The Birth of Telegraph
Today is the historic day when more than a decade long efforts by Morse and Vail have borne a sweet fruit of success. They were able to put Morse code to work and prove its significance. This code assigns letters in the alphabet and numbers a set of dots (short marks) and dashes (long marks) based on the frequency of use; letters used often (such as "E") get a simple code, while those used infrequently (such as "Q") get a longer and more complex code. In 1843, Morse and Vail received funding from the U.S. Congress to set up and test their telegraph system between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Yesterday, on May 24, 1844, Morse sent the historic first message: "What hath God wrought?" from the old Supreme Court chamber in the United States Capitol to his partner, Vail, in Baltimore. Annie Ellsworth, the younger daughter of a friend of Morse chose the words of the message, and she selected a verse from Numbers XXIII 23: “What had God wrought?” These were recorded onto paper tape. Just to add in some laughs, he painted the telegraph his two favorite colors, blue and gray, since he was an accomplished painter. Samuel Morse is the first maker of the telegraph although people have designed similar things; they were never made public or actually made. This appears to be the beginning of a new communication channel that would bring the world closer and we will not have to wait for days to deliver and receive important messages.