SOS Doesn’t Mean Anything: The Electrical Telegraph
Communication has been the bedrock of humanity our entire history. Few will argue with the importance of written language or spoken word. For us today, the Internet has expanded our ability to communicate in ways never before imagined. Not only can we converse with loved ones around the world, we can also learn from the world’s finest and consume immense amounts of information. We use the Internet daily with little regard to its true power and innovation. The simplicity we enjoy today was very different mere decades ago. Centuries ago, any form of long-distance communication would seem almost primitive today.
As was discussed in an article published a few weeks ago, long-distance communication has always presented a number of challenges to humanity.
For thousands of years, communication was limited by the speed of travel.
For many individuals, long treks across the wilderness were required. For others in more recent centuries, the pony express and similar services have rushed letters across continents. As fast as these horses and riders were, messages still took days, if not weeks or months, to reach their recipients. Therefore, when loved ones moved they essentially said goodbye forever and governments lost important battles due to delayed intelligence.
In the 1700s, France developed an optical telegraph system. Their system was revolutionary, but required a series of towers and operators.
Even if all was working well, the system would be crippled in cases of bad weather that limited visibility.
Clearly, a new long-distance communication system was needed.
For more information on the optical telegraph, read this story:
The solution came from a number of inventors working separately during the 1830s. Before reviewing their separate, but similar systems, we must review some important developments that enabled their discoveries.
The first was the wet-cell battery, invented by John Daniell (Garfinkel and Grunspan 44), and the voltaic cell battery, invented by Alessandro Volta (McGillem, “Telegraph.”).
In the mid-1800s, electricity was well known, but not completely understood. Many inventors had realized its potential, but were limited by an inability to harness it effectively. Many electrical systems at the time employed static electricity, producing high-voltage and low-currents (McGillem, “Telegraph.”). When the inventor attempted to send an electrical current down a wire, the current experienced incredibly severe losses, due to the low current, limiting the distance over which the electrical circuit could operate (McGillem, “Telegraph.”).
With the invention of the battery, came a reliable source of electricity (Garfinkel and Grunspan 44). The battery could produce low-voltages and high-currents, perfect for long-distance operation (McGillem, “Telegraph).
The second invention was the electromagnet (McGillem, “Telegraph.”).
Hans Christian Orsted discovered that an electric current could move a needle via magnetic properties and Micheal Faraday and Joseph Henry utilized the technology to produce a reliable electromagnet (McGillem, “Telegraph.”).
By the 1830s, multiple inventors realized that the battery and the electromagnet could both be used for a communication system built on electricity, they called the system the electrical telegraph. In England, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone created a system that used electricity to move a needle. Their needle systems used five wires to move the needle, pointing it at a letter (Garfinkel and Grunspan 44). Although their system was commercialized in Britain and parts of Europe, it failed to become the dominant communication system.
In the United States, during the same year, 1837, a painter by the name of Samuel F. B. Morse, decided it was time to leave painting and try inventing (“Invention of the Telegraph.”).
Although multiple inventors were working on a telegraph, it was Morse that beat them to the patent office.
His system was simple and hinged on a code of dots and dashes. Common letters, such as “e,” used codes that were quick to produce while infrequent letters, such as “q,” were longer and more complex (“Morse Code…”). His code-based system came to be known as Morse Code, named after its inventor.
To transmit this new code, a transmitter and a receiver were connected via a thin wire that conducted electricity. On the transmitting end of the telegraph, the operator fed a tray underneath a switch. Small puzzle pieces were used to form a series of dots and dashes. The switch moved up and down over the bumps completing and breaking the electrical circuit. On the receiving end, an electromagnetic, driven by the electrical signals sent from the transmitter, moved a pen that repeated the dots and dashes. The operator then translated the message into English (Garfinkel and Grunspan 44).
As the system entered widespread use, operators were able to recognize Morse Code faster than the pens and the puzzle pieces. A human ear and button soon replaced the puzzle pieces and pen (“Morse Code…”).
Delayed by funding concerns and economic woes, Morse first demonstrated his system on May 24, 1844 sending the message, “What hath God wrought?,” between the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., and a train station in Baltimore, Maryland.
Little did Samuel Morse know, he had just demonstrated the most revolutionary system since the printing press.
Despite many mockers, the telegraph system exploded. Dozens of private companies sprang at the technology, and the Western Union Telegraph Company came out ahead completing the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861. For the first time, a message could be instantly communicated between San Francisco, California and New York City. It was a marvel of engineering.
The press also jumped at the opportunity. The Associated Press, or AP, was founded in 1848, to facilitate news reports and share telegraph expenses.
In Europe, Paul Julius Reuters created a telegraph service for the press (McGillem, “Telegraph.”). The world had suddenly become much, much smaller.
Several improvements were added over the years. In 1871, J. B. Stearns created a duplex system allowing simultaneous transmission and reception. That same year in France, multiplexing allowed the same line to be used by multiple users. In 1874, Thomas Edison invented a quadruplex system allowing two signals per direction sent via the same line at the same time (McGillem, “Telegraph.”). The systems created, duplexing and multiplexing, are vital for Internet standards today.
The electrical telegraph became the dominant communication system, remaining so for nearly 150 years.
Although many thought it would be retired by the telephone, it survived. In fact, the last telegraph message sent in the US, sent by Western Union, was received on January 27, 2006 (Siegel, “Western Union…”). The telegraph remained in operation in India until July 14, 2014. Texting had retired the last telegraph system (“Telegraphs no more…”).
Many have held the electrical telegraph as one of three revolutionary pieces of communication technology.
The first being the printing press, the second, the electrical telegraph, and the most recent, the Internet. Although the telegraph is no longer available or used today, Morse Code still stands in culture, military, and is used among many hobbyists. It’s doubtful the system will ever disappear completely.
The electrical telegraph is the first electrical means of long-distance communication. It established an infrastructure still used today for the Internet. It inspired more powerful, faster, and more robust methods of communication. The electrical telegraph is perhaps the most influential milestone yet discussed. The electrical telegraph is the sixteenth major milestone in the history of computing.
A little fun fact to justify the title…SOS doesn’t actually stand for anything. The emergency call was first used on the telegraph because it was easy to produce: “S” is three short dots, and “O,” three long dashes.
Works Cited
Garfinkel, Simson, and Rachel H. Grunspan. The Computer Book: from the Abacus to Artificial Intelligence, 250 Milestones in the History of Computer Science. Sterling, 2018.
“Invention of the Telegraph.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/collections/samuel-morse-papers/articles-and-essays/invention-of-the-telegraph/.
McGillem, Clare D. “Telegraph.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Mar. 2020, www.britannica.com/technology/telegraph/Development-of-the-telegraph-industry.
“Morse Code & the Telegraph.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph.
Siegel, Robert. “Western Union Sends Its Last Telegram.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2006, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5186113.
“Telegrams No More. Stop. India to Send World’s Last Message July 14.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 22 Dec. 2014, www.foxnews.com/tech/telegrams-no-more-stop-india-to-send-worlds-last-message-july-14.
