Before the Telephone there was the Telegraph
One of many technological inventions that has intrigued me and that has been used to communicate before the telephone was invented was the telegraph. The first non electrical telegraph was invented by Claude Chappe in 1794 in France (Bellis, 2016). In 1809, the first electrical telegraph was invented by Samuel Soemmering but was not commercially produced. Unlike Samuel Soemmering’s invention, Samuel Morse further developed the telegraph between 1830’s and 1840’s (History.com.Staff, 2009). Thus the type of signal was named after him is known as morse code.
The first commercial telegraph line was opened in 1844 (Bellis, 2016). This invention allowed for people to communicate between long distances. It was considered an efficient way of sending messages as it took letters longer to be received. For messages to be sent there had to be numerous systems of long wires (Antonio). The best way to intercept messages as well as decoding messages was to use Morse code because listeners did not have to have any special equipment which was ideal for WW1 and WW2.( Crypto Museum, 2016)
By the 20th century telegraphs cables were largely controlled and managed by the British (Darwin, 2014,p.115). This invention along with many other inventions of the 19th century allowed Britain to become a big super power of the western world. From 1860 to 1910 the need for telegraphs, more specifically tonnage, more than doubled and the cable length of cables grew from 8000 miles to 325 000 miles from the early 1870’s to the early 1920’ (Darwin, 2014,p.115).
It was successful because no other time in history was communication transmitted in in a faster way and this technology was advanced for that time as it was the dawn of the industrial revolution. Everyone had to learn Morse code as it was soon spreading towards Europe. For the first time in history underwater cable was put in the Atlantic ocean to connect north American to Europe (Madrigal, 2010). With the advent of the radio and telephone, the use of the telegraph became less used. Nonetheless the telegraph became the ground breaker for newer technological advances such as the phone and fax machine and for other inventions grow from there (History.com.Staff, 2009).
References
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Darwin, J. (2014). The empire project the rise and fall of the British world-system, 1830–1970. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bellis, M. (n.d.). Samuel Morse and the History of the Telegraph. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-the-electric-telegraph-and-telegraphy-1992542
Antonio, Shaun. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtk187/art2/telegraph.htm
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History.com Staff. (2009). Morse Code & the Telegraph. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph
Madrigal, A. C. (2010, November 30). Before Underwater Internet Cables: The First Submarine Telegraph Line. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/11/before-underwater-internet-cables-the-first-submarine-telegraph-line/67130/