How was the world's first telegram sent? Uncovering the birth and evolution of the telegram

Throughout human history, the transmission of information has always been an important driving force for the progress of civilization. From ancient beacon towers to the modern Internet, every innovation in communication technology has greatly promoted the development of society. The telegraph, as an important invention during the Industrial Revolution, not only changed the way people communicate, but also opened the precedent of modern communication technology. Its development and popularization marked that mankind has entered a new era of communication, an era in which information can travel across thousands of mountains and rivers in an instant.

Previous article: The early development of the telegraph

1. The origin of the telegraph

Since ancient times, humans have had the need for long-distance communication. However, due to technological limitations, the ancients could only rely on lighting beacons to transmit some simple signals. The earliest "telegraph" actually had nothing to do with "electricity". It was equivalent to a complex "beacon". Although this primitive communication method was simple, it was a manifestation of human wisdom. It met the needs of ancient society for information transmission to a certain extent.

2. Claude Chape’s Telegraph Tower

At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution was in full swing. In order to help the French army establish a tool for long-distance information transmission, engineer Claude Chappe and his brothers designed a flexible device that could be set in 196 different postures to transmit information. The invention of this device was an important milestone in the history of telegraph technology. It not only improved the efficiency of information transmission, but also laid the foundation for the subsequent development of telegraph technology.

3. Limitations and impacts of telegraph towers

Although Chap’s telegraph tower was a revolutionary invention at the time, its limitations were also very obvious. The speed of transmitting letters was very slow, and the distance between the two towers could not be too far, and they had to be within the visible range of the telescope. Despite this, it was still the best way to transmit information over long distances in France and even in Europe at the time. From 1792, Chap began to build this telegraph tower between Paris and Lille, France, and other countries followed suit. By 1830, thousands of such telegraph towers had been built throughout Europe, greatly improving the speed of transmitting information at the time. Although the telegraph towers of this period were not technically mature enough, their appearance undoubtedly opened a new door for the development of telegraph technology.

Next: Modernization of the telegraph and Morse code

1. The Conversion of Samuel Morse

In the last episode, we talked about how, at about the same time that the British Wheatstone and Cook developed the "five-pin telegraph", a strange man who studied telegraph appeared in the United States. He was the famous Samuel Morse. The telegraph and Morse code invented by him and his assistants have almost become synonymous with telegraph. In this episode, we will tell his story. Morse's transformation was not only a turning point in his personal career, but also a key moment in the history of the development of telegraph technology.

2. Breakthrough in Electromagnetism

From the late 18th century to the early 19th century, mankind achieved rapid development in the field of electromagnetism. In 1799, Volta invented the voltaic pile, the world's first battery, and since then people have been able to easily obtain stable currents. In 1820, Danish physicist Oersted accidentally discovered that a magnetic field can be generated near a current-carrying wire, and the barrier between electricity and magnetism was completely broken, and the development of electromagnetism entered a new stage. These scientific discoveries provided a theoretical basis and technical support for the development of telegraph technology.

3. The invention of the Morse telegraph

Morse stood on the shoulders of giants. After years of research, he invented a telegraph that used only one wire and sudden changes in current to transmit signals. This invention was a major breakthrough in the history of telegraph technology. It not only improved the efficiency of information transmission, but also laid the foundation for the popularization and application of telegraph technology.

4. The birth of Morse code

At that time, in Britain on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, someone had developed another telegraph, but this telegraph had a fatal bug - it could only transmit 20 letters, and 6 letters could not be expressed. At first, Morse just wanted his telegraph to transmit the ten Arabic numerals 0-9, and then look up each word from the code book according to the received numbers. Obviously, this efficiency is too low. Fortunately, Morse also had a genius assistant-Alfred Weir. In 1840, Weir developed a coding system that used a combination of three shapes: dots, lines, and spaces to represent letters and numbers. In this way, Morse code was born. The emergence of this coding system greatly improved the efficiency of information transmission by telegraph, and also made it possible for the popularization and application of telegraph technology.

5. The global impact of the telegram

In 1844, in the Capitol in Washington, under the watchful eyes of many scientists and government officials, Morse used the telegraph machine he built himself to send the first telegram to Baltimore, more than 40 kilometers away: "What hath God wrought!" Vail in Baltimore immediately replied with a telegram. This historic moment marked the maturity and application of telegraph technology. Subsequently, with the strong support of the US government, Morse's telegraph system quickly extended to the whole of North America and Europe. In 1858, the first telegraph line connecting the American continent and the Eurasian continent was successfully laid. Although many people competed for the title of "inventor of the telegraph" at the time, as Morse's telegraph system gradually covered the world, the title eventually fell on his head. The popularization of the telegraph not only greatly promoted the exchange of global information, but also laid the foundation for the subsequent development of communication technology.

The emergence of the telegraph not only brought Morse a huge fortune, but more importantly, it truly broke the limitations of time and space. Even at the longest distance, messages could be delivered instantly. From then on, human communication technology entered a new era. Morse did not become a miser. He donated most of his wealth to charity groups, as well as some higher education institutions and art schools such as Yale. The invention of the telegraph is not only a technological leap, but also an important symbol of the progress of human civilization. Its far-reaching impact not only changed people's lifestyles, but also laid a solid foundation for the subsequent development of communication technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Chappe

https://youtu.be/XsYtOk07lZ4?t=140

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_telegraph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph

https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/about-us/about-us/our-history/crime-history/murder-of-sarah-hart/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code

https://web.archive.org/web/20090122131647/http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=306

Morse telegraph prototype: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morse_telegraph.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Vail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore%E2%80%93Washington_telegraph_line

Author: The Nutcracker Science Creation Team

Reviewer: Sun Yifei, Director of the Medical Education History Research Office, Hebei Medical University

The article is produced by Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program. Please indicate the source when reprinting.