No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented an electric telegraph in Britain in 1837. Samuel Morse sent “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore on 24 May 1844.
About credit
Many inventors worked on telegraphs in this period. Morse is often credited alone, but Vail and others contributed to the equipment and code.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before the Electric Telegraph
A message could travel no faster than a rider, ship or train.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Telegraph lines followed the railways. Operators tapped a key to send short and long pulses; Morse code represented letters as patterns. By 1866 a transatlantic cable linked Europe and America.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
The Electric Telegraph, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Closing a circuit
Pressing the key sends current down the wire to an electromagnet at the far end.
Closing a circuit
A code of dots and dashes
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
News
Newspapers and agencies such as Reuters were built on the telegraph.
Markets
Prices became known across cities almost at once.
News and orders travelled faster than any train or ship for the first time, linking markets, governments and armies.
V
Before and after
Life before and after The Electric Telegraph
Before
Weeks by ship.
After
Minutes by cable (after 1866).
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
