Bean Soup! Featured Black Americans in Congress. Featured Mace of the U. House of Represen- tatives. House Trivia Timeline. Featured Resources for National History Day Electronic Technology in the House of Representatives. Office of the Historian: history mail. Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of his telegraph machine in Washington for interested congressional Members, hoping to obtain appropriations for a long distance test.
During this time period, the Massachusetts-born, Yale-educated Morse who began his career as a painter , worked to develop an electric telegraph of his own. He reportedly had become intrigued with the idea after hearing a conversation about electromagnetism while sailing from Europe to America in the early s, and later learned more about the topic from American physicist Joseph Henry In collaboration with Gale and Vail, Morse eventually produced a single-circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery.
This action sent the electric signal across a wire to a receiver at the other end. All the system needed was a key, a battery, wire and a line of poles between stations for the wire and a receiver.
To transmit messages across telegraph wires, in the s Morse and Vail created what came to be known as Morse code. Initially, the code, when transmitted over the telegraph system, was rendered as marks on a piece of paper that the telegraph operator would then translate back into English. Rather quickly, however, it became apparent that the operators were able to hear and understand the code just by listening to the clicking of the receiver, so the paper was replaced by a receiver that created more pronounced beeping sounds.
In , Morse and Vail received funding from the U. Congress to set up and test their telegraph system between Washington , D. Among these improvements was the invention of good insulation for telegraph wires. The man behind this innovation was Ezra Cornell , one of the founders of the university in New York that bears his name. Another improvement, by the famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison in , was the Quadruplex system, which allowed for four messages to be transmitted simultaneously using the same wire.
Use of the telegraph was quickly accepted by people eager for a faster and easier way of sending and receiving information. However, widespread and successful use of the device required a unified system of telegraph stations among which information could be transmitted. The Western Union Telegraphy Company, founded in part by Cornell, was at first only one of many such companies that developed around the new medium during the s.
By , however, Western Union had laid the first transcontinental telegraph line, making it the first nationwide telegraph company. Telegraph systems spread across the world, as well. Due to technological difficulties, the electric telegraph could not at first compete with the visual telegraph. The basic science of the electric telegraph is to send an electric current through a wire.
Breaking the current in a particular pattern denotes letters or phrases. The Morse code, named after Samuel Morse, is still used today. For instance, the code for SOS … — … is a well-known call for help. Two elements had to be perfected before an electric telegraph could work: a means of sending the signal generating and storing electricity and receiving the signal recording the breaks in the current.
Numerous small steps in the science of electricity and magnetism followed. A much longer list could be made, but the point is that no single person can be credited with developing the necessary technology of the telegraph. While discussing electricity with fellow passengers, Morse conceived of the idea of a single-wire electric telegraph. Morse obtained a patent in the United States in but split his patent right to gain the support of influential partners.
By Morse had consolidated the partnership to four members. Smith, a former Maine Representative whose help was instrumental in obtaining the government grant, decided to retain direct control of his portion of the patent right.
The partnership agreement was vague, and led to discord between Kendall and Smith. Eventually the partners split the patent right geographically. The availability of financing influenced the early industrial organization of the telegraph.
Initially, Morse tried to sell his patent to the government, Kendall, Smith, and several groups of businessmen, but all attempts were unsuccessful. Kendall then attempted to generate interest in building a unified system across the country.
This too failed, leaving Kendall to sell the patent right piecemeal to regional interests. These lines covered the most potentially profitable routes, emanating from New York and reaching Washington, Buffalo, Boston and New Orleans. Morse also licensed feeder lines to supply main lines with business. Royal House and Alexander Bain introduced rival patents in and Entrepreneurs constructed competing lines on the major eastern routes using the new patents.
The House device needed a higher quality wire and more insulation as it was a more precise instrument. It had a keyboard at one end and printed out letters at the other.
Neither competitor had success initially, leading Kendall to underestimate their eventual impact on the market. By , ten separate firms ran lines into New York City.
In addition, two lines operated between Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, two between Buffalo and Chicago, three between points in the Midwest and New Orleans, and entrepreneurs erected lines between many Midwestern cities. In all, in the Bureau of the Census reported 75 companies with 21, miles of wire. The telegraph markets in were multilateral oligopolies. Oligopolies are markets in which a small number of firms strategically interact.
Telegraph firms competed against rivals on the same route, but sought alliances with firms with which they connected. But each of these firms sought to create an alliance with connecting firms, such as those with lines from New York City to Boston or Washington. Increased business from exchanging messages meant increased profitability.
Quality competition was also fierce, with the line that erected the best infrastructure and supplied the fastest service usually dominating other, less capable firms. Messages could easily be garbled, and given the predominately business-related use of the telegraph, a garbled message was often worse than no message at all. A message sent from Boston to St.
Louis could have traveled over the lines of five firms. Due to the complexity of the production process, messages were also often lost, with no firm taking responsibility for the mistransmission.
This lack of responsibility gave firms an incentive to provide a lower quality service compared to an integrated network. These issues ultimately contributed to the consolidation of the industry. Horizontal integration-integration between two competing firms-and system integration-integration between two connecting firms-occurred in the telegraph industry during different periods.
System integration occurred between and , as main lines acquired most of the feeder lines in the country. During this phase the industry experienced both horizontal and system integration. By the end of the period, most remaining firms were regional monopolists, controlled several large cities and owned both the House and the Morse patents.
Figure 1 shows the locations of these firms. The final phase of integration occurred between and In this period the pool members consolidated into a national monopoly. By Western Union absorbed its last two competitors and reached its position of market dominance. Sean Trainor has a Ph. He teaches history and humanities at Santa Fe College and blogs at seantrainor.
Contact us at letters time. Painted portrait of American artist and inventor Samuel Morse - , who invented the Morse code system used in sending messages by telegraph, circa He poses beside a telegraph device. By Sean Trainor. Related Stories. Already a print subscriber? Go here to link your subscription. Need help? Visit our Help Center. Go here to connect your wallet.
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