Page 37 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1814 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Visual Telegraphy Electric telegraphs were an instant suc-
Long before the eighteenth century, cess in Europe and North America. By
attempts were made in many parts of Alexander Graham 1848, all the cities of North America east
the world to send messages over long Bell's telephone. of the Mississippi were connected by
distances using such media as smoke telegraph wires. The Western Union
signals, fires, and mirrors, usually in Company, founded in 1856, quickly
one direction only—for example, to warn of approach- dominated the North American telegraph industry. By
ing enemies. During the French Revolution, Claude 1861 its lines connected San Francisco with the East
Chappe (1763–1805) devised a system of articulated Coast, and it was planning a land line to Europe via
beams and arms that could be moved to indicate num- Alaska and Siberia when the Atlantic cable made such a
bers, letters, or phrases in a code book. These devices line unnecessary. European governments either started
were placed on towers situated approximately 5 to 10 building telegraph networks or bought out the first com-
kilometers apart. After the success of their first line in panies. To connect their various national networks, sev-
1794, the French government built a network across eral European countries, later joined by others, formed
France and into neighboring countries. Similar systems the International Telegraph Union in 1865.
were built in other countries, but only over short dis- Telegraphs were so indispensable to the safe and effi-
tances. At the same time, officers of Britain’s Royal cient operation of trains that railway companies gave free
Navy developed a new system of flags and code books right-of-way to telegraph lines in exchange for free serv-
that allowed two-way communication between ships. ice. Telegraphs were valuable business tools, conveying
These were the first systems that could freely send mes- commodity and stock prices and other time-sensitive
sages over long distances in either direction. Thus in information.They were also used by newspapers, which
1794, the French government in Paris received news of competed by presenting the latest dispatches bought
the victory of its army at Condé within minutes of the from the Associated Press (founded in 1848), Reuters
event, and at Trafalgar in 1805, Admiral Nelson was (1851), and other news agencies. Governments also
able to obtain information and control his ships during made use of the telegraph, especially in times of war and
the course of the battle. other emergencies.
Outside of Europe and North America, progress was
Early Electric Telegraphy slow. Colonies of the European powers, such as India
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and Algeria, got their first telegraph lines in the 1850s,
many inventors tried to send messages over wires by elec- as did several Latin American countries and the Ottoman
tricity.The electric battery, invented in 1800, and the elec- empire. In China, Africa, and much of the Middle East,
tromagnet, developed in the 1830s, made such a project governments were reluctant to admit this new form of
possible. In 1837 two Englishmen, William Cooke Western intrusion. Environmental conditions and popu-
(1806–1879) and Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), lar resistance often made it difficult to install and main-
patented a system that used six wires and five needles tain telegraph lines.
(later reduced to two) to point at letters and numbers on
a board. Their system was installed on railroad lines in Later Electric Telegraphy
Britain.That same year the American Samuel F. B. Morse Telegraphy continued to advance technologically until the
(1791–1872) patented a code of dots and dashes that mid-twentieth century. Beginning with a line across the
could send signals over a single wire. He opened the first English Channel in 1851, entrepreneurs laid insulated
electric telegraph line in the United States, from Wash- cables across seas and oceans. After several spectacular
ington to Baltimore, in 1844. failures, the technology was finally perfected in 1865 and