In the early nineteenth century a nationwide optical telegraph preceded the electric wire. France used the Chappe semaphore system with towers carrying three rotating arms that formed nearly two hundred standard positions. Operators sighted neighboring stations with telescopes and relayed messages across distances up to fifteen miles between hills or rooftops.
An Optical Network Before Wires
The word telegraph originally meant to write at a distance and first referred to the Chappe relay in France. Crews cranked the arms into place and passed the signals from tower to tower. It was the fastest method for carrying information before electricity. A young American government later offered thirty thousand dollars to anyone who could build a semaphore line of one thousand miles. The offer was ignored and forgotten but never canceled.
A Sketch at Sea
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was a painter born in 1791. By 1815 he earned a living as a portraitist and traveled between America and Europe. In 1832 he sailed home on the Sully. During the voyage a fellow passenger described recent work in electromagnetism.
Morse sketched a device with an electromagnet and a stylus to send coded messages over a wire. He told the captain to remember that the telegraph began on the Sully if it ever became a wonder of the world. In 1837 he learned of the old reward and approached Congress with his invention.
Building a Working Line
Morse developed the idea while he painted and taught at New York University. Leonard Gale showed him how to make a simple electromagnet and helped assemble an apparatus that sent a signal one thousand feet. Joseph Henry created electric relays that allowed signals to travel long distances and later became the first Secretary of the Smithsonian.
Alfred Vail joined as an assistant and helped design the coded dots and dashes that became known as Morse code. By 1837 Morse built a prototype from one of his easels. It was large and rudimentary but it worked.
From First Message to a National Network
Congress funded a demonstration. On May twenty fourth eighteen forty four the first message crossed forty miles between Washington and Baltimore and read What Hath God Wrought. In the next ten years twenty three thousand miles of wire were built across the United States. Vail devised the familiar telegraph key and miniaturized the machine so it could be used in practice.
The partners defended their patents. Other inventors built different systems. Alexander Bain used treated paper in a chemical telegraph that worked faster than mechanical designs. David Edward Hughes created a printing telegraph that used piano style keys. By the eighteen sixties Western Union bought most patents and combined the most effective parts into a transcontinental network that linked American cities and routes for commerce and travel.
In 1832 aboard the ship Sully, painter Samuel Morse learned about electromagnetism and sketched a device to send messages over wires.
Twelve years later, his telegraph sent the first message between Washington and Baltimore: “What Hath God Wrought.”🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/vqlBcassYV
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) September 10, 2025