When was telegraph created

Though given the best education possible, Morse initially showed little promise as a student. He did, however, show promise as an artist. To develop this promise, Morse embarked on a costly, multi-year course of artistic study in Europe.

Here, he not only blossomed into a promising painter. He also developed a fierce anti-Catholic fervor—which, according to Morse biographer Kenneth Silverman , partly stemmed from a violent run-in with an Italian soldier at a religious event in Anti-Catholicism was not the only idea Morse acquired as a result of his European excursions.

He also developed the idea for the telegraph while returning from the continent. Travelling aboard the ship Sully in , Morse struck up a conversation with fellow passengers regarding the possibility of using electromagnetism as a means of communication. Confident that such a device was theoretically possible, Morse began building a prototype upon arrival in the U. It would be years before this device reached maturity.

In the meantime, Morse tended to his career as artist, winning a number of distinctions, including opportunities to paint famous contemporaries like James Monroe and the Marquis de Lafayette.

He also helped introduce Americans to daguerreotype photography and trained the first generation of American photographers—including Matthew Brady , whose photographs of the Civil War continue to define that conflict.

Despite these distinctions, however, Morse was constantly short on cash and thought of himself as an artistic failure. He therefore jumped at the chance to remake himself as a professional inventor. This opportunity arrived in April of , when French tinkerers named Gonon and Serval arrived in the U. Fearful of being scooped, Morse overcame fears about the crude state of his prototype and submitted the device to public inspection.

The device Morse brought before the public was a far cry from latter-day telegraphs. It was the first time that instant battle reports were provided to officials in Washington, D.

Telegraph lines later linked the Capitol building to the White House and reporters to their respective newspapers. Although the telegraph eventually fell out of favor as the primary mode of communication in the Capitol, a telegraph office still existed in the Capitol complex until Morse's invention was gradually replaced by the widespread use of the telephone.

Date Event Feb. Smith of Maine, was so impressed that he became one of Morse's business partners and lobbied on Morse's behalf. May 24, Surrounded by an audience of Congressmen, Samuel Morse sent the first official telegraph from the Supreme Court Chamber, then located in the Capitol, to his partner, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore.

He tapped the message, "What hath God wrought! The House Judiciary Committee holds hearings to discuss government censorship of telegraphic news on Civil War battles. Featured Search Historical Highlights of the House. Learn about Foreign Leader Addresses. Featured Search the People of the House. Majority Leaders. After the telegraph, the world changed. It seemed as if information could flow like water.

By the s, predictions about the impact of the new medium began to abound. The telegraph would alter business and politics. It would make the world smaller, erase national rivalries and contribute to the establishment of world peace. It would make newspapers obsolete.

All of the same statements were made in the s by people who were wowed by the first-blush potential of the Internet.

When Congress was asked to provide funds for a telegraph line between Baltimore and New York City, the Congressional Globe 28th Congress, second session reported that Sen. George McDuffie opposed it, explaining that he asked:.

Would it transmit letters and newspapers? Under what power in the constitution did Senators propose to erect this telegraph? He was not aware of any authority except under the clause for the establishment of post roads. And besides the telegraph might be made very mischievous, and secret information after communicated to the prejudice of merchants. When Morse offered to sell his telegraph to the U.