To transmit messages across telegraph wires, in the 1830s Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail created what came to be known as Morse code. The code assigned letters in the alphabet and numbers a set of dots and dashes. The dots were "short marks." The dashes were "long marks." The code took into account the frequency of letter use. Letters used often, such as “E," got a simple code, while those used infrequently, such as “Q," got a longer and more complex code.
Initially, the code, when transmitted over the telegraph system, was rendered as marks on a piece of paper. Then the telegraph operator would then translate back into English. Rather quickly, however, it became apparent that the operators were able to hear and understand the code just by listening to the clicking of the receiver. Because of this, the paper was replaced by a receiver that created more pronounced beeping sounds.
In 1843, Morse and Vail received funding from the U.S. Congress to set up and test their telegraph system between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. On May 24, 1844, Morse sent Vail the historic first message: “What hath God wrought!” The telegraph system subsequently spread across America and the world, aided by further innovations.
Among these improvements was the invention of good insulation for telegraph wires. The man behind this innovation was Ezra Cornell (1807-74), one of the founders of the university in New York that bears his name. Another improvement was made by the famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) in 1874. He invented the Quadruplex system, which allowed for four messages to be transmitted simultaneously using the same wire.
Use of the telegraph was quickly accepted by people eager for a faster and easier way of sending and receiving information. However, widespread and successful use of the device required a unified system of telegraph stations. That would make it possible for information to be transmitted to many more places. The Western Union Telegraphy Company, founded in part by Cornell, was at first only one of many such companies that developed around the new medium during the 1850s.
By 1861, however, Western Union had laid the first transcontinental telegraph line. This made it the first nationwide telegraph company. Telegraph systems spread across the world, as well. Extensive systems appeared across Europe by the later part of the 19th century. By 1866 the first permanent telegraph cable had been successfully laid across the Atlantic Ocean. In a matter of years, long-distance submarine cables linked continents and islands. In 1902, a telegraph cable from Canada to New Zealand completed a network that encircled the globe. Instantaneous global communication had finally arrived!
Since then technology has moved on unimaginably. Most people might be surprised to know that the undersea cables carrying our bytes of data are laid in much the same way as these first Victorian telegraph cables.
No comments:
Post a Comment