Salvà's electrolytic telegraph
Telégrafo electrolítico de Salvà
- Date
- 1795-1804 · confidence medium
- Place
- Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Credited to
- Francesc Salvà i Campillo
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The physician and physicist Francesc Salvà proposed telegraphy by electricity in 1795 and in 1804 presented an electrolytic telegraph powered by a voltaic pile, in which the decomposition of water at the receiver signalled each letter. It is one of the earliest electric telegraphs in history.
Salvà read papers on electric telegraphy to the Barcelona Academy of Sciences in 1795 and 1804; there was no line in real use and his influence on Sömmerring (1809) and the telegraphs of the 19th century has not been demonstrated.
What it led to
- an unexecuted project for a Majorca-Alicante line
- a precedent for Sömmerring's electrochemical telegraph (1809)
- a Spanish claim to priority in electric telegraphy