Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1844. Dot-dash: The future arrives at The Journal

Through the early history of The Providence Journal, news stories could reach the paper only as fast as a person could carry them -- on foot, on horse, by ship or rail.

Then in 1844 came a demonstration of a new means of communication, almost too revolutionary to comprehend. The Journal wrote that June:

"The contrivances during the last quarter of a century for overcoming the difficulties of time and space, have been so wonderful, that the public mind is prepared for almost anything; but certainly nothing in the way of transmitting intelligence has ever been devised at all comparable to the Magnetic Telegraph of Professor Morse."

Samuel Morse had demonstrated his invention over wires installed between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Messages were passed between the points almost instantly, using an early dot-dash version of Morse code.

Journal files / UPI photo

Samuel F.B. Morse demonstrates his new invention, the telegraph, in Morristown, N.J., in 1844, by tapping the first message, "What Hath God Wrought!" The message was repeated on this receiver, left, in 1936 during a centennial celebration of the American Patent System.

The Journal on June 6 published a personal letter from someone who had seen the demonstration of the telegraph, describing how messages were relayed over the 40-mile trip in minutes: "I think I hear you exclaim, 'Incredible.' I answer, I witnessed it."

Suddenly, information could travel faster than man. The Journal predicted in 1844 that major cities would soon depend on the telegraph's "almost miraculous powers."

Telegraph lines connected Boston and New York by 1846. By the spring of that year, Journal pages included news items from Washington, D.C., which carried labels to indicate they had traveled at least part of the way "by the Magnetic Telegraph."

Journal owner Henry B. Anthony was among a group of local investors who organized the Rhode Island Magnetic Telegraph Co. to connect Rhode Island to the established line in Boston, by way of Worcester, in early 1848.

Journal files / UPI photo