History Essay Rough Draft

The Telegraph Rough Draft

Finn Clark

1/23/13

On July 1, 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act was signed by Abraham Lincoln to deliver mail by train, but sometimes the trains would break down, they were slow, and if they went too fast on a curve, they would crash. Then in 1848, gold was discovered in California. By 1850 it had become a free state and had 380,000 people living in it and that number was still growing. The demand for faster transportation was even larger as the Civil War was beginning. As the Pony Express was becoming slower, people started getting new ideas, and that’s where it led them to the idea of the telegraph.

The first person to technically make the first telegraph was Professor Joseph Henry. He created the telegraph and set the telegraph lines from his home to his laboratory, so he could work at home and send his results to his work. He also helped the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and became a member of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science. He was born on December 17, 1797 and died on May 13, 1878. This was one of the many people to revolutionize America with the telegraph, but we haven’t gotten to the main person yet.

The main person who contributed to revolutionizing America was Samuel B. Morse. Samuel B. Morse had the idea of the telegraph in 1832 and created the Morse code on a boat trip back to America. He was also a professional artist from the years 1829 -1832 creating portraits of people, while he was in France doing what artists do, he came across Semaphore stations that would send signals far and wide that would be sent to other stations for important news, such as a wind storm, but Morse contradicted the idea for if it is too dark out, the news wouldn't spread. There he came up with the idea of the telegraph. When he made the telegraph the first message he sent was to the president and the message was, “ What hath god wrought” (Book of Numbers 23:23). After his telegraph was selling, about 60 people had claimed of building the first telegraph, but Samuel was the first to get political backing on his. He was born in Charleston, Massachusetts April 27. 

The Pony Express revolutionized America before the telegraph came into thought. The Pony Express was a mail delivery service that distributed mail by means of horseback, hence the Pony in Pony Express. The Pony Express could deliver mail about 10 days faster than the train, because the train took different routes and could go only by rail, it took longer. Some of the trains could break down, causing even more frustration when someone wants to get mail somewhere fast. It was where the train was weak, the Pony Express was strong. The telegraph ultimately destroyed the meaning of the Pony Express and was discontinued 2 days after the release of the telegraph. 

The telegraph was a very great piece of machinery, it was what revolutionized America the most. The telegraph would write 30 characters a minute and was the original instant message machine. On May 1845, the  Magnetic Telegraph Company ordered a form to build lines between New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Mississippi, but the first transactional telegraph lines were put up between Baltimore and Washington as a test for the telegraph. The first message was sent to the president, and the message was “What hath god wrought?” (Book of numbers 23:23) The first poles were put up on July 4, 1861, and each worker contributed at least 10 to 12 miles up cables during the time they were working. The telegraph lines were introduced to Copenhagen in 1850 and the United Kingdom in 1851. When the workers were working, president Lincoln said “I think it is a wild scheme. It will be next to impossible to get your poles and materials distributed on the plains, and as fast as you complete the ling, the Indians will cut it down.” Which was a very true quote because the Indians did cut down a lot of telegraph poles.

Before the Pony Express was the train, and before the telegraph was the Pony express, we evolved from livestock to technology. We must give Samuel Morse and Joseph Henry thanks for contributing their skills to create machines that would revolutionize America and make them want to build more things that would help us in the years to come. Later, we made the car, the cell phone, the typewriter, and the airplane. All things to help us in different ways, whether it is to travel, to talk to someone, or to troll someone, they have been there to do just that. I believe that will make things more complicated and technological in the many years, and all we have to do is wait.