Pearl Enongene
Telegraph
Kennesaw State University

Communication goes back all the way to prehistory. Before cell phones people still had ways of communicating. They communicated by writing letters using the printing press, which was created by Gutenberg. It took weeks and months for the letters to be delivered from one location to the other. The printing press was the biggest innovation in communication until the telegraph was developed. Prior to the telegraph, politics and business were constrained by geography. There is a historical importance of the telegraph and its connection to present state of technology in communication. Communication is an essential part of this modern world and it has significantly evolved over the years. It has affected society both the political and economic system, it could be regarded as a power system. Telegraph laid the groundwork for the communication revolution which led to later innovations.
There have been several forms of telegraphs over the years, from nonelectrical to electrical. According to Elon.edu the very first telegraph was nonelectric, which was created by Claude Chappe in 1794. This telegraph depended on a single line for slight communication. Later on many more improved telegraphs were invented. For instance in 1809 a crude telegraph was invented by Samuel Scemmering. This telegraph used gold electrode wires in water at the receiving end which was 2000 feet. The message was read by the amount of gas caused by electrolysis (elon.edu). Samuel Morse was one of the most important people in the history of telegraph. He was a professor of arts and design at New York University in 1835. Morse code was a technique invented by him, which is a set of sounds that corresponded to particular letters of the alphabet. He was not the first to think about the idea; however, he was the first to get political approval. A telegraph system was built from Washington DC to Baltimore by Morse. The first message sent by the telegraph was “what hath God wrought”. Later on the line started expanding between states. Morse telegraph became the standard method of electrical communication in both the United States and Europe due to its simplicity and ability to work on inferior quality wires. Later smaller companies started picking interest into this new invention. Western union was an example of a small company interested in this new invention. They built their own transcontinental telegraph line in 1861 mainly along railroads. Railroads were an early and enthusiastic user of the Morse system, which improved the efficiency, and safety of railroad operations manifold. After western Union another company that became interested was the postal telegraph system. They entered the field for economic reasons and eventually merged with western union in 1943 (Simone Müller, 2010).
The use of telegraph was quickly accepted by people who were eager for a faster and easier way of sending and receiving information. It did not only stay in the United States it went global. In Simone Muller’s The Transatlantic telegraph and the class of 1866 article the first permanent telegraph cable had been successfully laid across the Atlantic Ocean in1866 (2010). The telegraph for it been one of the first way of a fast means of communication, had a very interesting way of functioning. When someone arrives for instance at a telegraph office to send a telegram it can be very time consuming hence most people use a very specific written style which relies heavily on abbreviations and skipped words rather than writing out full messages. Then the telegraph operator transmits the message to the telegraph office closest to the recipient and the receiving operator writes the message out so that it can be read by the recipient. Telegraphs were historically used for critical information which needed to be conveyed quickly, they could also signal an emergency. Many militaries used telegraphs to notify families of dead or wounded soldiers in combat, causing families to fear the visit of the telegraph boy during wartime. Even though they delivered bad news there was some good news like the birth of a baby.
The invention of the telegraph had a massive change in society, reducing the amount of time it took to transfer information over longer distances from weeks down to hours or minutes. This allowed news from around the world to become available to many people across the globe, opening the path for the newspaper business. Not only did the telegraph provide an easy form of communication between one individual to the other it brought a new world of business and also another form of political action as well. Going back in time during the anti-colonial movement of 1920 in Sudan, the telegraph was a very important form of communication from one party to the other. According to Elena Vezzadini, Britain had held a majority of political economics, judicial power (2013). Egypt under the rule of Britain was allowed an independent army; however Sudan also under British rule was not allowed the privilege of having an independent army, thus causing the up rise of the conflict. The telegraph was very important tool of communication during the anti-colonial resistance in Sudan from 1920 to 1924 (Elena Vezzadini, 2013). It was used for the negotiation between Egypt and Britain over Sudan’s status. Most of the only surviving documents produced by the political activist during negotiation over Sudan occurred by telegrams from the telegraphs. There are some memoirs and diaries which still exist; however, they were written posthumously between 1950 and 1980 (Bayrut Dor, Maktabat at Hayah, 1964). The telegraph was used as a medium of anti-colonial protest. There were several global revolution consequences which were triggered by technological innovations and telegraph was one of them. Not only did Sudan adopt the telegraph, it was adopted by other greater countries such as Syria, China United States and Egypt between the second half of nineteen century (Elena Vezzadini, 2013). There was an enormous increase in amount and circulation of global intelligence which was provoked during the invention of the telegraph. Abraham Lincoln also found interest with the new technology which was used during the civil war. With the influx of messages from the telegraphs, Lincoln absorbed and pondered every vital information to find answers for both political and military problems that needed considerations for the public good. The telegraph became a tool to win the war and also the symbol of that will lead to the proclamation of emancipation (Benjamin, 1997).
The telegraph catapulted new social groups into the labor market such as lower middle class women in the United States. Sizable portions of the telegraph workers were women. This was a way for women in society to feel useful and to get into the working field. The telegraph became a promising profession with lure of advancement based on ability. Perhaps the most consequential adoption of telegraph was in journalism. The business history of telegraph overlaps with that of American press. The newspaper adapting to the new technology which was the telegraph demonstrated the function and commercial value of telegraph. The telegraph made news available at any hour of the day influencing the creation of the new market known as the afternoon newspaper (Gerald Baldustry, 1994).
New technologies began to emerge; most of them influenced by the principles were first seen in the telegraph system. The telegraph was later on replaced by the radio and the telephone, followed by the fax machine and internet. Until 1877, most long distance communications which needed to be delivered in a timely manner depended on the telegraph. Like every innovation there is always a need for improvement to keep up with the demand and expansion of society. In this case the telegraph’s biggest competition was the telephone. In 1876 this new faster form of communication was patented by Alexander Graham Bell, a teacher at a school for the hearing impaired. His invention allowed people to talk to each other over telegraph wires. The first phone call made over wires was carried just eight miles. Within a year calls were placed over one hundred miles away and the Bell Telephone Company was established. The telephone became a faster and less complicated way of sending communicating; thus decreasing the use of the telegraph. Telegraph companies went out of business to the new innovation that is still in constant change today. The telephone’s popularity eventually ended the use of telegraphs; a device once opened the doors to speedy communication around. The invention of the telephone greatly changed the daily lives of ordinary people. By the end of 1880, almost 50,000 telephones were in use in the United States. Bell abandoned its struggles to maintain a monopoly through patent suits, and entered into direct competition with the many independent telephone companies. Around this time, the company adopted its new name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).
Telegraphs are still used today mostly not as a communication means of choice. Most poor, primitive countries used them but it is used in the USA for the deaf as TTY/ TTD machines. In the past, deaf people would either find an interpreter, a neighbor or family to help them make phone calls. With the TTY it was possible for the deaf to call a relay center in the state and reach a relay operator who answers the phone using the TTY machine which can be passed on to the recipient. Telegraphs can also be found in almost all police stations and can be borrowed from most public libraries. Morse code is still used. Shortwave radio enthusiasts still use it. It still has some good applications. Morse code is most popular among amateur radio operators although it is no longer required for licensing in most countries, including the US. Pilots and air traffic controllers are usually familiar with Morse code and require a basic understanding. Aeronautical navigational aids, such as VORs and NDBs, constantly identify in Morse code. When you think about digital communication it is a series of 1's and 0's. Not much different than dot and dashes from the telegraph. When air waves are crowded in radios Morse code is used to get through. In Virginia you can still send a telegram. It sent its last telegraphic transmission on January 27, 2006 (Dan Tynan, 2010). At the telegraph’s peak in 1929 more than 200 million telegrams were sent, by 2005 that number had dwindled to 21000 (Dan Tynan, 2010). One of the countries to use telegraph for a very long time was India. According to Nidhi Subbaraman India was shutting down the countries 160 year old telegraph services in mid July 2013. In India the telegraph play a vital role from military to social life. Indian military does not accept certain emergency requests by phone, to extend a leave of absence for example, making telegraph the tool of choice for its soldiers. Even couples, who've eloped to marry because their families disapprove of their union for caste or class or religious reasons, send telegrams as news to their parents, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Telegram companies still exist as part-Web services, but India is the last country to use the service on a large scale. BSNL still sends out about 5,000 telegrams a day, according to the Shivam Vij (2013).
There actually was a time where technology was more of a blessing than a curse which was the era when communication started. Most new innovations that are created are used to better our lives and not the other way around. Communication is a means were people keep in touch with each other and with the world as well. To send a message to another person or hear news it could take weeks or months to get to the other party. Telegraph impacted society in many ways from political to economically. Telegraph was a very huge invention which made communication faster and instead of taking months and weeks it only took hours or minutes for a message to be delivered. Not only did telegraph improve communication it helped business wise giving people especially women to have jobs. It helped with political conflicts and example will be between Sudan and Britain they used the telegraph to make history and document it as well. Most of Sudan’s history was recorded through the telegraph. Telegraph also helped in the civil war with Abraham Lincoln. A function of history is to give us the context and underlying structure to understand the changes and development that shape our lives daily (David Nickles, 2003). It seems in this day and age, that the old continues to be replaced by the newer and faster technology. The printing press was replaced by a faster form of communication which was the telegraph the telegraph was later also replaced by another form of itself which is now telephones, internet and fax machines. Telegraph was a piece of technology which created all the other communication technologies. It was an advance technology which helped society.

References

Works Cited
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Dan, Tynan. 2010. Top10 obsolete technologies still used today. Retrieved April 22, 2014 from http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/top-10-obsolete-technologies-still-used-today/15074
Shivam, Vij. 2013. India to end state-run telegram service. Stop. The Christian Science monitor.
Barney, Henderson. 2013. End of an era. Stop India scraps the telegram Stop. Retrieved April 22, 2014 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10118966/End-of-an-era.-Stop.-India-scraps-the-telegram.-Stop..html
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