The History Of The Telegraph Is Way More Interesting Than You Think

Jason Bowling
Nov 5 · 9 min read
The Cook/Wheatstone Galvanic Telegraph

We’ve all seen it in books or movies — a guy from the 1870’s hunched over a little telegraph key, tapping out messages to someone far off in the distance. It got a sentence or two in my elementary school textbook — Samuel Morse developed the telegraph, and a code to use it. It’s a pretty simple device — just an electromagnet pulling down on a spring loaded arm. That’s it…

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Jason Bowling

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Writer of technology and history, tinkerer, network guy, photographer. https://www.instagram.com/jasonbowlingoh/

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