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The timeline of North American telegraphy is a chronology of notable events in the history of the 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.
In 1866, Western Union acquired the American Telegraph Company & the United States Telegraph Company, its two main competitors, gaining a virtual monopoly over the American telegraphy industry. The company also began to develop new telegraphy-related services beyond the transmission and delivery of telegrams, launching the first stock ticker in ...
The Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860 (also known as "An Act to Facilitate Communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States by Electric Telegraph"), [1] was an Act of Congress that authorized the U.S. Treasury to fund the construction of a telegraph line across the continental United States. [2]
Monument in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, marking the approximate location where the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed.. The first transcontinental telegraph (completed October 24, 1861) was a line that connected the existing telegraph network in the eastern United States to a small network in California, by means of a link between Omaha, Nebraska and Carson City, Nevada ...
Initially these telegraph lines were only constructed for temporary use because of the brittle exposed copper wire that was used. But, after insulated wire began to be used, permanent lines were built. The Telegraph Construction Corps would load a coil of this wire on a mule's back and lead it straight forward to unreel the wire.
The first practical telegraph system in the United States was put into operation by Samuel F. B. Morse and Alfred Vail between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC, in 1844. By 1846, telegraph lines extended along the entire eastern seaboard and were rapidly being built westward into the interior of the country.
A 1908 publication by the U.S. Department of the Navy listed on-shore and off-shore wireless telegraph stations of the world. It included a list of shore stations of the world (by country), a list of merchant vessels (by ship line), as well as United States Army, United States Navy, and United States Revenue Cutter Service stations and vessels. [9]
Installation of the lines and poles from Washington to Baltimore began on April 1, 1844, using chestnut poles 23 feet (7 m) high spaced 300 feet (90 m) apart, for a total of about 700 poles. [6] Two 16- gauge copper wires were installed; they were insulated with cotton thread, shellac, and a mixture of "beeswax, resin, linseed oil, and asphalt."