I understand how like morse code “works” sending the message across long distances. But how could the sender know how to get the message to their right destination? And once it got there, how did the receiving party decode the message? In movies the receiver is always just tapping the telegraph device and is like “sir we have a message from the front lines!!” but how does it work??
In: Technology
It was a very manual version of how the internet works today.
Any given telegraph station was only connected to a few other stations, sometimes only one. So sending a message worked like this:
* Give telegraph operator a message.
* The telegraph operator chooses the best next station to send the message.
* Until the closest possible station is reached:
* The operator sends a message to the next station.
* The next station writes the message down.
* The next station’s operator chooses a new next station and sends the message.
* Eventually the message is “close” to the destination. A person on horse is dispatched to deliver the message.
So a message could still get from, say, California to New York pretty fast compared to trying to use trains or horses for the full trip. It might take up to an hour for the message to get to New York, then another half-hour to get to the best station, then maybe 2 hours for the rider to deliver the message. But 3.5 hours to get a message across the continent was AMAZING at that point in time, and honestly is still a pretty neat trick today.
It worked pretty well because telegraph stations tended to be train stations. Since trains connected major places, sending telegraphs along those routes helped get messages to places fast. It was convenient to run the lines near train tracks (since land rights were already given) and it was also helpful for the train companies to communicate schedule and safety information between stations.
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