Jan 16 2008
From the Pony Express to Video Interviewing, Part 2 –or, The Rise of Western Union
By the end of the Pony Express, telegraph lines had already been in use for many years in the eastern parts of America. The first working telegraph system began in 1844. Telegraphs worked by using electric impulses to transmit messages over a wire. They used a series of dots and dashes called Morse Code to organize those impulses into words that could then be interpreted at the other end of the line. How’s that for a simplified explanation?
The invention of Morse Code is credited to Samuel Morse (he’s the one with the patent), but there is some debate out there over how much work he put into it versus how much his partner, Alfred Vail, had to do with it. Some people think that Morse was more of a marketer than a scientist.
The bottom line of this story is that by sending clicks over a wire, you could get critical information to others quickly. Once Western Union finished the first transcontinental telegraph lines in 1861, America became really connected from sea to shining sea. This helped to set the stage for explosive growth in the next few years. (Although doesn’t it make you think of smoke signals? I wonder if the concept influenced the inventor’s thinking process?)
Side note: There are those who worry that Morse Code will be lost: a retired astrophysicist in Arizona is translating books into Morse Code to sell or give away. And apparently, according to the same article, there’s a German computer game called Rufz that lets players practice and compete for speed.
Americans have always been interested in faster, more effective communication. It’s good for business.
What’s next? The telephone, of course.
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[...] From the Pony Express to Video Interviewing, Part 2 –or, The Rise of Western Union [...]
[...] far, we’ve talked about the Pony Express, the telegraph, the telephone, and the cell phone. Some things come and go, and some things are so useful [...]