notes on morse code, telegrams

Morse code: speaking across oceans in lightning and iron

And now we all speak in electricity and rare metals, and the world thunders

Still sparking telegrams

(average length of a telegram – 14 words. Ideal length of an email – 10 to 75 words)

Finally, on May 24, with the wire stretching 38 miles between Washington and the railroad depot in Baltimore, Morse was prepared to officially open the telegraph line. In front of a small group of guests, he invited Annie Ellsworth, the daughter of the patent commissioner, to compose the first message. She chose the biblical phrase, “What hath God wrought.”