History of Communication — 2-Part Series

• Part 1: Communication Before Electricity
• Part 2: From the Telegraph to the Internet (current)

History of Communication Part 2: From the Telegraph to the Internet

In Part 1, we explored pre-electric communication — from ancient signal fires and smoke signals to drum languages and Chappe’s optical telegraph. Yet all of these methods shared a common limitation: they depended on weather and line of sight, were rendered useless at night, and faced physical limits on transmission speed. In the 19th century, a new force — electricity — shattered all of these constraints at once.

Electric Telegraph: Samuel Morse and Morse Code

While optical telegraphy depended on weather and visibility, the invention of the electric telegraph in the 19th century was a true revolution. In darkness and fog, across thousands of kilometers, an electrical signal could arrive in an instant.

Morse’s Journey

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791–1872) originally built his reputation as a portrait painter. In 1832, on a ship returning from studying art in Europe, Morse heard a conversation about the newly discovered electromagnet and conceived the idea of the electric telegraph.^[1]

From 1832 to 1837, Morse developed a working model of the electric telegraph using crude materials such as homemade batteries and old clock gears. Morse collaborated with Leonard Gale, a chemistry professor at the University of the City of New York, to create a functioning telegraph, and in September 1837 the two gave the first demonstration.^[1]

The Birth of Morse Code

Morse initially developed a numerical code, but the system was greatly improved when his friend Alfred Vail joined in 1837. Vail improved the telegraph by adding a weight instead of Morse’s original pendulum and using a steel stylus instead of a pencil to engrave codes on paper tape. Vail also developed a simpler alphabetic code system that directly represented the alphabet, numbers, and punctuation with dots and dashes, replacing Morse’s complex numerical code.^[1]

On January 11, 1838, at the Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey, Morse and Vail gave the first public demonstration of the electric telegraph. This Morse code was expanded by Vail in 1840 and became the worldwide standard.^[1]

“What Hath God Wrought?”

In March 1843, the U.S. Congress approved $30,000 (equivalent to over $1 million in 2024 terms) for Morse to build a telegraph line connecting Washington and Baltimore.^[2] On May 24, 1844, from the U.S. Senate chamber, Morse transmitted to his partner Alfred Vail in Baltimore the phrase drawn from Numbers 23:23 in the Bible: “What hath God wrought?” The wording had been suggested by Annie Ellsworth, daughter of the Commissioner of Patents.^[2]

This demonstration proved the electric telegraph was not merely a laboratory device but a practical means of communication. The proof of utility had in fact appeared three days earlier. On May 1, Vail had telegraphed Morse with news of the Whig presidential nomination, obtained from a train stopped at Baltimore station — delivering the news to Washington 64 minutes before the train carrying the same information arrived.^[2]

The electric telegraph spread rapidly. By the 1850s, telegraph lines were laid across the United States, and in 1866 the transatlantic cable was completed, connecting Europe and North America.^[3] This was the result of businessman Cyrus Field crossing the Atlantic more than 40 times over 12 years to raise the necessary funds. Before the cable’s completion, communication between Europe and the Americas depended on ships and was routinely delayed by weeks during winter storms. After 1866, it became possible to exchange round-trip messages between the two continents within the same day.^[3]

The Invention of the Telephone: Bell and Gray’s Competition

While the telegraph enabled communication through dots and dashes, the telephone was an even more revolutionary invention that converted actual voice into electrical signals for transmission. The telegraph required trained operators who knew the code; the telephone could be used by anyone who could speak. That difference drove the democratization of communication.

The Patent Race of February 14, 1876

On February 14, 1876, lawyers for Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) and Elisha Gray (1835–1901) submitted similar telephone ideas to the U.S. Patent Office almost simultaneously. The Patent Office ruled that Bell’s application arrived first, and on March 7, 1876, Bell received U.S. Patent 174,465 for the telephone.^[4]

This simultaneous filing became the subject of controversy for decades. Corruption allegations were raised during trials and appeals (1878–1888) that patent examiner Zenas Wilber had leaked secret information from Elisha Gray’s patent application and caveat to Alexander Graham Bell and his patent attorney.^[4]

However, according to 2020 research by Dr. Benjamin Brown of Marquette University, it was established that Alexander Graham Bell had in fact devised a working telephone before Elisha Gray.^[4]

The First Telephone Call

On March 10, 1876, Bell successfully transmitted the first words through the telephone in his Boston laboratory: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Bell recorded in his experiment notes, “To my delight, he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said.”^[4] This sentence remains one of the most famous moments in the history of telecommunications.

Bell’s telephone worked by converting voice into electrical signals, transmitting those signals through wires, and then reconverting them back into voice at the receiving end. For the first time in human history, real-time voice conversations were possible without distance constraints. The commercial impact was equally immediate. In 1877, Gardiner Hubbard founded the Bell Telephone Company to commercialize the invention, and Bell’s telephone patent became one of the most valuable patents in history.^[4]

The Beginning of Wireless Communication: Marconi and Radio

While the telephone enabled wired voice communication, wireless telegraphy was another revolution entirely. Sending a signal somewhere a wire could not reach — across the middle of an ocean, or over unfamiliar terrain — was impossible in the age of telephone lines.

Hertz’s Discovery and Marconi’s Experiments

Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937) was able to build a wireless communication system thanks to the 1888 discovery by German physicist Heinrich Hertz. Hertz was the first to experimentally confirm the existence of electromagnetic waves that James Clerk Maxwell had predicted with equations. Using a simple apparatus of a Leyden jar and an induction coil, he generated electromagnetic waves and detected them via spark discharge between two brass spheres.^[5] Hertz also confirmed that these waves traveled at the speed of light, propagated in straight lines, and could be refracted and reflected.^[5]

Marconi studied physics at a technical school in Leghorn, Italy, and became fascinated by Hertz’s research. In 1895, Marconi began experiments at his father’s house in Pontecchio and soon was able to transmit signals over 1.5 miles (about 2.4 km). Marconi moved to England in 1896 to apply for a patent for his device, and the first patent for a wireless telegraph system was granted that year.^[6]

Transatlantic Wireless Communication

After demonstrating the system’s ability to transmit wireless signals across the Bristol Channel, Marconi established the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited, which was renamed Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company Limited in 1900.^[6]

On December 12, 1901, Marconi and his assistant George Kemp received the first wireless signal transmitted from Poldhu, Cornwall, England, at a distance of over 2,100 miles (about 3,380 km) at Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Using an antenna wire raised 500 feet high with a kite and a telephone receiver, they heard the Morse code letter “S.”^[6]

This transatlantic wireless achievement overturned the predictions of scientists of the day. Many had believed radio waves could not travel beyond the curvature of the Earth; it was later confirmed that Marconi’s signal had been reflected off the ionosphere in the upper atmosphere to cross the Atlantic.^[6]

For this achievement, Marconi shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ferdinand Braun “in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.”^[6] Marconi’s achievements became the foundation for radio, television, and all modern wireless communication systems.

Under the Sea and Above the Sky: The Expansion of Communication Infrastructure

While Marconi’s wireless telegraphy sent signals through the atmosphere, another pillar of 20th-century communication was laid beneath the ocean.

Submarine Cables: The Invisible Lines Connecting Continents

After the success of the 1866 transatlantic telegraph cable, submarine cables continued to advance. The early copper cables could only carry a few characters per minute in telegraph code, but the inauguration of TAT-1, the first transatlantic telephone cable, in 1956 made it possible to carry 36 simultaneous voice calls.^[7]

The decisive turning point came with the advent of fiber optics. This technology, which transmits data using total internal reflection of light within glass fibers, offered capacity on an entirely different scale from copper wire. TAT-8, the first transatlantic fiber-optic cable, went into service in 1988 and could transmit data at 280 megabits per second.^[7] Today, approximately 95% or more of all intercontinental data traffic travels through submarine fiber-optic cables.^[8] As of 2024, roughly 550 submarine cables have been laid worldwide, with a total length exceeding 1.4 million kilometers.^[8]

Communication Satellites: Relay Towers in the Sky

While submarine cables connected continent to continent, communication satellites filled the gaps that cables could not reach.

Telstar 1, launched in 1962, was the first satellite to successfully relay live television across the Atlantic.^[9] Because it orbited in a low orbit, communication was only possible during limited windows each day, but it proved to the world the potential of satellite communication.

In 1965, Intelsat I (commonly known as “Early Bird”) was placed in geostationary orbit, opening the door to continuous communication across the Atlantic.^[9]

Satellite phones pushed this technology a step further. The Iridium system, which began service in 1998, built a communication network covering the entire Earth with 66 low-orbit satellites.^[10] It became possible to make a phone call from the middle of the Sahara Desert or the heart of the Pacific Ocean. Although Iridium initially went through bankruptcy as a business, technologically it effectively eliminated communication dead zones on Earth.

Conclusion

Electric communication, which began in 1844 with the first telegraph message Morse sent across 64 kilometers, wove the entire planet into a single communication network in just 180 years. Throughout that process, one thing has remained unchanged: the true innovation in communication technology has never been the invention of a new signaling method, but the expansion of the infrastructure that carries it.

Morse’s telegraph worked only as far as copper wire could reach. When Cyrus Field spent 12 years laying cable across the Atlantic seabed, the telegraph finally became a means of intercontinental communication. Marconi’s wireless telegraphy needed no wires, but it was only when satellites reached geostationary orbit that the entire Earth could be connected in real time. Without fiber optics laid beneath the ocean floor, today’s Internet could not exist.

From signal fires to the telegraph, from the telegraph to the telephone, from the telephone to wireless, and then to submarine cables and satellites. The medium has changed, but the impulse to deliver this moment’s news to someone far away has not.