Who Invented the Telegram?

“A man never feels more important than when he receives a telegraph containing more than 10 words,” according to George Ade, writer and playwright. That man might want to thank the inventor responsible for the message bringing that sense of importance, but it might take more than one note to adequately express that gratitude, because several people worked on the telegraph used to send the telegram or message.

In the mid-1700s, William Watson demonstrated how to transmit electrostatic messages and started the race to the telegraph. By 1800, several other inventors produced systems using a separate wire for each alphabet letter. In 1831, Joseph Henry’s electromagnetic telegraph model spurred Samuel Morse’s imagination.

In the late 1830s, Samuel Morse invented a set of dots and dashes useful for encoding electromagnetic messages, making it possible to send telegrams without needing 26 separate wires, building on Georges LeSage’s late 1770s single-wire proposal. Because his timing was exactly right for commercial adoption and success, Morse earned credit as the inventor of the telegraph.