People have always tried to communicate on distances, that are longer than their own voice could reach. Such information had to be adjusted to the type of transmission – coded. Transmission of the coded messages on a long-distance place was called telegraphy. The oldest way of telegraphying were the signals (drums – tamtams) and optical alarm (fire, smoke, flags, semaphores, mirrors).

After inventing electricity it was possible to transmitt the signals on the wire using the electric circuit. First the electro-static telegraph systems appeard. The first one was presented by Charles Morrison in 1753: the wires led from the Leyden-bottle to the 26 small papers on which the letters were written. Bringing the electro-static shot to a certain paper (letter) caused the shift of it into a readable position. Similar experiments were carried out also by other succesors, but they did just this type of experiments.

The telegraph was fetched out from the blind alley as late as 1820 when Oersted found out, that around the electric line wire arises the electro-magnetic field, that is able to shift the compass-pointer. The electromagnet arose on this principle, the next development was “just” the question of good ideas. In 1832 the first needle telegraphs appear (that time they were called galvanic meters). One of them is beeing presented in Germany in the same year by a Russian technician and diplomat P. L. Silling. The system uses five needle-pointers for the indication of a special code. Its meaning is then searched in a dictionary.

Single-needle telegraph set with gongs. This unit was used to control the movement of railroad trains on the British railroads. The three positions of the needle are labeled: TRAIN ON LINE/LINE CLOSED/LINE CLEAR.
(Figure was taken over from: http://www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/0010.gif)

In the same year (1832) a man, whose name was later connected with the electromagnetic telegraph, is coming back to the United States after his studies of painting in Europe. The name of this man is Samuel F. B. Morse. He was returning home on a packet-boat “Sully” and there a sad message about the death of his first wife reached him. This message has been pilgriming to him for about a fortnight. This event and the discussions with one of the travellers about the new electromagnetic inventions in Europe inspired him to the first notes about “the record electromagnetic telegraph” and the code made from points and lines for each letter of the alphabet. A year later he demonstrates his first apparatus for the signal-transmission on a wire: on one end he turns on the switch and on the other he marks the paper riband. However he completed his first functional telegraph in 1836 (today in the National museum in Washington). The machine consists of an old picture-frame, that is fixed to a table. Further he used the wheels from old wooden clock, which were propeled with a weight and shifted a narrow paper band.

The register, cca 1900
(Figure was taken over from  http://www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/2520.gif)

At that time Silling and other creators of the needle telegraphs tried as hard as they could to improve and to simplify their machines, but this was a lost battle. The needle telegraphs were adjudged only for their use on the English railway for conducting the train transport. On 20^th June1840 the 49-year-old Morse gets the American patent for “The record electromagnetic telegraph” and the “Telegraph symbols”, in 1844 the first telegraph key appears, in 1846 the sound “terminals” appear (by the way in the same year the first telegraph she-operator already exists – Sarah G. Bagley) because to listen to the code is faster then to read it. In 1849 the first keyboard already exists. It enables the transmission of real letters (!) not the codes (New York – Philadelphia). There have been made some improvements in the Morse code, too, because some codes were problematic (C, O, R, Y and Z): and international (continental) code was established.

The transmission distances constantly grow: from few kilometers to tens kilometers. The cabels are conducted “in the air”, under the earth and even under the water. In 1852 the first cabel over La Manche was laid, and in 1858 the cabel across the Atlantic, but it survived only 24 days. A new, stable cabel was laid on 28^th June 1868.

The development of the telegraph does not end with the death of its inventor, who dies at the age of 82 in New York on 2^nd April 1872. The history goes on, when in 1888 a German Henrich Hertz invents the radio waves and the Italian Guglielmo Marconi tries his first wireless transmission in 1894. Already in 1889 the wireless transmission saves the sinking light-house ship “East Goodwin”, which transmited the word “help”.

The key "Vibroplex Original", cca 1907
(Figure was taken over from  http://www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/6060.gif)

In 1906 the distress signal “SOS” was accepted. 6 years later, on 15^th April 1912 Jack Phillips, the telegraphist on Titanic desperately transmits this signal …

The copy of the telegraph key of Titanic
(Figure was taken over from  http://www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/4017)

Czechoslovak telegraph key of  50's.
(Figure was taken over from http://www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/9740.gif)

The last chapter in the development of the telegraph keys are so called automatic (electronic) telegraph keys (elbug). At this time, there are already black clouds above the telegraph: on 30^th May 1967 the last telegraph message in Canada was transmitted. The telegraph stations were gradually canceled also in other states. The last country that was still using telegraph was Mexico and the railway in central America. But in 1992 even the Mexican government cancels the telegraph.

Telegraph moved to museums and collections of enhusiasts. The last bearers of the tradition are only the radio-amateurs: with their simple and undemanding machines they keep in touch all over the world.

The wood telegraph key for collectors made by the publisher of this websites,
Q-club Pribram.