The Invention of the Telegraph - American History, 1493-1945

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Expenditures for the first telegraph between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore

31 March 1843

View the expenditures for the first telegraph in the resource

The nineteenth century was an era that witnessed rapid advances in systems of communication. During the 1830s and 1840s experiments were conducted on both sides of the Atlantic into the electric telegraph, an invention that promised near-instant communication across vast distances. Samuel Morse and his team were leading these investigations in the United States, sending the first message using their system in January 1838 through two miles of wiring. In 1842 Morse secured federal funding to help support further research.

This document records expenses associated with the project that followed, in which Morse and his team created a 38-mile line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The document was submitted to Congress as a receipt of how the federal money was being spent. Expenses included those for traveling, surveying the intended route of the line, advertising, office expenses, and wages for Morse and three associates. The raw materials required for the telegraph were also documented: copper wire, platina wire and sulphuric acid.

On 24 May 1844, the line was officially opened when Morse sent the words “What hath God wrought” from the rooms of the Supreme Court in the Capitol Building, Washington, D.C., to Mount Clare Station, Baltimore. The message may have only travelled 38 miles, but within 20 years the invention had opened up rapid communication across the vast American continent. In 1861 the transcontinental telegraph opened, linking the east coast to California, via Omaha, Carson City and Salt Lake City. For the first time in history the east and west coasts were connected by near-instant communication.

Alongside the railroad, the electric telegraph shrank the vast size of the rapidly expanding nation. This record of federal spending on Morse’s experiments demonstrates the support offered by central government for improving technology and communication, albeit after considerable pressure and insistence from Morse himself. It also reveals the tools that were required – in this case something as simple as 6lb of copper wire – to radically alter the way people contacted each other. Most importantly, it is a permanent record of the birth of a system that revolutionized communication and helped provide a sense of greater unity across the American nation.