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telegraph
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White House Telegraph Room, 1898 optical telegraph Samuel F.B. Morse key-type Morse telegraph transmitter Morse telegraph register teleprinter Vintage Morse code telegraph transmitter with a black knob and exposed wires, resting on a wooden surface. Antique Morse key from around 1860 with brass and iron components on a polished wooden base, used for sending Morse code telegraph signals. Samuel F. B. Morse with the telegraph he developed in the 1830s; photo by Mathew Brady. type-printing telegraph
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White House Telegraph Room, 1898
White House Telegraph Room, 1898 E.C. Heasley, Jules A. Rodier, and Major Montgomery working in the White House's Telegraph Room—which was set up to receive news of the Spanish-American War—in Washington, D.C., 1898.

telegraph

technology
Also known as: telegraphy
Written by
Clare D. McGillem
Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Coauthor of Modern Communications and Spread Spectrum.
Clare D. McGillem
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
•History

telegraph, any device or system that allows the transmission of information by coded signal over distance. Many telegraphic systems have been used over the centuries, but the term is most often understood to refer to the electric telegraph, which was developed in the mid-19th century and for more than 100 years was the principal means of transmitting printed information by wire or radio wave. The word telegraph is derived from the Greek words tele, meaning...

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