. Thus we created (or rather, hired) the messenger. (Necessity is the mother of invention.) This evolved later into a postal service, connected around the world by a network of synchronised offices of a similar nature. For a long time, indirect communication was the only way to communicate over long distances. Once the telegraph came along, however, people were able to instantly communicate information over long distances. This evolved somewhat into the telephone, which spawned the radio and television. As these were developed, the efficiency and clarity of these transmissions improved, and this allowed the world to know what was happening anywhere else in the world at any given time.
From a young age, Edison was always very enamored by the thought of the telegraph. This was an electric machine that was used to send messages back and forth in the form of dots and dashes. Longer or shorter dashes stood for different letters, and put together, they created words (Barnham). Though Edison had started out with simple jobs that didn’t take much time or effort, he eventually became a professional telegrapher. Only later on did he realize his real calling in life was to become an inventor.
A device that used electric signals to communicate a message through a wire. Allowed people to talk about ideas and the price of goods across the country.
The telegraph was one way of communicating, they would send messages, through were it was used to warn the others on what was going to happen or in other occasions what was happening. The telegraph had many impacts in our society, it impacted markets, farms, news, and even the government. For them at that time was an incredible invention, because the news would spread even more easier and faster and wouldn't have to wait for the news to get to them. In that era or time period having the telegraph helped in many different ways for them the telegraph was an amazing creation.
Edison got his idea for the recorder when he worked as a telegraph operator at the Western Union office in Indianapolis. He figured out that during a night shift he could couple together two old Morse registers to capture incoming codes for later retrieval. He could sleep during his shift and catch up on messages later. (RCA Online 2)
Morse Code is named after painter and founder of the National Academy of Design, Samuel F. B. Morse, who lived from 1791 to 1872. He, along with Alfred Vail, a machinist and inventor, and the physicist Joseph Henry developed the electromagnetic telegraph along with the code that assigns a set of dots and dashes or short and long pulses to each letter of the English alphabet. The first telegraph that successfully worked was produced in 1836 and made transmissions and communication possible over any distance. The first Morse Code message was "What hath God wrought?" and was sent from Washington to Baltimore in 1844.
It worked by sending a series of electrical signals, also known as the Morse code. It became very popular and widely spread means of communication (Gibson, n.d.). After the telegraph, Alexander Grandbell (Gibson, n.d) invented the telephone.
Communication was largely relegated to envoys, land mail, and letters carried on ships before the development of the telegraph. These methods of communication took as "little" time as a few weeks, or as much time as a few months to reach their intended recipient. This is less than ideal because it does not allow vital information, such as political and military occurrences, to be relayed in time for government officials to provide feedback and advice on the matters at hand. The delayed delivery also makes it so that leaders may not have an accurate understanding of the current status of the party that is sending the message. In an area that was as unknown as Africa, being knowledgeable about the current status of the colonies was paramount. The telegraph, couples with the undersea cable, made it so information, such as "commercial and military requirements, administrative decisions, and news" could be relayed in the span of a few hours. In conjunction with the addition of transportation infrastructure, particularly railroads, goods and troops could be relocated to areas of higher need in far less time than before the Industrial
On March 10th, 1876, a revolutionary invention was created by Alexander Graham Bell. The telephone was invented to send vibrations from one receiver to another electrically (History.com ‘Speech Transmitted by Telephone’ accessed on March 11, 2014), and due to Alexander Graham Bell accidentally discovering that he could hear the sound of a ‘clock spring twanging’ (Marry Bellis, ‘The History of the Telephone’ accessed on March 11, 2014), that was possible. The invention of the telephone permitted new levels of communication, allowed families connect around the world, and improved military systems, but also served negative consequences, such as breached privacy. If two people wanted to have a conversation, they would have to write letters back and forth, but with the telephone they were able to pick up the receiver, dial the number, and be connected in a matter of minutes. Telephones enabled long-distance communication, which allowed families to converse despite their location. Military officials and soldiers were also able to stay in touch through field telephones as well as keep contact with the president. Although telephones were originally placed in general stores or other major city locations and homes/neighborhoods that were wired (Elon.edu ‘World Changes Due to the Telephone’ accessed on April 2, 2014), telephones became commonly used in homes in the early twentieth century when telephones began to connect internationally.
The history of engineering goes back into the 19th century when Alexander Volta (1745-1827) made a remarkable discover regarding the nature of electricity (Cosgrove 749). He discovered that electrical current could be controlled and could flow from one point to another. By the time the mid-19th century came about the rules for electricity were being established. During this time electromagnetic induction was discovered by Michael Faraday who lived from 1791 to 1867 (749). Also during this time Samuel Morris invented the telegraph in 1837 which relies on the principles of electromagnetic induction (749). Alexander Graham Bell, who lived from 1847 to 1922, created the telephone which also uses electricity in order to operate (749). Through the success of the telephone, Bell Telephone Company was established. In 1878, the light bulb was finally invented by Thomas Edison who lived from 1847 to 1931 (749). Off the principles of Faraday’s electric motor from 1821, Nicholas Tesla invented a more efficient and powerful electric motor in 1888 (749). To make these inventions be more significant, effort was expended to make better motors and transformers and to enhance the power needed to make them function. Through these inventions during the middle 19th century, it led to the capability of lighting homes and cities through the use of electricity, and it also led to the creation of the telephone communication system (750).
Cell phones have immensely changed the way people communicate today. A cell phone can be all a person need for interaction. From a cell phone, a person can make calls, send text messages, emails, and send and also receive directions, buy things online, do online banking, listen to music and much more. Since someone can do everything with one device, there is no longer a need to go around with multiple devices about. Greek hydraulic semaphore systems were used as early as the 4th century. The hydraulic semaphores, which functioned with water filled containers and visual signals, functioned as optical telegraphs. However, they could only apply a very limited range of pre-determined messages, and as with all such visual telegraphs could only be deployed during good visibility conditions. Experiments on communication using electricity was carried out in 1729 but was not successful. The experiment was proposed by William Fothergill Cooke. In 1837, William invented a practical electric telegraph which entered commercial use in 1838 (J. B. Calvert, May 2004). The first telephone was invented in 1878 by Alexander Graham Bell. He experimented with a ‘phonautograph’, it is a machine shaped like a pen that can draw shapes of sound waves on smoked glass by tracing vibrations.
Although the Tesla coil has been replaced in many areas by more modern circuitry, the tesla coil at the time is what allowed for the first wireless telegraph communication systems to work (MagLab 2014)