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Before the invention of the telegraph, news and messages had to be hand carried from one location to another. In 1835, Samuel F.B. Morse, a professor of arts and design at New York University, using the newly invented electromagnet, created the first practical telegraph, proving that signals could be transmitted by wire. It was the beginning of our modern-day communication systems.
The original Morse telegraph printed code on paper tape. However, in the United States, the operation developed into sending by key and receiving by ear. Morse developed a dot-dash system for letters and numbers that we all know as the Morse Code that became standard throughout the world. Using a telegraph key, a trained Morse operator could transmit 40 to 50 words per minute.
The Morse Code Exhibit at Discovery Station features an extensive collection of telegraph keys and equipment of varied design and vintage, and related historic memorabilia, on loan from NBC-25 News Director, Mark Kraham. Included are visual excerpts demonstrating the quick and accurate communication of the telegraph used over the world for many decades.
Some of the telegraph keys displayed.
Listen to an audio of the last distress call from the Titanic. The call for help was sent in Morse Code by ship radio-telegraph during the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 as the passenger liner was sinking to its watery grave with 2,228 passengers and 885 crew aboard. The signal was received by the telegraph operator on the RMS Carpathia 58 miles away, which changed course and sped to the scene, saving the lives of 705 people drifting in lifeboats in the dark of night. Without the Morse Code telegraph message, all of the survivors would have been doomed.
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