Researched
Electric Telegraph
From 1844 Morse’s telegraph sends messages over long lines in seconds: for the first time information is faster than a messenger.
Open in the interactive tree →Cooke and Wheatstone patented their telegraph in 1837 and ran the world’s first commercial line on the Great Western Railway in England from 1838; on 24 May 1844 Samuel Morse sent “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore. Undersea cables permanently linked Europe and America from 1866. The telegraph invented the digital principle of a message made of symbols and the network of lines and switching.
Prerequisites
- Optical Telegraph (Chappe)1792Chappe's relay-station network was the first working model of a telegraph network
- Voltaic Pile (First Battery)1800
- Electromagnetism1831-1865
Unlocks
- Weather maps and services1854Telegraph lines delivered observations fast enough for weather maps
- Transatlantic telegraph cable1866
- Telephone1876
- Sound Recording1877
- Radio (Wireless Telegraphy)1895
- Enigma & Rotor Ciphers1918