Originally the term telegraphy referred to any form of signalling. With the advent of electronic telegraph systems the term became more specific to electronic signalling, and more recently to the transmission of data, as distinct from telephony which signals voice, electronically. E.G.: Morse code by radio wave or through a telephone line. The first telegraph was a system of optical signalling using the shutter system between London and the English channel in the late 18th century. The first electric telegraph was described in the Scots Magazine in 1753 by Charles Morrison, and involved separate wires for each letter of the alphabet. In 1835 Wheatstone invented a five wire telegraph, which he later refined to a two wire system.
The telegraph was first brought into practical use in the United States by Professor Samuel Morse. He began his experiments in 1832, aided by L D Gale and George and Alfred Vail. In 1837 he filed a caveat in the Patent Office at Washington, and in 1840 obtained a patent covering the improvements he had made in the meantime. The first line established was between Baltimore and Washington, it being successfully operated on May the 27th, 1844.
In October, 1842, Morse had attempted to operate a line from Governor's Island to the Battery in New York, but this experiment failed. Samuel Colt, in 1843, laid a submarine cable from Coney Island and Fire Island, at the mouth of New York harbour, up to the city, and operated it successfully for a time. In 1860 it was estimated that there were over 50,000 miles of telegraph lines in operation in the United States, and at the end of the 19th century the lines extended over 190,000 miles. Research Telegraphy
Abbreviations
SciTech
Research Telegraphy