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175 Years Ago Today; .-- .... .- - / .... .- - .... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore%E2%80%93Washington_telegraph_line
Professor Morse sending the message — WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT on May 24, 1844
The Baltimore–Washington telegraph line was the first long-distance telegraph system set up to run overland in the United States.
In March 1843, the US Congress appropriated $30,000 to Samuel Morse to lay a telegraph line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, along the right-of-way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Morse originally decided to lay the wire underground, asking Ezra Cornell to lay the line using a special cable-laying plow that Cornell had developed. Wire began to be laid in Baltimore on October 21, 1843. Cornell's plow was pulled by eight mules, and cut a ditch 2 inches (5.1 cm) wide and 20 inches (51 cm) deep, laid a pipe with the wires, and reburied the pipe, in an integrated operation. However, the project was stopped after about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) of wire was laid because the line was failing.
Morse learned that Cooke and Wheatstone were using poles for their lines in England and decided to follow their lead. Installation of the lines and poles from Washington to Baltimore began on April 1, 1844, using chestnut poles 7 metres (23 ft) high spaced 60 metres (200 ft) apart, for a total of about 500 poles. Two 16-gauge copper wires were installed; they were insulated with cotton thread, shellac, and a mixture of "beeswax, resin, linseed oil, and asphalt."[2] A test of the still incomplete line occurred on May 1, 1844, when news of the Whig Party's nomination of Henry Clay for U.S. President was sent from the party's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington.
Operations
Morse's line was demonstrated on May 24, 1844, from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol in Washington to the Mount Clare station of the railroad in Baltimore, and commenced with the transmission of Morse's first message (from Washington) to Alfred Vail (in Baltimore), "What hath God wrought", a phrase from the Bible's Book of Numbers. The phrase was suggested by Annie Ellsworth, whose husband was a supporter of Morse's, and knew Morse was religious.
As U.S. Postmaster General, Cave Johnson was in charge of the line. Morse was made superintendent of the line, and Alfred Vail and Henry Rogers the operators.
The next year, Johnson reported that "the importance of [the line] to the public does not consist of any probable income that can ever be derived from it," which led to the invention being returned for private development.
Maryland state historical marker commemorating the first telegraph message, located between US Highway 1 and railroad tracks in Beltsville, Maryland.
</snip>
Professor Morse sending the message — WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT on May 24, 1844
The Baltimore–Washington telegraph line was the first long-distance telegraph system set up to run overland in the United States.
In March 1843, the US Congress appropriated $30,000 to Samuel Morse to lay a telegraph line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, along the right-of-way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Morse originally decided to lay the wire underground, asking Ezra Cornell to lay the line using a special cable-laying plow that Cornell had developed. Wire began to be laid in Baltimore on October 21, 1843. Cornell's plow was pulled by eight mules, and cut a ditch 2 inches (5.1 cm) wide and 20 inches (51 cm) deep, laid a pipe with the wires, and reburied the pipe, in an integrated operation. However, the project was stopped after about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) of wire was laid because the line was failing.
Morse learned that Cooke and Wheatstone were using poles for their lines in England and decided to follow their lead. Installation of the lines and poles from Washington to Baltimore began on April 1, 1844, using chestnut poles 7 metres (23 ft) high spaced 60 metres (200 ft) apart, for a total of about 500 poles. Two 16-gauge copper wires were installed; they were insulated with cotton thread, shellac, and a mixture of "beeswax, resin, linseed oil, and asphalt."[2] A test of the still incomplete line occurred on May 1, 1844, when news of the Whig Party's nomination of Henry Clay for U.S. President was sent from the party's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington.
Operations
Morse's line was demonstrated on May 24, 1844, from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol in Washington to the Mount Clare station of the railroad in Baltimore, and commenced with the transmission of Morse's first message (from Washington) to Alfred Vail (in Baltimore), "What hath God wrought", a phrase from the Bible's Book of Numbers. The phrase was suggested by Annie Ellsworth, whose husband was a supporter of Morse's, and knew Morse was religious.
As U.S. Postmaster General, Cave Johnson was in charge of the line. Morse was made superintendent of the line, and Alfred Vail and Henry Rogers the operators.
The next year, Johnson reported that "the importance of [the line] to the public does not consist of any probable income that can ever be derived from it," which led to the invention being returned for private development.
Maryland state historical marker commemorating the first telegraph message, located between US Highway 1 and railroad tracks in Beltsville, Maryland.
</snip>
The next message received was from a Nigerian prince who needed access to Vail's bank accounts...
21 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morse#Telegraph
As noted, in 1825 New York City had commissioned Morse to paint a portrait of Lafayette in Washington, DC. While Morse was painting, a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father that read, "Your dear wife is convalescent". The next day he received a letter from his father detailing his wife's sudden death. Morse immediately left Washington for his home at New Haven, leaving the portrait of Lafayette unfinished. By the time he arrived, his wife had already been buried. Heartbroken that for days he was unaware of his wife's failing health and her death, he decided to explore a means of rapid long distance communication.
As noted, in 1825 New York City had commissioned Morse to paint a portrait of Lafayette in Washington, DC. While Morse was painting, a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father that read, "Your dear wife is convalescent". The next day he received a letter from his father detailing his wife's sudden death. Morse immediately left Washington for his home at New Haven, leaving the portrait of Lafayette unfinished. By the time he arrived, his wife had already been buried. Heartbroken that for days he was unaware of his wife's failing health and her death, he decided to explore a means of rapid long distance communication.
Thanks for posting. 
They had a helluva time laying it...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable
A transatlantic telegraph cable is an undersea cable running under the Atlantic Ocean used for telegraph communications. The first was laid across the floor of the Atlantic from Telegraph Field, Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island in western Ireland to Heart's Content in eastern Newfoundland. The first communications occurred August 16, 1858, reducing the communication time between North America and Europe from ten days – the time it took to deliver a message by ship – to a matter of minutes. Transatlantic telegraph cables have been replaced by transatlantic telecommunications cables.
<snip>
With Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer, Field then directed the transoceanic cable effort. A survey was made of the proposed route and showed that the cable was feasible. Funds were raised from both American and British sources by selling shares in the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital.
The cable consisted of seven copper wires, each weighing 26 kg/km (107 pounds per nautical mile), covered with three coats of gutta-percha (as suggested by Jonathan Nash Hearder[6]), weighing 64 kg/km (261 pounds per nautical mile), and wound with tarred hemp, over which a sheath of 18 strands, each of seven iron wires, was laid in a close helix. It weighed nearly 550 kg/km (1.1 tons per nautical mile), was relatively flexible and was able to withstand a pull of several tens of kilonewtons (several tons). It was made jointly by two English firms – Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and R.S. Newall and Company, of Birkenhead. Late in manufacturing it was discovered that the respective sections had been made with strands twisted in opposite directions. While the two sections proved a simple matter to join, this mistake subsequently became magnified in the public mind.
The British government gave Field a subsidy of £1,400 a year (£130,000 today) and loaned the ships needed. Field also solicited aid from the U.S. government. A bill authorizing a subsidy was submitted in Congress. The subsidy bill passed the Senate by a single vote, due to opposition from protectionist senators. In the House of Representatives, the bill encountered similar resistance, but passed, and was signed by President Franklin Pierce.
The first attempt, in 1857, was a failure. The cable-laying vessels were the converted warships HMS Agamemnon and USS Niagara. The cable was started at the white strand near Ballycarbery Castle in County Kerry, on the southwest coast of Ireland, on August 5, 1857.[8] The cable broke on the first day, but was grappled and repaired; it broke again over the "telegraph plateau", nearly 3,200 m (2 statute miles) deep, and the operation was abandoned for the year.
The following summer, after experiments in the Bay of Biscay, Agamemnon and Niagara tried again. The vessels were to meet in the middle of the Atlantic, where the two halves of the cable were to be spliced together, and while Agamemnon paid out eastwards to Valentia Island, Niagara was to pay out westward to Newfoundland. On June 26, the middle splice was made and the cable was dropped. Again the cable broke, the first time after less than 5.5 km (three nautical miles), again after some 100 km (54 nautical miles) and for a third time when about 370 km (200 nautical miles) of cable had run out of each vessel.
The expedition returned to Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland, and set out again on July 17, with little enthusiasm among the crews. The middle splice was finished on July 29, 1858. The cable ran easily this time. Niagara arrived in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland on August 4 and the next morning the shore end was landed. Agamemnon made an equally successful run. On August 5, she arrived at Valentia Island, and the shore end was landed at Knightstown and then laid to the nearby cable house.
</snip>
A transatlantic telegraph cable is an undersea cable running under the Atlantic Ocean used for telegraph communications. The first was laid across the floor of the Atlantic from Telegraph Field, Foilhommerum Bay, Valentia Island in western Ireland to Heart's Content in eastern Newfoundland. The first communications occurred August 16, 1858, reducing the communication time between North America and Europe from ten days – the time it took to deliver a message by ship – to a matter of minutes. Transatlantic telegraph cables have been replaced by transatlantic telecommunications cables.
<snip>
With Charles Tilston Bright as chief engineer, Field then directed the transoceanic cable effort. A survey was made of the proposed route and showed that the cable was feasible. Funds were raised from both American and British sources by selling shares in the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Field himself supplied a quarter of the needed capital.
The cable consisted of seven copper wires, each weighing 26 kg/km (107 pounds per nautical mile), covered with three coats of gutta-percha (as suggested by Jonathan Nash Hearder[6]), weighing 64 kg/km (261 pounds per nautical mile), and wound with tarred hemp, over which a sheath of 18 strands, each of seven iron wires, was laid in a close helix. It weighed nearly 550 kg/km (1.1 tons per nautical mile), was relatively flexible and was able to withstand a pull of several tens of kilonewtons (several tons). It was made jointly by two English firms – Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and R.S. Newall and Company, of Birkenhead. Late in manufacturing it was discovered that the respective sections had been made with strands twisted in opposite directions. While the two sections proved a simple matter to join, this mistake subsequently became magnified in the public mind.
The British government gave Field a subsidy of £1,400 a year (£130,000 today) and loaned the ships needed. Field also solicited aid from the U.S. government. A bill authorizing a subsidy was submitted in Congress. The subsidy bill passed the Senate by a single vote, due to opposition from protectionist senators. In the House of Representatives, the bill encountered similar resistance, but passed, and was signed by President Franklin Pierce.
The first attempt, in 1857, was a failure. The cable-laying vessels were the converted warships HMS Agamemnon and USS Niagara. The cable was started at the white strand near Ballycarbery Castle in County Kerry, on the southwest coast of Ireland, on August 5, 1857.[8] The cable broke on the first day, but was grappled and repaired; it broke again over the "telegraph plateau", nearly 3,200 m (2 statute miles) deep, and the operation was abandoned for the year.
The following summer, after experiments in the Bay of Biscay, Agamemnon and Niagara tried again. The vessels were to meet in the middle of the Atlantic, where the two halves of the cable were to be spliced together, and while Agamemnon paid out eastwards to Valentia Island, Niagara was to pay out westward to Newfoundland. On June 26, the middle splice was made and the cable was dropped. Again the cable broke, the first time after less than 5.5 km (three nautical miles), again after some 100 km (54 nautical miles) and for a third time when about 370 km (200 nautical miles) of cable had run out of each vessel.
The expedition returned to Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland, and set out again on July 17, with little enthusiasm among the crews. The middle splice was finished on July 29, 1858. The cable ran easily this time. Niagara arrived in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland on August 4 and the next morning the shore end was landed. Agamemnon made an equally successful run. On August 5, she arrived at Valentia Island, and the shore end was landed at Knightstown and then laid to the nearby cable house.
</snip>
How would our great-great grandparents have ever understood our 21st century communications?
...and I think the common smartphone would've blown her mind. 
Come to think of it, I was given a 2 in LCD TV in '91, and it was a wonder! A TV that fit in my back pocket!
20 yrs ago, a smartphone would've blown MY mind! 
de Forrest as well, but he was a bit of a prick.
I could be wrong, but I think we're running out of world-changing things to invent. The past 150 years have given us washing machines, cars, planes, TV, video games, phones, a/c, ect. Those are hard acts to follow. 
