Man has used all sorts of methods to send messages. In Persia, 2500 years ago, men with loud voices were placed on the mountain tops to shout out the news from one town to another. Greeks used to flash messages with lighted torches. The red Indians used smoke signals.
In 1830, an artist named Morse was sailing to America after a long stay in Europe. On board the ship there was a man demonstrating the effect of electricity on a magnet. Morse was fascinated by the demonstration and it occurred to him that electricity could be used to carry messages from one places to the other.
He devoted all his time to designing a machine which could use electricity to carry messages. Finally, after three years of hard work, he built a telegraph set. It took him another three years to persuade the government to send messages by telegraph. As the telegraph poles were being set up the workmen were often shot by hoodlums and sometimes the poles would be knocked down at night.
It was found that it was the postmaster general of the United States who was behind all the trouble. He was afraid if the telegraph became popular, people would stop sending letters and he would lose his job! The man was arrested and work on the telegraph progressed rapidly after that. The first telegraph was sent from Washington to Baltimore. The message read: What Had God Wrought.
Nowadays if we want to send urgent news quickly, all we have to do is go to the nearest telegraph office. When a telegram is sent, the receiver at the other end hears only a series of sounds representing dots and dashes. He then decodes these dots and dashes to get the message. A dot and a dash (.-) means A. A dash and three dots (-...) means B. And so on are the codes of the letters.
In 1830, an artist named Morse was sailing to America after a long stay in Europe. On board the ship there was a man demonstrating the effect of electricity on a magnet. Morse was fascinated by the demonstration and it occurred to him that electricity could be used to carry messages from one places to the other.
He devoted all his time to designing a machine which could use electricity to carry messages. Finally, after three years of hard work, he built a telegraph set. It took him another three years to persuade the government to send messages by telegraph. As the telegraph poles were being set up the workmen were often shot by hoodlums and sometimes the poles would be knocked down at night.
It was found that it was the postmaster general of the United States who was behind all the trouble. He was afraid if the telegraph became popular, people would stop sending letters and he would lose his job! The man was arrested and work on the telegraph progressed rapidly after that. The first telegraph was sent from Washington to Baltimore. The message read: What Had God Wrought.
Nowadays if we want to send urgent news quickly, all we have to do is go to the nearest telegraph office. When a telegram is sent, the receiver at the other end hears only a series of sounds representing dots and dashes. He then decodes these dots and dashes to get the message. A dot and a dash (.-) means A. A dash and three dots (-...) means B. And so on are the codes of the letters.
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| The Telegraph |
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