What hath God wrought?
Samuel Morse, 24 May 1844 (first telegraphic message from Washington to Baltimore)
Wonderful to relate, the far-distant friend sees the voluble iron tremble without the touch of any person, and run now hither, now thither: he bends over it, and marks the teaching of the rod.
Famianus Strada, in 'Prolusiones Academicae', 1617.
The system of communication being described was a fraud, but foresaw the possibilities of the telegraph.
3rd June 1778. Did this day heliograph intelligence from Dr.Franklin in Paris to Wycombe.
Diary of John Norris, artist and inventor, Hawley Park, Camberley, Surrey.
(Benjamin Franklin was a secret agent for the British, and was passing military intelligence to Lord Despenser at West Wycombe)
Si vous réussissez, vous serez bientôt couvert de gloire.
(If you succeed, you will soon bask in glory)
First message transmitted by Claude and Rene Chappe, using an optical telegraph, over a distance of 10 miles. 2 March 1791.
Daunou has arrived here. He announced that the National Convention has just authorised his Committee of General Security to put seals on the papers of the deputies.
The rather dull first message transmitted over multiple hops by Claude and Rene Chappe, over a distance of 20 miles. 12 July, 1793.
The capitals of distant nations might be united by chains of posts, and the settling of those disputes which at present take up months or years might then be accomplished in as many hours.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1797.
Why has no serious trial yet been made of the qualifications of so diligent a courier? And if he should be proved competent to the task, why should not our kings hold councils at Brighton with their ministers in London? Why should not our government govern at Portsmouth almost as promptly as at Downing Street? Let us have electric conversazione offices, communicating with each other all over the kingdom, if we can.
Letter from Francis Ronalds, a pioneer of the electric telegraph, to Lord Melville, the First Lord of the Admiralty, 1816.
Telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary; no other than the one now in use will be adopted.
Reply from John Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty, explaining that improvements were unnecessary following the ending of the war with France.
I found such a diminution with only two hundred feet of wire, as at once to convince me of the impracticability of the scheme.
Peter Barlow, physicist, 1824, concluding that the electric telegraph was not capable of long-distance communication.
I long to hear from you.
Letter from Samuel Morse to his wife, Lucretia, 10 February 1825. She had died three days earlier, and the news had not yet reached Morse. This sad event led to his interest in telegraphy.
I see no reason why intelligence might not be instantaneously transmitted by electricity to any distance.
Samuel Morse, 1832
If it will go ten miles without stopping, I can make it go around the globe.
Samuel Morse
At a railway meeting which was held at Blackburn last week, Mr Stephenson took occasion to state that on the London and Blackwall line of railway, there was a talking machine constructed of galvanic wires, by means of which conversation could be carried on between London and Blackwall with the greatest of ease and precision. By way of illustrating the efficiency of his talking machine, Mr Stephenson said that he went to the station in London one day to inquire for one of his assistants. He was not there, but the attendant said he would inquire if he was at the other end of the line; he did so; in a few seconds the answer was, that he was not there. But about five minutes afterwards the talking machine informed him in London that his assistant had arrived at the Blackwall terminus; upon which he instructed the attendant to say, by the same agency, "Tell him to come here directly". In ten minutes from that time he arrived the distance being nearly seven miles. If the difference were 100 miles, the conversation could be carried on just as readily, for the communication travelled at the rate of 20 miles a second.
Railway Times, 19 December 1840. Quoted in Telecoms Heritage Journal, First Half 2001. Note that this refers to a telegraph - not really a "talking machine".
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Have you any news?
The second message from Washington to Baltimore
The perfect success of professor Morse's Electro Magnetic Telegraph has excited the astonishment and admiration of the community. The most incredulous have been convinced, and occurring at the time they have done, the experiments have satisfied the public that the Magnetic Telegraph is not merely a beautiful illustration of a philosophical principle, but an agent that may be made of practical and every day utility in the business transaction of the country.
A commentary on Samuel F. B. Morse's Washington to Baltimore telegraph line and its ability to report news instantaneously. from Exeter New Hampshire News Letter, July 1, 1844
It may be observed that had it not been for the efficient aid of the electric telegraph, both at Slough and Paddington, the greatest difficulty as well as delay would have occurred in the apprehension of the party now in custody.
The Times reporting on the arrest of John Tawell on 3 January, 1845. He was convicted of murder, and hanged.
All the inhabitants of the earth would be brought into one intellectual neighbourhood.
Alonzo Jackman, advocating an Atlantic telegraph, 1846
A friend asked leave to use the word Telegram in place of telegraph dispatch or communication.
Albany Evening Journal on 6th April 1852 (first use of the word "telegram")
The spread of the telegraph is about as wonderful a thing as the noble invention itself
Scientific American, 1852
Means should be taken to obviate one great objection - at present felt with respect to sending private communications by telegraph - the violation of all secrecy.
Quarterly Review, 1853
Our spies give us all manner of reports, while the enemy never spends a farthing for information. He gets it all for five pence from a London paper.
General Simpson, British Commander-in-Chief, complaining about the The Times reporters' use of the telegraph during the Crimean War, 1854
The telegraph has ruined everything.
General Simpson, complaining about interference by government in his handling of the Crimean campaign
The following quotes celebrate the opening of the first Atlantic submarine cable link in 1858:
An additional link between nations whose friendship is founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem.
Queen Victoria
A triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.
President Buchanan
Pray give us some news for New York, they are mad for news.
One of the successful Atlantic telegraph messages
Emporer of France returned to Paris. King of Prussia too ill to visit Queen Victoria. Settlement of Chinese question. Gwalior insurgent army broken up. All India becoming tranquil.
News from London to New York, 27 August 1858
The whole earth will be belted with electric current, palpitating with human thoughts and emotions. It shows that nothing is impossible to man.
It is impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer exist, while such an instrument has been created for the exchange of thought between all the nations of the earth.
Charles Briggs and Augustus Maverick, 'The Story of the Telegraph', 1858
Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any degree comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to the sphere of human activity.
The Atlantic Telegraph has half undone the Declaration of 1776, and has gone far to make us once again, in spite of ourselves, one people.
The Times, 1858
Unfortunately, due largely to engineering incompetence, the cable failed terminally in less than three weeks.
Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?
Boston Courier, 1858 (after the failure - suggesting that the whole thing had been a fake)
At the time the landlord of the house happened to be dining in the next room, and he suddenly found himself, his table, his dinner, and the door, which was wrenched off its hinges, precipitated into the room amongst the debris of the chamber.
Report of an implosion following a blockage in a pneumatic message system, Mincing Lane, London, 1858