and detecting a charge on the other end of the wires
using pith balls or bubbles produced in tubes of acid.
Francis Ronalds made the first working telegraph
using pulses of static electricity on a single wire
to turn a dial marked with the letters and digits
and standard phrases:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T V Y
PREPARE
READY
REPT SENTCE
REPT WORD
FINISHED
ANNUL SENTCE
ANNUL WORD
NOTE FIGURES
NOTE LETTERS
DICTIONARY.
Other electrical telegraphs
In 1833, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber
put up a wire running nearly three-quarters of a mile
and communicated with a positive or negative charge
detected by a galvanometer on the distant end.
They generated a positive or negative electric pulse
by moving an induction coil over a permanent magnet,
and they developed a binary code for the alphabet,
eventually obtaining a transmission rate
of seven letters per minute.
Two years later, David Alter
in Elderton Pennsylvania
invented and demonstrated his own telegraph
but he didn’t develop it for actual service.
In 1836, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail
developed and patented Morse code
and a recording electric telegraph.
Meanwhile, William Fothergill Cooke
and Charles Wheatstone were working
on a system that didn’t transmit codes,
but completed a circuit across two of six wires
to cause needles to point to a letter on a triangular grid.
A Cooke and Wheatstone six-wire system
installed in 1838 on thirteen miles of the Great Western Railway
between Paddington station and West Drayton
was the first commercial telegraph.
Marital telegraph
First Spouse. “I’m taking the garbage out.”
[subtext] I’m trying to be a responsible adult.
Second Spouse. “What?”
[subtext] Why bother me with that?
First Spouse.[Points to the trash bin;
then points to the door.]
Second Spouse. “OK.”
[subtext] Thank you.
Much has been written about the importance
of the telegraph in the United States.
And today ham radio operators continue the tradition of communicating in Morse code.
Much has been written about the importance of the telegraph in the United States. And today ham radio operators continue the tradition of communicating in Morse code.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: