Editing Telegraphy (section)

=== Electrical telegraph ===

{{Main|Electrical telegraph}}
{{See also|Electrical telegraphy in the United Kingdom}}
[[File:Cooke and Wheatstone electric telegraph.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph|Cooke and Wheatstone's]] five-needle, six-wire telegraph (1837)]]

The early ideas for an electric telegraph included in 1753 using [[electrostatic]] deflections of [[pith]] balls,<ref>E. A. Marland, ''Early Electrical Communication'', Abelard-Schuman Ltd, London 1964, no ISBN, Library of Congress 64-20875, pages 17–19;</ref> proposals for [[electrochemical]] bubbles in acid by [[Francisco Salva Campillo|Campillo]] in 1804 and [[Samuel Thomas von Sömmering|von Sömmering]] in 1809.<ref>Jones, R. Victor [http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/images/history/von_Soem.html Samuel Thomas von Sömmering's "Space Multiplexed" Electrochemical Telegraph (1808–10)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011042334/http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/images/history/von_Soem.html |date=11 October 2012 }}, Harvard University website. Attributed to "[https://books.google.com/books?id=Oxc7AAAAMAAJ Semaphore to Satellite]", International Telecommunication Union, Geneva 1965.</ref><ref>{{Citation |last= Fahie |first= J. J. |title= A History of Electric Telegraphy to the year 1837 |place= London |publisher= E. & F. N. Spon |year= 1884 |url= https://www.princeton.edu/ssp/joseph-henry-project/telegraph/A_history_of_electric_telegraphy_to_the.pdf}}</ref> The first experimental system over a substantial distance was by [[Francis Ronalds|Ronalds]] in 1816 using an [[electrostatic generator]]. Ronalds offered his invention to the [[British Admiralty]], but it was rejected as unnecessary,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|date=2016|title=Sir Francis Ronalds and the Electric Telegraph|journal=International Journal for the History of Engineering & Technology|volume=86|pages=42–55|doi=10.1080/17581206.2015.1119481|s2cid=113256632}}</ref> the existing optical telegraph connecting the Admiralty in London to their main fleet base in [[Portsmouth]] being deemed adequate for their purposes. As late as 1844, after the electrical telegraph had come into use, the Admiralty's optical telegraph was still used, although it was accepted that poor weather ruled it out on many days of the year.<ref name=Kieve/>{{rp|16, 37}} France had an extensive optical telegraph system dating from Napoleonic times and was even slower to take up electrical systems.<ref>Jay Clayton, "The voice in the machine", ch. 8 in, Jeffrey Masten, Peter Stallybrass, Nancy J. Vickers (eds), ''Language Machines: Technologies of Literary and Cultural Production'', Routledge, 2016 {{ISBN|9781317721826}}.</ref>{{rp|217–218}}

Eventually, electrostatic telegraphs were abandoned in favour of [[electromagnet]]ic systems. An early experimental system ([[Pavel Schilling|Schilling]], 1832) led to a proposal to establish a telegraph between [[St Petersburg]] and [[Kronstadt]], but it was never completed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:Shilling%27s_Pioneering_Contribution_to_Practical_Telegraphy,_1828-1837 |title=Milestones:Shilling's Pioneering Contribution to Practical Telegraphy, 1828–1837 |work=IEEE Global History Network |publisher=IEEE |access-date=26 July 2011}}</ref> The first operative electric telegraph ([[Carl Friedrich Gauss|Gauss]] and [[Wilhelm Eduard Weber|Weber]], 1833) connected [[Göttingen Observatory]] to the Institute of Physics about 1&nbsp;km away during experimental investigations of the geomagnetic field.<ref>R. W. Pohl, Einführung in die Physik, Vol. 3, Göttingen (Springer) 1924</ref>

The first commercial telegraph was by [[William Fothergill Cooke|Cooke]] and [[Charles Wheatstone|Wheatstone]] following their English patent of 10 June 1837. It was demonstrated on the [[London and Birmingham Railway]] in July of the same year.<ref name="guarnieri1">{{Cite journal|last=Guarnieri|first=M.|year=2019|title= Messaging Before the Internet—Early Electrical Telegraphs |journal= IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine|volume=13|issue=1|pages=38–41+53|doi=10.1109/MIE.2019.2893466|hdl=11577/3301045 |s2cid=85499543|hdl-access=free}}</ref> In July 1839, a five-needle, five-wire system was installed to provide signalling over a record distance of 21&nbsp;km on a section of the [[Great Western Railway]] between [[London Paddington station]] and West Drayton.<ref name="Huurdeman">Anton A. Huurdeman, ''The Worldwide History of Telecommunications'' (2003) pp. 67–69</ref><ref>{{Citation |last= Roberts |first= Steven |author-link= Stephen Roberts (historian) |title= Distant Writing|url= http://distantwriting.co.uk/index.htm }}</ref> However, in trying to get railway companies to take up his telegraph more widely for [[railway signalling]], Cooke was rejected several times in favour of the more familiar, but shorter range, steam-powered pneumatic signalling. Even when his telegraph was taken up, it was considered experimental and the company backed out of a plan to finance extending the telegraph line out to [[Slough]]. However, this led to a breakthrough for the electric telegraph, as up to this point the Great Western had insisted on exclusive use and refused Cooke permission to open public telegraph offices. Cooke extended the line at his own expense and agreed that the railway could have free use of it in exchange for the right to open it up to the public.<ref name=Kieve/>{{rp|19–20}}

[[File:Morsetaste.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|A [[Telegraph key|Morse key]] ({{Circa|1900}})]]

Most of the early electrical systems required multiple wires (Ronalds' system was an exception), but the system developed in the United States by [[Samuel Morse|Morse]] and [[Alfred Vail|Vail]] was a single-wire system. This was the system that first used the soon-to-become-ubiquitous [[Morse code]].<ref name="guarnieri1"/> By 1844, the Morse system connected [[Baltimore-Washington telegraph line|Baltimore to Washington]], and by 1861 the west coast of the continent was connected to the east coast.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies|last1=Watson|first1=J.|last2=Hill|first2=A.|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2015|edition= 9th|location=London, UK|via= Credo Reference}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/civil/jb_civil_telegrap_1.html|title= The First Transcontinental Telegraph System Was Completed October 24, 1861|website=America's Library|access-date= 29 April 2019}}</ref> The [[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph]], in a series of improvements, also ended up with a one-wire system, but still using their own code and [[needle telegraph|needle displays]].<ref name="Huurdeman"/>

The electric telegraph quickly became a means of more general communication. The Morse system was officially adopted as the standard for continental European telegraphy in 1851 with a revised code, which later became the basis of [[International Morse Code]].<ref name=Coe>Lewis Coe, ''The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States'', McFarland, p. 69, 2003 {{ISBN|0-78641808-7}}.</ref> However, Great Britain and the [[British Empire]] continued to use the Cooke and Wheatstone system, in some places as late as the 1930s.<ref name="Huurdeman"/> Likewise, the United States continued to use [[American Morse code]] internally, requiring translation operators skilled in both codes for international messages.<ref name=Coe/>
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