Our
practice quiz for chapter 7 had an interesting question on the topic of the
invention of the electromagnetic telegraph. The question read as follows:
Who in 1837 invented the
electromagnetic telegraph, which marked the beginning of today's information
age?
a.
Guglielmo Marconi
b. Samuel Morse
c. Alexander Graham Bell
d. Susan B. Anthony
e. None of the above
b. Samuel Morse
c. Alexander Graham Bell
d. Susan B. Anthony
e. None of the above
The correct answer is B, Samuel Morse.
However, I found an interesting article that talks in depth about the invention
of the telegraph, which states Mr. Morse did not work alone. The article
highlights that without the work of Alfred Vail, Morse’s partner, the telegraph
would have never been invented. Sadly, mainstream history only highlights
Samuel Morse as the inventor, this is in part because Morse was the brains
behind the operation, Vail was only the means.
As the question states the invention of
the electromagnetic telegraph marks the beginning of today’s information age.
Prior to the electromagnetic telegraph, long distance communication was a very
difficult task. In ancient times, smoke signals, instruments, and other
primitive forms of communications were used to translate messages over large
distances. These visual and audible cues soon gave way to carrier pigeons, which
were unreliable, and then more currently known, mail. Before the invention of
the electromagnetic telegraph, sending long distance messages was restricted to
hand-to-hand mail delivery. The article highlights a sad story in which a
husband did not receive news of his wife’s death for several days, and by the
time he had been able to return home, she had already been buried. Sure enough,
this man was Samuel Morse. Morse was so perturbed by the fact that he had
missed his wife’s funeral purely because there was not an efficient form of
long distance communication. This was the seed that spurred the invention, and
forever changed history. Messages that used to take weeks if not months to
reach their destination could now be sent and received in real-time, fast-tracking
communication across the masses.
The first official demonstration of
the electromagnetic telegraph took place on January 6, 1838. Vail and Morse
wanted to garner public support for the invention. The demonstration utilized
wire wrapped around a room in order to mimic the distance of two miles. The
first official message they sent would have lasting foreshadow on the
connection between communication and transportation, the message read;
“Railroad cars just arrived, 345 passengers.” A simple message with important
implications, and a message that would have normally taken exponentially
longer. A second demonstration later that month set out to convince more people
of the great invention and featured ten miles of copper wire. The telegraph
used an output interface of dots and dashes to signify not only alphabetical
communication but also numerical. This system of dots and dashes may have been,
other than the initial money, Vail’s most important contribution to the practical
development of the telegraph. Prior to Vail’s embossed output of dots and
dashes, the telegraph utilized an output developed by Morse, which required a
double translation, to discern from alphabetical characters and numerical
characters.
Soon after the development of the
telegraph Morse realized the possible implications for the expansion of our
country’s communication network. With the help of congressmen, Morse received a
grant for $30,000 and began installing the technology all over the country. It is interesting to entertain the thought of what might have happened if Morse and Vail had never invented the electromagnetic telegraph, what if Morse had never left home and was present for his wife's death, would we not have achieved the same technological status we enjoy today? As the question states, I believe Morse's and Vail's invention of the electromagnetic telegraph sparked the information age we are currently in, and I imagine the technological advances humanity will inevitably see in the next 175 years.
Ian,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to think about where we would be technologically had Morse been at his wife's funeral, thus potentially never inventing the telegraph. That kind of thought makes you think of other events that, had they not happened, could have shaped the information age much differently than it is presently shaped. What if Thomas Edison had decided not to continue to pursue the invention of the light bulb after failing over 10,000 times? Would we still be using candles today? What about if the apple hadn't hit Isaac Newton in the head? Perhaps we would not have figured out what gravity was for hundreds of years later, delaying the entire timeline of modern science. Obviously that latter scenario is just a myth, but it still makes you wonder about the butterfly effect of certain events in the past happening differently. The Dark Ages represented hundreds of years of intellectual and inventive darkness. If this time period didn't skip a beat technologically, I could only imagine the information advances we would be enjoying today.
Ian,
ReplyDeleteI think it is meaningful to point out that Alfred Vail had also contributed to invent electromagnetic telegraph. Under most situations, multiple contributors worked on a masterpiece together. Electromagnetic Telegraph was a quite complicated invention in terms of its parts, codes, and required grant to produce. Since the relationship between Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail was teacher and student, I guess this might be the main reason that Mr. Morse determined the patent distribution among the contributors. However, Alfred Veil did raise money for Mr. Morse’s experiments and lad supplies. More importantly, Alfred Vail created the other set of coding system, which was based on alphabetic instead of Morse’s numerical system. Vail’s coding system was more user-friendly, yet it required much more work to apply to each telegraph machine.
The original Morse telegraph printed code on tape. However, in the United States the operation developed into sending by key and receiving by ear. A trained Morse operator could transmit 40 to 50 words per minute. By increasing its efficiency, telegraph dominant the communication technology at that era.
I thought that this was an interesting article on the creation of the electromagnetic telegraph. I think Ian did a good job of explaining just how important this invention was because in a way it did begin the technology revolution that we live in today. I think it would have been nice if he had included an invention or maybe a couple of inventions that were created because of the telegraph. That way the readers could actually see how much of an impact the telegraph has had on our current lives. We also learned in this weeks reading that the fax machine was created in 1942 which was around the time the telegraph was created. The only problem is the fax machine did not begin to become popular until the 1980s. I think it would have been nice if he had mentioned that there was another machine used for communication during this time and explained why the telegraph was more important and popular. Lastly he needs to change his blog according to the PowerPoint presentation that we had to watch for last week. The picture is supposed to come after the first paragraph on the left and there are supposed to be paragraph breaks and bolded sub headers. Other than that it was a good post.
ReplyDelete