Conquering Space and Time: the Telegraph
Izzahar Ramli
IIUM
Development of the Telegraph
The telegraph is defined as any system that allows the transmission of encoded information by signal across a distance. The meaning of "telegraph" comes from Greek words: tele = far and graphein = write. While telegraph systems have used a variety of signaling methods and devices, the term is most often applied to the electrical telegraph development in the 19th century (Rubin, 2011). It is hard for us who live in the 21st century to appreciate and raise the value of gratefulness towards development of communication, especially telegraph. Hundreds of years ago, there was no electricity. In line with this fact, communications are undoubtedly or almost certainly took place by using smoke, fire or drum signal. Before the arrival or presence of the telegraph in the early 19th century, speed of messages depends on the speed of the transporter or carrier. For example, the promptness or punctuality of messages depends on the speed of a horse, train, pigeon and etc. In the late 18th century, optical telegraph which were based on visible transmission encoded by different positions of pivoted arms located on high towers were invented by Claude Chappe in France and George Murray in England which is the semaphore. This system was visual and used semaphore, a flag-based alphabet, and depended on a line of sight for communication. On the other hand, this system could not work at night. After the approaching of telegraph, messages travel over wires practically at incredible speed. The optical telegraph was then replaced by the electric telegraph.
The discovery of electricity conveys a huge impact on telegraphic technology. Early discoverer or innovator realized that electricity could be used as medium to send messages in nick of time. The theory that signals could be transmitted by wire has been proven by Samuel Morse the minute he is a professor of art and design at New York University in 1835. Pulses of current were used by
IIUM
Development of the Telegraph
The telegraph is defined as any system that allows the transmission of encoded information by signal across a distance. The meaning of "telegraph" comes from Greek words: tele = far and graphein = write. While telegraph systems have used a variety of signaling methods and devices, the term is most often applied to the electrical telegraph development in the 19th century (Rubin, 2011). It is hard for us who live in the 21st century to appreciate and raise the value of gratefulness towards development of communication, especially telegraph. Hundreds of years ago, there was no electricity. In line with this fact, communications are undoubtedly or almost certainly took place by using smoke, fire or drum signal. Before the arrival or presence of the telegraph in the early 19th century, speed of messages depends on the speed of the transporter or carrier. For example, the promptness or punctuality of messages depends on the speed of a horse, train, pigeon and etc. In the late 18th century, optical telegraph which were based on visible transmission encoded by different positions of pivoted arms located on high towers were invented by Claude Chappe in France and George Murray in England which is the semaphore. This system was visual and used semaphore, a flag-based alphabet, and depended on a line of sight for communication. On the other hand, this system could not work at night. After the approaching of telegraph, messages travel over wires practically at incredible speed. The optical telegraph was then replaced by the electric telegraph.
The discovery of electricity conveys a huge impact on telegraphic technology. Early discoverer or innovator realized that electricity could be used as medium to send messages in nick of time. The theory that signals could be transmitted by wire has been proven by Samuel Morse the minute he is a professor of art and design at New York University in 1835. Pulses of current were used by
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