Samuel B. Morse Research Paper

The invention of the telegraph in 1844 by famous inventor Samuel B. Morse was one of the most significant discoveries of the 1800’s as it allowed access to transatlantic communication. This sort of communication was a game changer for the United States in WWI as it allowed quick and efficient communication over long-distances for making it significantly easier for countries to communicate with one and another. The history of the telegraph extends to long before its birth to the world. The word telegraph is derived from the Greek words tele, meaning “distant,” and graphein, meaning “to write”. It’s inventor Samuel B. Morse was born on April 27, 1791, in Boston, MA. Samuel B. Morse first gained the idea of the telegraph while listening to

As Morse started to make his vision into reality he hit a roadblock due to the Panic of 1837 which was a major economic depression. This set him back economically and he wasn't able to fund his invention and had to delay the process. After the depression passed he was able to restart and continue his research. During this time Samuel B. Morse went to Great Britain. There he met an inventor who had the same technology that he was working on. As written in an Article it states,“After meeting Charles Wheatstone, the inventor of one such electric telegraph system, Morse realized that although his main competitor had built an ingenious mechanism, his own system was far simpler, more efficient, and easier to use.”(Library of Congress). Upon seeing the design and technological capabilities of the European model Morse realized that he could easily create and quicker and easier machine to communicate over long distances. After many tests and fixes the first ever telegraph message was sent across the nation from Washington to Baltimore on May 24, 1844. Even though Morse was credited with the official invention there were many other people who helped him behind scenes as said on

Morse’s telegraph such as optical telegraph, electrical telegraph, wireless telegraphs. These were based on the same design and intention as Morse’s Telegraph but had a different source. The Optical telegraph a.k.a the semaphore lines were created before the invention of the Morse telegraph. This was only used for internal communication and nothing overseas or anything cross country. There would be small towers set up every couple miles and a message would travel through the towers in a time consuming process to reach its destination. It was this that made Morse believe that he could master the technology of long-distance communication. A telegraph that was created right before the release of the Morse Telegraph was the electrical telegraph. This was similar to Morse’s but was very inefficient and did not deliver clear messages. The design and system were based on the same plans as Morse’s Telegraph but it had nowhere near the capabilities of Morse’s telegraph. The wireless telegraph was the last telegraph invented in the 1800’s. Invented in 1899 by Guglielmo Marconi this was the a major step as this made the process of delivering the actual message much easier and less of a hassle because you didn’t have too many communication lines. The invention of all of these different telegraphs was due to a major scientific revolution in the 1800’s due to the World War. All four of these telegraphs were