A Simple Plan

Change the flow of electricity at one point in a circuit, and detect the change at another point. What could be simpler? To make a telegraph, all you needed was:

• a source of electricity
• a conductor, such as copper wire
• a detector

Several people quickly came up with similar proposals. In 1837, Charles Wheatstone in England and Samuel Morse in the United States each perfected an electric telegraph for use over land.

	Telegraphy is simpler on land. When technical complications seemed to doom the idea of a transatlantic cable, an overland route from Europe was proposed, by way of Russia, Siberia, and Alaska. This wire came from a Canadian section of the project.
Iron telegraph wire: land line, 1865 National Museum of American History, from Western Union

Pressing the key at one end of the circuit allows current to flow, which causes a magnet to pull down a lever at the other end.
Morse key and receiver, 1850s National Museum of American History, from C.M. Lewis and R.B. Freeman

	The first telegraph manual was written by Alfred Vail, a colleague of Samuel Morse. Vail's descriptions were very basic, but his book filled the bill as a guide for early telegraphers.
Alfred Vail, The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph (Philadelphia, 1845) Smithsonian Institution Libraries

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