Long distance communication was a form passed down from generation to generation, each with roughly the same idea before the cellphone, instant messaging, email or even the fax (if anyone eve still remembers that) and we all know about Graham Bell and his phone. So what did they do before we had the Telegraph? The invention that revolutionized the way we were able to communicate across the world, be it for war or spreading news to the opposite side of the world in just a minute? well lets jump into that history for quick bit.
Signal Fire
Now you may have read that and thought "What? Fire?" but yes, fire was used as one of the first ways that humans communicated long distance. They would often be placed on tall objects, either tower or mountains, sometimes even buildings, and would be used to signal typically only a few things, but most commonly it just meant there was trouble happening.
Chappe System
Now this is one that I never heard of before, but it was made by a French man named Claude Chappe in 1794. This system was made as an upgrade of sorts to signal fires and smoke signals, as it would allow you to make out shapes in order to spell out words, which allowed for a more specific message to be passed for long distance. Many of these would be placed within a reading distance from one another and passed down a line. Think like a game of telephone.
Tin Can Phone
The last one that I thought was important to mention was the tin can phone. I'm sure some of you have done or at least heard of connecting two cups via a string at the bottom and talking into it. I know I have done it as a child. Anyways, this idea came about by a man by the name of Robert Hooke in 1664, where he presented the idea. As fun as it would have been, his idea never really took off, but did inspire many after him to create better inventions.
The Telegraph
The moment we have all been waiting for, the telegraph! Created by Samuel Morse, this invention came about in 1844 where he sent the first message from D.C. to Baltimore which said (in Morse Code, another invention by Samuel Morse) "What hath God wrought". Now, the telegraph was not the most expressive machine. you can't put exclamation points or question marks and definitely not able to make fun little doodles to your lover like on physical mail. It was strictly informational, and you had to be pretty skilled to be able to use the machine, as it required a lot of speed to not only send messages efficiently and timed well enough, but you had to hear the letters correctly they would spell out for you in order to understand the message. This opened up a lot of job opportunities for people to become incredibly skilled in Morse Code and using the telegraph.
Now, it being the fastest way for people to send a message, yes, but it was also quite expensive to do so, let alone have one implemented to your house, as each foot was roughly $4 today, or about 12 cents back then. The telegraph would also typically be charged by word, not message, so having long conversations with your brother across the state to say something silly was out of the question, and would only really be reserved for important events that were time sensitive.
Due to its fast messaging capabilities, this was used quite often during the war, as it was far superior to having someone run back on foot, horse or drive back to HQ via car in order to report what was going on. It was also great for news reporters to send messages across the world, so information was now really starting to get quite close to the "Instant" news that we have nowadays.
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