To the Transcontinental
Telephone
Helerin Raikerus
4000km
Horizon – 4km +- from terrain
types
Smoke
North America – from east to west – a bit less than 4000 km!
On foot – 50km (80 days)
By ship – a month
On a horse – up to 160km
(25 days)
Pony Express – 10 days
Telegraph
Railroad (3.5 days)
Voice transfer
Digital data transfer
http://ohhs65.com/images/SmokeSignals.gi
The Pony Express
• William Russell, hoping to get a
government contract for more rapid mail
delivery service, started the Pony Express
in 1860, cutting delivery time to ten days.
He set up over 150 stations about 15 miles
(24 km) apart.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photosoldwest/PonyExpressMap.jpg
The Pony Express
• William Russell, hoping to get a
government contract for more rapid mail
delivery service, started the Pony Express
in 1860, cutting delivery time to ten days.
He set up over 150 stations about 15 miles
(24 km) apart.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photosoldwest/PonyExpressMap.jpg
http://www.nps.gov/archive/poex/hrs/images/fig4.jp
Milestones
• Otto von Guericke invented a machine that produced static
electricity in 1660.
• In 1800 Alessandro Volta invented the Voltaic Pile.
• Samuel Thomas von Sömmering - 1809, Francisco Salvá i Campillo
-1804.
• In 1816, Francis Ronalds set up a primitive telegraph.
• Hans Christian Ørsted discovered in 1820 that an electric current
produces a magnetic field.
• In 1832 an electromagnetic telegraph was created by Baron
Schilling in Russia.
• In the United States, the telegraph was developed by Samuel Morse
and Alfred Vail in 1836.
• Then in 1835 Joseph Henry invented the critical electrical relay, by
which a weak current could operate a powerful local electromagnet
over very long distances.
What is a Telegraph?
http://usscouts.org/bbugle/bb0412/bbpackden_files/image012.jp
g
Building Connection
• On 6 January 1838 Morse first successfully
tested the device at the Speedwell Ironworks
near Morristown, New Jersey, and on 8 February
he publicly demonstrated it to a scientific
committee at the Franklin Institute in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• In 1843 the U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000
to fund an experimental telegraph line from
Washington, D.C. to Baltimore.
• 24th of May 1844, “What hath God wrought”
• over 50,000 miles (80,000 km) of wire were laid
out to form a single national network
The Continental Telegraph
• As the transcontinental telegraph was laid it passed through
Nebraska where Republican sympathizers prior to the American
Civil War were eager to gain statehood for Nevada before the next
presidential election so that Abraham Lincoln would have enough
votes to win. They rushed to send the entire state constitution by
telegraph to the United States Congress, which approved it and sent
it to the President for signature. They did not believe sending it by
train would guarantee it would arrive on time. The constitution was
sent on 31 October, just eight days before the election on 7
November 1864.
• the continental telegraph was completed on October 24, 1861 - an
existing network in the eastern United States was connected to the
small network in California by a link between Omaha and Carson
City via Salt Lake City
"Utah has not seceded but is firm for the Constitution and the laws of
our once happy country."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/International_Morse_Co
de.svg/450px-International_Morse_Code.svg.png
Railroad
• May 10, 1869
• 83 hours and 39
minutes
1914