Name: Rica Mae Tradio
Subject: E- TECH
FUNCTION OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
Electrical telegraph networks permitted people and commerce to transmit messages
across both continents and oceans almost instantly, with widespread social and
economic impacts. C. 1894, the electric telegraph led to Guglielmo Marconi’s invention
of wireless telegraphy, the first means of radio wave telecommunication.[5]
In the early 20th century, manual telegraphy was slowly replaced by teleprinter networks.
Increasing use of the telephone pushed telegraphy into a few specialist uses. Use by
the general public was mainly special occasion telegram greetings. The rise of the
Internet and usage of email in the 1990s largely put an end to dedicated telegraphy
networks.
DEFINITION OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
Electrical telegraphs were point-to-point text messaging systems, primarily used from
the 1840s until the late 20 th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications
system and the most widely used of a number of early messaging systems called
telegraphs, that were devised to communicate text messages more quickly than
physical transportation. Electrical telegraphy can be considered to be the first example
of electrical engineering. Text telegraphy consisted of two or more geographically
separated stations, called telegraph offices. The offices were connected by wires,
usually supported overhead on utility poles. Many different electrical telegraph systems
were invented, but the ones that became widespread fit into two broad categories. The
first category consists of needle telegraphs in which a needle pointer is made to move
electromagnetically with an electric current sent down the telegraph line. Early systems
used multiple needles requiring multiple wires. The first commercial system, and the
most widely used needle telegraph, was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, invented
in 1837. The second category consists of armature systems in which the current
activates a telegraph sounder that makes a click. The archetype of this category was
the Morse system, invented by Samuel Morse in 1838. In 1865, the Morse system
became the standard for international communication using a modified code developed
for German railways.Electrical telegraphs were used by the emerging railway
companies to develop train control systems, minimizing the chances of trains colliding
with each other.[4] This was built around the signalling block system with signal boxes
along the line communicating with their neighbouring boxes by telegraphic sounding of
single-stroke bells and three-position needle telegraph instruments.In the 1840s, the
electrical telegraph superseded optical telegraph systems, becoming the standard way
to send urgent messages. By the latter half of the century, most developed nations had
created commercial telegraph networks with local telegraph offices in most cities and
towns, allowing the public to send messages called telegrams addressed to any person
in the country, for a fee.Beginning in 1850, submarine telegraph cables allowed for the
first rapid communication between continents.
PHOTO OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
Cooke and Wheatstone’s five-needle Morse Telegraph
telegraph from 1837
Hughes telegraph, an early (1855)
teleprinter built by Siemens and
Halske
