Object Details
- Description
- Alfred Vail made this key, believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, as an improvement on Samuel Morse's original transmitter. Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving coded electrical signals over a wire, which was successfully demonstrated in 1844.
- Morse's telegraph marked the arrival of instant long-distance communication in America. The revolutionary technology excited the public imagination, inspiring predictions that the telegraph would bring about economic prosperity, national unity, and even world peace.
- Date made
- 1844
- used date
- 1844
- demonstrator
- Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- Vail, Alfred
- maker
- Vail, Alfred
- Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- Place Made
- United States: New Jersey, Morristown
- used
- United States: Maryland, Baltimore
- United States: District of Columbia, Washington
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Government, Politics, and Reform
- Engineering, Building, and Architecture
- Work
- Communications
- Computers & Business Machines
- Industry & Manufacturing
- American Enterprise
- National Treasures exhibit
- Artifact Walls exhibit
- Exhibition
- American Enterprise
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Related Publication
- Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
- National Museum of American History. Treasures of American History online exhibition
- Related Web Publication
- https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/treasures-american-history
- Credit Line
- from Western Union Telegraph Co.
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- ID Number
- EM.181411
- catalog number
- 181411
- accession number
- 31652
- Object Name
- telegraph transmitter
- telegraph key
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- brass (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 3 in x 2 in x 6 3/4 in; 7.62 cm x 5.08 cm x 17.145 cm
- Record ID
- nmah_1096762
Related Object Groups
3D Model