Telegraph

The telegraph was first brought into practical use in the United States by Profe or S. F. B. Morse. He began his experiments in 1832, aided by I. D. Gale and George and Alfred Vail. In 1837 he filed a caveat in the Patent Office at Washington, and in 1840 obtained a patent covering the improvements he had made in the mean- ' time. The first line established was between Baltimore and Washington, it being succe fully operated May 27, 1844. In October, 1842, Morse had attempted to operate a line from Governor’s Island to the Battery in New York, but this experiment failed. Samuel Colt, in 1843, laid a submarine cable from Coney Island and Fire Island, at the mouth of New York harbor, up to the city, and operated it succe fully for a time. In 1860 it was estimated that there were over 50,000 miles of telegraph lines in operation in the United States, and at present the lines extend over 190,000. In 1857 Cyrus W. Field attempted to connect Europe and America by means of an Atlantic cable. The first attempt failed, but the laying of the cable was finally accomplished August 5, 1858. (See Atlantic Cable.)