The telegraph changed business forever—This article is about how one man changed the course of history of communication.
A man and his two partners successfully packed more than two miles of wires into a building.
He man wanted to show people his strange new invention.
He said it could send messages far away, over long distances.
His invention used a series of dots and dashes, which represented letters and numbers.
This would later become what we know today as the ‘Morse Code’.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
Morse enjoyed painting, fascinated by electricity, and loved art.
How it started
In 1825, while Morse was painting in Washington, D.C
A letter arrived, and a tragedy had occurred.
His wife was sick. He went home to New Haven, but she had already been buried.
Grief hit him hard.
He swore to find a faster way to send important messages.
In 1832, on a ship home from Europe, he met Charles Thomas Jackson, a doctor and scientist from Boston.
Jackson showed him a simple electromagnet he had made.
Morse saw the idea right away.
He thought he could open and close an electrical circuit to send messages through a wire.
It was the birth of ‘The Telegraph’.
A device that used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire.
Morse worked for years on his invention.
In 1843, the first line in the U.S. ran from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
In May 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram: “What hath God wrought!”
Because businesses were charged by the word, telegrams were brief and direct.
The word “stop” was free, so people used it instead of a period, which cost money.
In 1933, Western Union started singing telegrams.
During World War II, Americans feared telegrams—they often brought news of a soldier’s death.
Through the 20th century, telegraphs faded.
Phones and faxes took over. Western Union sent its last telegram in January 2006.
Samuel Morse died rich and famous in New York City on April 2, 1872. He was 80.
How the Telegraph Shaped Clear and Efficient Business Communication
The Need for Speed:
Time was money, and the telegraph saved both.
Messages that once took days to arrive arrived in minutes.
Stock trades and shipping needed quick answers.
Companies learned to write short and clear.
Cost Considerations:
Initially, telegraph services were paid for by the word.
Every word cost money.
Long, polite letters gave way to short, direct phrases.
“Your shipment arrives tomorrow” replaced “I would like to inform you that your shipment is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.”
Standardization of Terms:
The telegraph created common shorthand.
Phrases like “C.O.D.” (Cash on Delivery) and “R.S.V.P.” became standard.
These saved time and kept messages simple and clear.
The telegraph inspired brevity and clarity.
A new era of concise business writing emerged, still shaping communication today.
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