Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Start Of It All...!


I'll bet these guys could NEVER, in a million years, have imagined what they were starting!

As big as this was in it's day, what it started was something really special! I guess you can say that this actually was the start of the information age!

May 24, 1844:

What hath God wrought?

In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The message--"What Hath God Wrought?"--was telegraphed back to the Capitol a moment later by Vail. The question, taken from the Bible (Numbers 23:23), had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the daughter of the commissioner of patents.

Morse, an accomplished painter, learned of a French inventor's idea of an electric telegraph in 1832 and then spent the next 12 years attempting to perfect a working telegraph instrument. During this period, he composed the Morse code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph messages, and convinced Congress to finance a Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line. On May 24, 1844, he inaugurated the world's first commercial telegraph line with a message that was fitting given the invention's future effects on American life.

Just a decade after the first line opened, more than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crisscrossed the country. The rapid communication it enabled greatly aided American expansion, making railroad travel safer as it provided a boost to business conducted across the great distances of a growing United States.

Thanks to History.com for this story! You can always find some interesting stuff about history, if you just look!

Let's get some fresh coffee and sit on the patio for a bit! Hot and dry again today!

8 comments:

russell1200 said...

I believe he was originally a portrait painter.

It was possible back then to be a hobbiest scientist/engineer and still be on the cutting edge.

Ben in Texas said...

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HossBoss said...

Ditto what Ben in Texas said ...whatever Ben said. LOL

JoJo said...

Never get tired of reading your informative posts. It was a refresher course for sure.
Sorry for the late comment yesterday I guess I was in to much of hurry to read much in the morning.
But I will sit and have a cup with you now. :) Pass the pot please.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Like Ben said, a really great history lesson today and
Dit-dah dah-dit dah-dit-dit Dit-dit-dit-dit dit dit-dah-dit-dit dit-dah-dit-dit dah-dah-dah Dah dah-dah-dah Dah-dit-dah-dah dah-dah-dah dit-dit-dah Dit-dah-dah-dah dit-dit dah-dah dit-dah-dit-dah-dit-dah

TROUBLEnTX said...

trouble with google account, wont let me post on DDs blog, could on BBs, using another way. Anyway, pour me some more of that coffee, n move over in that porch swing.

Sixbears said...

We've had high speed communication for some time, haven't we.

Time for another cup of that good medium roast Rwandan coffee. I roasted it just yesterday.

HermitJim said...

Hey All...
Blogger won't let me answer the comments!

I do appreciate all the visits though!