Before the invention of the telegraph, communication over distances took a variety of forms.\u00a0 For example, bonfires signalled the arrival of ships, optical telegraphs transmitted messages from devices mounted on hilltops, and the military used semaphore signalling extensively throughout the Napoleonic wars.\u00a0 The problem with these devices, however, was their successful use depended on weather conditions and daylight, both of which were outside the control of the operator.<\/p>\n
The invention of the battery by Alessandro Volta in 1800 made the electric telegraph possible. Francis Ronalds invented the first practical electric telegraph in 1816, but it would be another twenty-one years before the first commercial electric telegraph received its patent.<\/p>\n
In 1837, the British team of Dr. William Fothergill Cooke and Professor Charles Wheatstone received a patent for their multi-wire, short distance communication telegraph that \u201cworked effectively in notifying the passing of trains and in sending messages\u201d (Kieve, 1973, p. 30).\u00a0 Also in 1837, American Samuel Finlay Breese Morse patented an electromagnetic telegraph that needed only one cable.\u00a0 This invention was less expensive and more reliable since it was capable of facilitating communication over longer distances than Cooke and Wheatstone\u2019s telegraph.<\/p>\n
In the 1830s, Morse and his business partner, Alfred Vail, created a code consisting of dashes and dots to represent letters and numbers, known as Morse Code.\u00a0 Their telegraph sent electrical pulses down a wire that caused a hammer on the device to make an impression on a piece of paper.\u00a0 An operator familiar with Morse Code was required to decode the message contained within the dots and dashes.\u00a0 The early telegraphs used paper to capture the code until operators realized that they could decipher the code simply by listening to it.<\/p>\n
In Morse Code, the most commonly used letters in the English language, such as \u201ce\u201d, had a simple code, \u00a0\u00a0 with a more complicated code for infrequently used letters such as \u201cz\u201d,\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0 . \u00a0Morse Code worked well for translating English messages, but was not adequate for transmitting non-English messages because \u201cit lacked letters with diacritical marks\u201d (McGillem, 2012, para. 12).\u00a0 As a result, International Morse Code became the standard for message transmission outside of North America in 1851.<\/p>\n
Although Morse received his patent in 1837, it would be another seven years before the first public message was transmitted.\u00a0 On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse transmitted a message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland:\u00a0 \u201cWhat hath God wrought!\u201d (Lax, 2009, p. 10).\u00a0 After the successful transmission, Morse received support for the widespread use of his invention and telegraph lines started to expand.\u00a0 In fact, the ease of installing telegraph lines meant that many communities had telegraph communication before they had railway service.\u00a0 The telegraph connected Boston and New York in 1846, and Montreal and New York in 1847.<\/p>\n