Kids today
are happily familiar with email, Instant Messaging, cell phones and text
messaging, so it might be hard to imagine a world in which the fastest form of
communication was on horseback.
But that's
about the way it was until Samuel F.B. Morse invented the telegraph. Morse,
1791-1872, was one of the first in a great wave of American inventors.
Telegraphy was
the first method of allowing messages to be sent using electrical power, from
one terminal to the next, in pulses contained within wires. From that invention
has come everything we know today in the way of fast communications, including
television, the telephone, the Internet and satellite communications.
Morse's
father was a minister who was a geography expert and a friend of Noah Webster,
who developed the great American dictionary. Morse attended Yale University,
where he developed a love for painting and a keen interest in electricity.
Working as
a painter, he was poor when he heard about some developments in
electromagnetics, and set to work on an invention idea. Using an old artist's
canvas stretcher, a homemade battery, and some old clockwork, he came up with
the basic idea for telegraphy - an operator tapping out a series of dots and
dashes, and someone on the other end of the wire translating the sounds into
English words.
The first
time the idea worked was Jan. 6, 1838. By May 24, 1844, the system had been
perfected to the point where a telegraph line was strung from the U.S. Capitol
to Baltimore, Md. Morse sent the first message, a Bible verse (Numbers 23:23)
expressing the wonder that Morse felt about his invention: "What Hath God
Wrought?"
Not long
after Morse received his patent in 1844, the United States began putting up
telegraph poles with wires between them. Communications by telegraph helped
both the North and the South plan and carry out their warfare more effectively
in the Civil War of the 1860s.
By 1883,
the company founded by Morse and a partner, Alfred Vail, was transmitting
millions of messages every year on more than 400,000 miles of wire strung
throughout the country. That company is still in operation today. It's called
Western Union.
Telegraphy
is closely linked to the later invention and success of both the telephone
communications network, and the transcontinental railroad. It was one of the
most important devices ever invented.
To go along
with the device, Morse also invented what we call "Morse code" so that people
of all ages could send and receive messages. Each alphabet letter was
represented by short or long pulses sent out by making a series of clicks with
pauses in between on a simple transmitting key. For example, if a ship got in
trouble out on the open sea, it could send out an "SOS" for help:
S = Dit Dit
Dit (three short clicks)
O = Dah Dah
Dah (three long clicks)
S = Dit Dit
Dit (three short clicks)
You can
practice Morse Code on this fun website: www.learnmorsecode.com Note the
shorter little dots called "dits" and the longer dashes called "dahs." By
varying the speed and the pauses between sounds, you can signify whether it's a
"dit" or a "dah" that you're sending. With a longer pause between words, you
can help the receiver translate an entire sentence.
Learn more
about Morse and the historic site and museum that's been preserved at his home
in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on www.morsehistoricsite.org
Learn more
about telegraphy by visiting this online museum website: http://www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/telegraph.html
You and a
friend could print out the Morse Code key, sit with your backs to each other, and
take turns tapping out short messages with a pencil. One can tap while the
other translates the sounds into alphabet letters. You can send your first
name, a weather report, or the name of your favorite sports team.
Try this as
your first message:
THIS IS
FUN!
