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The practical electric telegraph system was invented by Samuel Morse in 1837.

After Joseph Henry discovered electric induction in 1831, enabling further development in electrical telegraphy, the first practical telegraph was invented by Dr. David Alter of Elderton, Pennsylvania, in 1836.

It wasn't until 1837 that Samuel F.B. Morse would successfully invent the electric telegraph which would become commercially successful. He did so with the help of financier and assistant Alfred Vail. The Morse-Vail Code would become the international standard mode of communication on the high seas, until Morse Code as well as the S.O.S. distress call were disbanded in 1999.

One reason for the success of Morse's system was that it could be operated over a single wire of lesser quality, and over a long distance. Telegraph wires were strung along railroad lines in many areas.

The telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse in the late 1830's. I am not certain why Wikipedia and other sources discount the Morse invention, which is the practical form that every person thinks of when the word telegraph is mentioned. The fact that W.F. Cooke set up a London electric security relay system (and that Dr. Alter had a telegraph in his yard) does not nearly have the value as Morse's system (financed by Vail), that enabled Mass Communication on a scale never seen to that point in time, both nationally and internationally.

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9y ago

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