Communications

Americans commonly recognize television, e-mail, and instant messaging as agents of pervasive cultural change. But many of us may not realize that what we now call “mail” was once just as revolutionary.

This fascinating history traces these shifts from their beginnings in the 19th century, when cheaper postage, mass literacy, and migration combined to make the long-established postal service a more integral and viable part of everyday life. With such dramatic events occurring and underscoring the importance and necessity of communications, a surprisingly broad range of Americans joined this network, regularly interacting with distant locales before the existence of telephones or even the widespread use of telegraphy. Drawings on original letters and diaries from the period, as well as public discussions of the expanding postal system were included (Morse code).


Electromagnets


(Samuel Morse)

The electromagnet was invented by Joseph Henry. However, it was Samuel Morse (1791-1872) that successfully exploited the electromagnet and bettered Henry's invention. Morse made sketches of a "magnetized magnet" based on Henry's work. Morse invented a telegraph system that was a practical and commercial success. The telegraph is (now an outdated communication advancing technology i.e. cellular phones, internet) system that transmitted electric signals over wires from location to location that translated into a message. The original Morse telegraph printed code on tape. However, in the United States the operation developed into sending by key and receiving by ear. A trained Morse code operator could transmit 40 to 50 words per minute. Automatic transmission, introduced in 1914, handled more than twice that number.





Picture shown: (Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham)

In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other; Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph. When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.



Invented in 1891 by Nikola Tesla, the Tesla coil is still used in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment Tesla is now credited with inventing modern radio as well; since the Supreme Court overturned Guglielmo Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Nikola Tesla's earlier patents. The Tesla coil, invented in 1891, is still used in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment.