Electric telegraph
Telégrafo eléctrico
- Date
- 1837 · confidence high
- Place
- London (Euston-Camden), England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone (patent and demonstration 1837); Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail (Morse system, 1837-1844)
- People
- 👤 Alfred Vail1807–1859👤 Charles Wheatstone1802–1875👤 Samuel Morse1791–1872👤 William Fothergill Cooke1806–1879
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The transmission of messages by electric current along wires, received by moving needles (Cooke-Wheatstone) or a recording electromagnet (Morse). For the first time, it separated communication from physical transport.
Priority is much disputed: Gauss and Weber (Göttingen, 1833) and Schilling (St Petersburg, 1832) had experimental systems; Cooke and Wheatstone patented and deployed the first commercial system (1837-1839, Great Western Railway); Morse demonstrated his in 1838 and laid the Washington-Baltimore line in 1844.
What it led to
- Railway signalling and unified timekeeping
- News agencies (Havas, Reuters, AP) and the telegraphic press
- Integrated financial markets and real-time price quotations
- Remote imperial control and accelerated diplomacy
- The birth of the telegraph operator's trade, including women
Built on
- Leyden jar1745-1746
- Chappe optical telegraph1791
- Voltaic pile1800
- Salvà's electrolytic telegraph1795-1804
- Public steam railway (Stockton and Darlington)1825
- Electromagnet1824-1825
- Daniell cell1836
- Schilling's telegraph (1832) and the Gauss-Weber telegraph (Göttingen, 1833)
Made possible
- Morse code1837-1844
- Electric clock and electrochemical fax1841-1843
- Standardized railway time1840-1847
- Armoured submarine cable across the English Channel1850-1851
- Transatlantic telegraph cable1858 / 1866
- Telephone1876
- Phonograph1877
- Carbon microphone1877–1878
- Telephone exchange1878
- Railway standard time and time zones1879-1883
- Hollerith punched card1884–1890
- Wireless telegraphy (radio)1895–1901
- Teleprinter (teletype)1902–1910
- Information theory1948
- Transatlantic cable