1830s - 1860s: The Telegraph and Imagining the Internet

This timeline explores the evolution of communication technologies from the telegraph to the internet, highlighting how rapidly communication forms change with technological advancements.

Historical Overview

• Printing Press: Dominant until the telegraph's development.
• Telegraph: Enabled instant communication over vast distances for the first time.
• Radio & Telephone: Followed the telegraph as popular communication mediums.
• Television & Internet: Further evolved mass communication, integrating earlier technologies.

Development of the Telegraph

• Early Concepts: Electric signal transmission across wires envisioned as early as the 1700s.
• Samuel Morse:
  • Began working on the telegraph in 1832.
  • Developed Morse Code in 1835.
  • Presented telegraph concept to U.S. Congress in 1838.
  • Established a telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in 1843 with Congress's backing.
  • Sent the first message "What hath God wrought?" on May 24, 1844.
• Expansion:
  • Western Union's first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.
  • By 1864, Western Union operated 44,000 miles of wire, valued at $10 million.
  • By 1866, network expanded to 100,000 miles with capital stock value over $40 million.

Technological Progress

• Trained Code Users: Initially required for message transmission.
• Automatic Transmission: Developed in 1914, speeding up message delivery.
• Regulation: Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 and Communications Act of 1934 brought regulatory oversight.

World Changes Due to the Telegraph

• Pre-Telegraph Communication: Comparable to post-printing press era, slow and geographically constrained.
• Post-Telegraph:
  • Enabled rapid information exchange, shrinking the world.
  • Altered business and politics, fostering predictions of world peace and the obsolescence of newspapers.

Predictions About the Telegraph

• Morse's Vision: Saw telegraph as a powerful tool for good or evil.
• Skepticism: Initial doubts by Senator Smith of Indiana and Sen. George McDuffie.
  • Concerns about practicality, constitutional authority, and potential misuse.
• Rejection by Government: Postmaster general refused Morse's $100,000 telegraph offer.
• Transatlantic Cable (1858): Praised for connecting continents, seen as reducing time and distance barriers.

Notable Responses

• Charles F. Briggs & Augustus Maverick: Praised the telegraph's role in uniting nations and fostering global civilization.

Reference

• Excerpt from Janna Quitney Anderson's book "Imagining the Internet: Personalities, Predictions, Perspectives" (2005).