Great Inventions of the 19th Century | Postal services and telecommunications | Telegraph

For the first time in human history this device made distant communication possible.

The telegraph had been an established means of communication since the 1840s. The first telegraph model had been invented by Claude Chappe at the end of the 18th century. Althought its use was not limited to the military context, the telegraph was well known as an instrument for fast communication during military campaigns. Napoleon was the first to understand the military importance of telegraph, and the Crimean War was the background for its use by all the parties involved. The discovery of the electromagnetic phenomenon in 1828 resulted in major achievements in the field of electric communications. However, it was Samuel Morse’s improvements that made the telegraph system become both practical and commercially viable in 1835. Morse invented a system of dots and dashes to transmit communication electrically, which came to be known as Morse Code. This system was modified later to become the International Code. Telegraph was the predominant tool of communication until Bell, while working on improving the telegraph, invented the telephone by which not codes but speech was transmitted electrically in 1877.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
FR 03224 hour optical telegraphy presented to the minister by a marine officer and used by the coast signalling services (1802)National Library of France 1801Napoleon I promoted the use of telegraph in the territories he conquered. In his military campaigns, he recognised the importance of technical innovations.

TR2 068Telegraph transmitterIstanbul Postal Museum 1912MetalA telegraph transmitter from the Postal Museum in Istanbul. Telegraph was a global tool. The first telegraph networks in the Ottoman Empire were started between 1847 and 1855.

UK 132Map of the Red SeaThe British Library1883This map was included in a guide with sailing indications for British ships crossing the Red Sea on the route to India. Submarine telegraph cables had been installed between Suez, Sawakin and Jiddah (ports on the Red Sea). Telegraph communication developed also between ports and along strategic trade and mail routes.

FR 03310 cents an issue. Le Télégraphe. Morning Newspaper. Special connections with the whole world.National Library of France 1886Towards the end of the 19th century, telegraph had developed and was widespread and familiar. It was seen as another sign of progress.

MO 016Document attesting to the 'Telegraph Crisis' between Morocco and Great BritainGeneral Library and Archives1887PaperEuropean diplomatic and economic interference in Morocco, consolidated by the Commercial Treaty of 1856, is illustrated by the crisis over the Tangier–Gibraltar telegraph line. The British Eastern Telegraph Company built the line in 1884–87 without the permission of the Sultan Mulay al-Hasan as a fait accompli and in spite of his protests.

ET1 007A telegram from the Khedive of Egypt to the Ottoman sultanBibliotheca Alexandrina15 December 1897Telegrams were a widespread form of communication at the political and official level.

MO 017Electric telegraph machineItisalat al-Maghrib Museum 1907During the reign of Sultan Mulay ‘Abd al-Aziz telegraph lines were introduced in Morocco.

MO 018Newspaper to commemorate the installation of wireless telegraphItisalat al-Maghrib Museum1907Paper; printedDuring the reign of Sultan Mulay ‘Abd al-Aziz, on the eve of the French protectorate, wireless telegraph communication was made possible between Paris and French ships in the port of Casablanca. This newspaper celebrates Edouard Branly and Guglielmo Marconi, two pioneers of radiocommunication.