PRESENTED BY PAYTON FAKER JAWS, JANUARY 22, 2015

Samuel Morse was an American painter and scientist. He lived from Morse attended Yale University from Morse studied painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in England. While overseas, he wanted to find a way to send messages quicker. He worked as a portrait painter and an inventor. Samuel Morse created The Morse Code and has been given credit for inventing the Telegraph.

Desperate need for quicker communication. Drumbeats and/or Smoke signals. Hand carried and delivered mail. Pony express and the first postal system. Mail carried by train for long distance communication. Semaphores, series of hilltop stations that had large movable arms to signal letters and numbers. You would use a telescopes to see the other station(1790).

In the early 1800’s scientists were experimenting with electricity. Everyone wanted to find a way to send messages quickly. Two major developments in science helped with getting things started. 1. The invention of the battery which could store electric current. 2. Electro-magnetism was demonstrated in 1820, which showed how electricity could deflect a magnetic needle. Credit for inventing the telegraph is given to 2 groups of men. Two British inventors and three American inventors. The 3 American inventors created a “single circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery.” This sent the electrical signal across a wire to a receiver at the other end.

Morse code is a series of dots (short marks) and dashes (long marks) that correspond to each letter of the alphabet and the basic numbers. Letters that are used often like “E” got a simple code, and letters that are used less often like “Q” got a more complex code. The telegraph system would put marks on a piece of paper that would be translated back into English by an operator. The first official message was sent on May 24, The historic message traveled 44 miles in just seconds. “What hath God wrought?”

Better insulated wires. (Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University) The Quadruplex, allowed 4 messages to be sent at the same time using the same wire. (Thomas Edison) Strung the telegraph wires on poles above ground instead of buried in a lead pipe. The moving paper on the telegraph machine was replaced by a receiver that created more pronounced beeping sounds. Operators were quickly able to hear and understand the code just by listening to the clicking of the receiver.

In 1843, Congress gave Samuel Morse $30,000 to build a long distance telegraph line. The Western Union Telegraph Company was the first company to lay a trans-continental telegraph line in 1861 thus linking the east and west coasts. In 1858 the first telegraph cable was strung across the Atlantic Ocean linking America and England. By 1940, there were 40 lines. In 1866 a cable was laid between Ireland and Canada. In 1851, leaders from Europe came together and agreed on a International Morse Code, regardless of the different languages. During the Civil War, Morse Code messages were sent directly to the Generals on the battlefields.

Although the telephone was invented in 1876, telephones didn’t start replacing the telegraph until In 1895, the radio was invented. The first radios could send Morse Code, but people soon liked listening to voices instead of dots and dashes. Teletypes also were able to send written messages, but were not invented until the 1910’s. (Similar to a typewriter). Although most messages were sent using newer forms of communications, many military ships continued with Morse code until 1999 when they switched to satellite systems. After 150 years, the telegraph and Morse Code were dead.