Electrical telegraph

An electrical telegraph transmits coded messages over wires by sending electrical signals between distant stations. It enabled near-instant long-distance communication before the telephone.

Morse code: A code that represents letters, numerals, and punctuation with sequences of short and long signals. Its dots and dashes let telegraph operators encode text as timed electrical pulses.
Francis Ronalds: An English scientist who demonstrated an electrical telegraph system in 1816. His early apparatus showed that electrical signals could convey messages over wires.
Railway signalling: Systems that coordinate train movements and protect railway operations. Telegraph messages let railway staff coordinate trains on shared tracks.
Optical telegraph: A signaling system that relays messages through visible arrangements of towers, arms, or flags. It sent coded messages before electrical signals could travel through wires.
Telegraph key: A hand-operated switch used to open and close an electrical circuit. An operator pressed it to shape each transmitted signal.
Pavel Schilling: A Russian diplomat and inventor who built an electromagnetic telegraph in the 1830s. His experiments helped establish electromagnetic telegraphy as a practical approach.
News agency: An organization that gathers and distributes news to newspapers and other media. Telegraph lines allowed agencies to send reports rapidly across regions.
Semaphore: A visual signaling method that encodes messages through the positions of flags or mechanical arms. It required line of sight, unlike the electrical telegraph's wire connection.
Telegraph sounder: An electromagnetic device that converts incoming telegraph current into audible clicks. Its clicks let operators hear and interpret received signals.
William Fothergill Cooke: An English inventor who developed an early commercial telegraph with Charles Wheatstone. His system became the first public electric telegraph in Britain.

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