Influenced
by the previous ideas, Samuel F.B. Morse, with
the help from Leonard Gale (a chemistry
professor), used batteries and electromagnets to
send electric currents over 1,700 feet of wire
with simple codes such as dots and lines. Later
he met Alfred Vail, who later improved his codes
so that it represented letters, numbers, and
operating functions. This system became known as
the Morse code.
In 1834 the U.S. congress approved
$30,000 for Morse to build a telegraph line from
Washington D.C. to Baltimore. The system was
demonstrated on May 24, 1844 when Morse sent the
first official telegraph message, "What hath
God wrought!" Morse then formed the Magnetic
Telegraph Company and set off a great wave of
telegraph line construction.
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