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Telegraph Era
No matter how fast the messenger, or how important the message,
postal workers always have been constrained by physical limitations.
More enterprising individuals tried to circumvent this problem
through smoke signals, mirrors, sight relays, and carrier-animals,
all with limited success.
With the advent of the electrical telegraph in
1830, however, coded messages could be delivered almost instantly.
The first electrical telegraph was a simple device featuring two
discrete points connected by a single electrified wire. An
electric current sent along the wire could
activate an electromagnet to ring a bell. Shortly after, American
inventor Samuel F.B. Morse refined the system, developing a coded
language and working to commercialize and popularize telegraphic
communication.
Alberta was quick to
catch on to the telegraph as a means of transportation. A telegraph
line to the province was established in the 1870s, even before the
arrival of the railway.
The telegraph has proven to be one of the most
revolutionary discoveries in history, doing for communications what
the wheel did for transportation. The telegraph paved the way for
the telecommunications industry as we know
it today.
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Heritage Community Foundation and
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