The History of Telecommunications (The Chappe Brothers – Alexander Graham Bell)

In examination of the history of telecommunications, the timeline can be traced back to 1791, when the Chappe Brothers of France obtained permission for setting up a signaling system that would allow them to send messages. By 1793, the Chappe brothers would establish the first commercial semaphore system, defined by alphabet signaling based on the waving of two hand flags that were handheld in a particular pattern ("The Chappe's telegraph," n.d.; "Semaphore Flag Signaling System," 2011). 

That same year, Samuel Morse, who would end up becoming the inventor of the telegraph, saw the semaphore system being operated in Europe and by 1840; Congress asked that funding be provided for an American semaphore system that would run from New York City to New Orleans. Morse advised against it primarily due to this work on the development of electric telegraph. Morse demonstrated the electric telegraph in 1844 and by 1851; there were a total of 51 companies that were sending telegraphs ("Samuel Morse," n.d.). The same year, a company known as the New York & Mississippi River Printing Telegraph Company was formed. This company would become Western Union by 1856 and the first message tapped out in Morse code was done via the transcontinental telegraph line from Western Union (Harden, 2006). While Samuel Morse began what could be called the telecommunication revolution with his invention of the electric telegraph, the telecommunications industry would not be where it is today without the impact of Alexander Graham Bell.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, with the veiled promise of a social life. This caused much uproar as there were more than 600 patent suits that were filed throughout the next 11 years, however, Bell ended up being credited as the inventor. He would sell his patent to Western Union for $100,000. The following year, Western Union would have their first telephone in operation. In 1800, American Bell was established and by the early 1900's, long distance connections were being made ("The Telephone Patent Follies," 2012). In modern times, smartwatches are riding the technology wave.

References

The Chappe's telegraph. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Museum of Arts and Crafts website: http://visite.artsetmetiers.free.fr/site_anglais/chappe_a.html

Harden, P. (2006, March 4). Western Union and The Railroad Telegraphers (and, the early days of Wireless). El Defensor Chieftain, pp. 1-8.

Samuel Morse. (n.d.). Retrieved from Samuel Morse website: http://www.samuelmorse.net/

Semaphore Flag Signaling System. (2011). Retrieved from Australian National Botanic Gardens website: http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/semaphore.html

The Telephone Patent Follies. (2012). Retrieved from The Telecommunications Virtual Museum website: http://www.telcomhistory.org/vm/sciencePatentFollies.shtml