The Telegraph and the Internet

There was an anniversary of sorts that you might have missed - 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental telegraph. It is difficult to fathom that the world relied on messengers and beacons until we became wired to one another.

Fascinating as it was to be wired together, the first telegraphers began a new language of strange abbreviations and characters that only they could decipher. For instance "73" meant goodbye and "30" meant the end of the story. Historian Bill Deverell who is the director of the USC-Huntington Institute on California and the West refers to it as "Twitter-like."

To see the copy of the original patent that Samuel F. B. Morse filed with the Patent Office, click here.

The first message that Morse sent on May 24, 1844, "What hath God wrought?"

There would be pitfalls along the way that would have astronomical consequences. A super solar flare is described on NASA's website here.

It says in part, "Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted."

By the turn of the 20^th century, it appeared that all long distance communications were relying heavily upon the telegraph. And in 1934, the telegraph industry was regulated by the newly created Federal Communications Commission.

Morse understood the power of communication and wrote in a letter to Francis O.J. Smith in 1838, "This mode of instantaneous communication must inevitably become an instrument of immense power, to be wielded for good or for evil, as it shall be properly or improperly directed."

The Internet has evolved from technology that Morse understood would be wielded for both good and evil.

Sources:

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tel/morse/morse.htm#C

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-20124672/americas-original-wire-the-telegraph-at-150/

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/8383495-418/transcontinental-telegraph-at-150-the-first-social-network-in-the-us.html

http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/150/1830.xhtml