The Telegraph

1
The Telegraph
2
Three Elements that Lead to the Development of
the Telegraph

• Experiments with electricity
• The Lovers Telegraph
• Experiments with magnetism

3
The Semaphore System

• A form of visual telegraphy invented by
• Claude Chappe
• Used for civil communication
• France 1840 3000 miles of semaphore lines
  operated by the war department

4
The Galvanometer

• With the invention of steam locomotives came the
  necessity for instantaneous signalling methods.
• Michael Faraday invented the Galvanometer in
  1819.
• Lines ran alongside railway tracks and were used
  for operational purposes.
• Via Great Western Railways Galvanometers, the
  first telegram is sent from Windsor to London,
  announcing the birth of an heir to Queen Victoria.

5
Davy Vs. Wheatstone and Cooke
-Edward Davy used chemically treated paper strip
which recorded electrical impulses as visible
brown marks. -William Cooke and Sir Charles
Wheatstone used galvanometers to construct their
model of the telegraph. -The Solicitor General
who was responsible for patent disputes had
inadequate knowledge about telegraphs and awarded
the patent to Wheatstone and Cooke because he
thought the two devices were the same.
The Wheatstone/Cooke telegraph
6
"The American Leonardo"

• Samuel Morse was the son of a New England
  Congregationalist Minister. He attended Yale
  where he excelled in Art and became first a
  professional portrait painter and then a
  professor of painting at the University of the
  City of New York.
• In September of 1837, Morse filed for the patent
  of the telegraph with the Morse system and code.
• He understood that it would be easier
• to train people to learn a code than to
• find enough different circuits for
• electricity to display letters.

7

• Patent wars and questions of system ownership
  were major issues during the time of telegraph
  creation. Also the need for the telegraph was not
  seen when it first was presented to the world and
  was actually quite unpopular until the stock
  market and newspapers realized its potential for
  transmitting information faster than any other
  medium of the time. It was also important for
  postal services.
• The telegraph is the model of all the electrical
  signalling systems to follow, and it is also
  important because it raised the question of
  public versus private ownership.

Conclusion
8
?the first public telegraph demonstration
? a wartime telegraph station
?a portable railway telegraph station