Timeline of North American telegraphy

src: upload.wikimedia.org

The timeline of North American telegraphy is a chronology of notable events in the history of electric telegraphy in the United States and Canada, including the rapid spread of telegraphic communications starting from 1844 and completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861.

Video Timeline of North American telegraphy

Timeline

Early events

• 1836: David Alter of Pennsylvania develops the first American electrical telegraph, but he never develops the idea into a practical system.
• Jan 1837: Samuel Chester Reid proposes that the U.S. Congress fund an optical telegraph (semaphore line) from New York to New Orleans.
• Sept 1837: Morse employs Alfred Vail to improve his telegraph from demonstration purposes for a share of future patent rights.
• Sept 1837: Samuel Morse files for a patent for his electrical telegraph in the United States.
• 6 Jan 1838: Samuel Morse sends his first public demonstration message over two miles of wire at Speedwell Ironworks in New Jersey. Morse also demonstrates his invention to the Franklin Institute and President Martin Van Buren in early 1838.
• April 1838: Congressman Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith proposes to give $30,000 for Morse to build a line to demonstrate the telegraph, but the bill does not pass.
• 1840: Morse obtains a patent.
• 3 March 1843: The United States Congress appropriates funds for Samuel Morse to lay a telegraph line from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore.
• 21 October 1843: Originally Morse decided to lay his wire underground, and asked Ezra Cornell to lay the line using a special cable-laying plow that Cornell had developed. Wire began to be laid in Baltimore on October 21, 1843, but the project was stopped after 15 km of wire was laid because the line was failing. Morse learned that Cooke and Wheatstone in England were now using poles for their lines, and he decided to follow that lead.
• 1 April 1844: Work begins in Washington on laying the line to Baltimore using poles. They used chestnut poles of seven meters in height, and 60 meters apart. Two wires were laid, Number 16 copper wire, covered by cotton thread with shellac, and a covering mixture of "beeswax, resin, linseed oil, and asphalt.".
• 1 May 1844: Test of line conveys news of the Whig Party's nomination of Henry Clay for U.S. President from the party's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington.
• 24 May 1844: Morse's first message over the Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, "What hath God wrought!" is transmitted, chosen from the Bible for Morse by Annie G. Ellsworth, because she knew Morse was religious.

Spread of telegraphic lines

• 1845

• 1 April 1845: First public telegraph office opens in Washington, D.C.
• 15 May 1845: Morse founds the Magnetic Telegraph Company with Amos Kendall, Francis O.J. Smith, Ezra Cornell, and Orrin S. Wood, with a goal to extend the Washington-Baltimore line to New York.
• 16-18 September 1845: Orrin S. Wood builds a short telegraph line of about one mile from Utica, New York to the city fairgrounds (the site of that year's New York State Fair), for public demonstration.
• October 1845: Samuel Colt partners with William Robinson (a New York book dealer) to form the New York and Offing Electric Telegraph Association. A line is laid from an observation tower built on Coney Island to Manhattan to get news from shipping traffic to the New York Mercantile Exchange more quickly. The first line laid across the East River from Brooklyn by Colt on October 23 or 24 quickly fails. The northern terminus of the line becomes the Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn, with news then ferried across the river. A second line across the East River at Hell Gate was operational by March 1846.
• 7 November 1845: Wood builds a line from Buffalo, New York to Lockport, New York that goes into operation on November 7 - the first line opened for regular commercial business.
• November 1845: November 14, 1845 New York Herald notes another short planned line, the "Boston Marine Line", which was similar to the New York Offing Line, a line from Nastasket to inner Boston to transmit news from incoming ships.
• 24 November 1845: Line from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (about 35 miles) is completed.
• November 1845: 14 mile line from Philadelphia to Norristown, Pennsylvania opens due to great public interest in the work.

• 1846

• 8 January 1846: Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania line opens.
• 20 January 1846: Philadelphia to Fort Lee, New Jersey line opens. Direct connection across Hudson River to New York City is delayed due to failed attempts to extend wires across the river.
• 31 January 1846: Line from Albany, New York to Utica, New York (96 miles) is open.
• 21 February 1846: Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts line opens, with Sarah G. Bagley (first female operator?) at Lowell end.
• 22 March 1846: Boston line reaches Springfield, Massachusetts.
• 26 March 1846: Boston line reaches Hartford, Connecticut.
• 13 April 1846: Line from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware starts operations.
• 1 May 1846: Boston line reaches New Haven, Connecticut about May 1.
• 1 June 1846: Albany-Utica extends further west to Syracuse, New York.
• 5 June 1846: With completion of link between Baltimore and Philadelphia, line from New York City to Washington, D.C. by Magnetic Telegraph Company is now operational.
• 27 June 1846: Commercial line between New York City and Boston completed by F.O.J. Smith. On July 4, the next steamer from Europe to Boston (the Britannia) arrives. Does not appear that telegraph was used, and Herald reports how news traveled from Boston to New York in 10 hours. Next steamer (Cambria) arrives in Boston on July 18 and the New York papers use the new telegraph line.
• 3 July 1846: Albany line reaches Buffalo, New York.
• August? 1846: Line from Ithaca, New York to Auburn, New York (43 miles) opens.
• 9 September 1846: Albany-New York City line opens.
• 19 December 1846: Line in the Province of Canada, from Toronto to Hamilton (about 40 miles) opens.
• 29 December 1846: Line from Harrisburg reaches Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

• 1847

• January 1847: The New York Evening Express uses the new Albany-New York telegraph line to beat the pony express of New York Herald to press.
• 14 January 1847: Toronto line is extended to Buffalo, New York.
• March 1847: Morse's Magnetic Telegraph Company buys the Baltimore-Washington telegraph line from the U.S. Government.
• 8 July 1847: Telegraph station opened at Wheeling, West Virginia (then Virginia).
• 25 July 1847: Richmond, Virginia reached from Washington, D.C. line.
• 'By July 1847: Boston line extended to Portland, Maine.
• 3 August 1847: Toronto line extended to Montreal by the Montreal Telegraph Company (which had hired Orrin S. Wood).
• 5 August 1847: Station opened at Zanesville, Ohio.
• 11 August 1847: Station opened at Columbus, Ohio.
• 20 August 1847: Eastern line reaches Cincinnati, Ohio.
• August 1847: Line from Pittsburgh reaches Cleveland, Ohio.
• 4 September 1847: Leg from north reaches Petersburg, Virginia.
• 17 September 1847: First transmission to Dayton, Ohio.
• 29 September 1847: Station opened at Madison, Indiana.
• 26 November 1847: Line leg between Vincennes, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky opens.
• 29 November 1847: Line completed from Detroit, Michigan to Ypsilanti, Michigan.
• 1 December 1847: On Southern project, line segment between Charleston, South Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina opens.
• 6 December 1847: Line from east has reached Vincennes, Indiana.
• 20 December 1847: Line operations from east reach East St. Louis, Illinois.
• 25 December 1847: Michigan line reaches Ann Arbor, Michigan.

• 1848

• 1 January 1848: O'Reilly Line reaches Erie, Pennsylvania.
• 15 January 1848 Line opens from Chicago, Illinois to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• 21 January 1848: Fayetteville, North Carolina to Cheraw, South Carolina leg operational.
• 28 January 1848: Chicago line extended east to Michigan City, Indiana.
• 2 February 1848: Line from Troy, New York opens through Burlington, Vermont. Line enters Vermont at Bennington and passes through Manchester, Rutland, Castleton, Whitehall, Orwell, Brandon, Middlebury, and Vergennes. It was soon after carried through to Montreal via St. Albans.
• 14 February 1848: Charleston, South Carolina connected to line from the North.
• 1 March 1848: Eastern lines reach Detroit, Michigan.
• March 1848: Line from East St. Louis, Illinois crosses Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri. Storm on 4 May 1848 topples one of the masts used to string wire across the river.
• 6 March 1848: Line extended to Nashville, Tennessee.
• 6 April 1848: Chicago line is attached to eastern line network via Detroit.
• 7 April 1848: Line from Nashville extended south to Tuscumbia, Alabama.
• 1 June 1848: Springfield, Illinois reached by wire.
• 18 July 1848: New Orleans reached with completion of link between Macon, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama. Amos Kendall's completion of the line from Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, Montgomery, Mobile, and New Orleans.
• 12 August 1848: Dubuque, Iowa reached.
• December 1848: Line from Portland, Maine extended through Belfast, Maine and Bangor, Maine. Belfast-to-Bangor leg opened on 23 November 1848.
• 28 December 1848: Leg between Calais, Maine and Saint John, New Brunswick (80 miles) is operational.

• 1849

• 20 January 1849: After many trials, the line from Baltimore to New York City is finally extended across the Hudson River at Jersey City.
• 13 February 1849: Line from Boston reaches Saint John, New Brunswick with completion of leg to Calais, Maine, and this spurs the start of the Nova Scotia Pony Express to take news from European steamers' first port of call in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship Europa that reached Halifax on February 21, 1849, was the first to carry news that used the pony express.
• 1 May 1849: Southern line at Macon, Georgia extended north to Atlanta, Georgia.
• 11 October 1849: Line reaches Norfolk, Virginia.
• 17 October 1849: Extension of Boston line to Sackville, New Brunswick used to transmit new Halifax news.
• 9 or 14? November 1849: Telegraph lines reach Halifax, Nova Scotia, ending the short-lived Nova Scotia Pony Express
• 15 November 1849: First steamer to arrive in Halifax from Europe has news telegraphed directly to New York.

• 1850

• 1850: About 12,000 miles of line from 20 companies now exist in the United States.
• 29 March 1850: Line reaches Danville, Virginia.

• 1851: The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, which later became Western Union, is organized in Rochester, New York.
• 14 February 1854: Marshall, Texas connected to Louisiana line.
• Later 1854: Houston, Texas, Galveston, Texas, and other Texas towns reached by telegraph line.

Spread to continental and intercontinental service

• 1858

• 16 Aug 1858: The first transatlantic telegraph cable between North America and Europe starts operation, but fails after three weeks; a reliable new cable is not established until 1866.
• Fall 1858: Line from Placerville, California to Genoa, Nevada (then Utah Territory) completed.
• October 1858: Line reaches La Crosse, Wisconsin.
• 20 December 1858: Line to Kansas City, Missouri from Boonville, Missouri completed.

• 1859

• Mid 1859: Western United States line reaches Carson City and to Virginia City by latter part of the year.
• 15 August 1859: Eastern lines reach Atchison, Kansas.

• 1860

• 3 April 1860 The Pony Express starts operations, running from St. Joseph, Missouri (where the rail and telegraph lines from the east ended) to San Francisco.
• 28 August 1860: Line from St. Joseph, Missouri, constructed by W.H. Stebbins, reaches Brownville, Nebraska, and communications commence the next day.
• 29 August 1860: Line reaches St. Paul, Minnesota.
• 1860: Nebraska line reaches Omaha, Nebraska.
• November 1860: Nebraska line reaches from Omaha to Fort Kearny, Nebraska.
• 14 November 1860: Line opens in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

• 1861

• March 1861: The Pony Express reduces it route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Sacramento, California.
• May 1861: Telegraph line from the east extended to Julesburg in the newly-formed Colorado Territory.
• 4 July 1861: Work to complete the first transcontinental telegraph begins, with James Gamble starting a line east from Carson City, Nevada, and Edward Creighton starting west from Julesburg.
• 5 August 1861: Line from the east reaches Fort Laramie.
• 17 October 1861: A link between line headed east from Salt Lake City is joined to the eastern line at Fort Bridger. Creighton telegraphs his wife "in a few days the two oceans will be united."
• 24 October 1861: The first transcontinental telegraph across the United States is completed at Salt Lake City, Utah, causing the Pony Express to close two days later.

• 10 October 1863: Line opens to Denver, Colorado.
• 1865: International Telecommunication Union is formed
• 18 July 1866: A new transatlantic telegraph cable between North America and Europe is successfully completed.
• 1870: Telegraph lines from Britain are connected to India.
• 1871: Practical duplex telegraphy system, allowing two messages to be sent over wire at the same time, one in each
• 1872: Dallas, Texas reached by telegraph line.
• October 1872: Australia linked to world system by a submarine telegraph line to Darwin.
• 1874: Thomas Edison sells his invention of quadruplex telegraph to Western Union for $10,000. It allows a total of four separate signals to be transmitted and received on a single wire at the same time (two signals in each direction.)
• October 1902: Telegraph line across Pacific from Brisbane, Australia to Canada (via Fiji and Norfolk Island) completed.

End of telegraph era

• 27 January 2006: Western Union discontinues telegram services. Indian company BSNL continues telegraphic service into 2013.

Maps Timeline of North American telegraphy

See also

• Electrical telegraph

src: upload.wikimedia.org

References

Source of article : Wikipedia