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A Revolution in COMMUNICATION

In 1831 an American, Joseph Henry, demonstrated that an electric current could be transmitted to activate an electromagnet, causing it to strike a bell. This demonstration spurred Samuel Morse to invent the telegraph and the code for using it in 1835. In his system, known as Morse Code, each letter of the alphabet is represented by its own mix of short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes). Morses invention transmitted a signal that stimulated an electromagnet to
move a marker to produce codes of dots and dashes on a piece of paper. In 1843 Morse and his invention received funding from Congress to build a 40-mile long telegraph line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland. The line was officially opened on May 24, 1844 when Morse sent a message from the Old Supreme Court in the U.S. Capitol building to his business partner, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore. The message read, What hath God wrought. The pair later received private funding to extend their line into Pennsylvania and New York. Soon, other private telegraph companies began to set up corporations in other parts of the country. In 1851 Western Union began construction on its first transcontinental line. The telegraph soon became part of American life. Thousands of miles of wires were strung across the nation. Factories in the East could communicate with their markets in the west in a matter of hours rather than weeks. The telegraph was a success!

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The United States Post Office (USPO)


was established in Philadelphia under Benjamin Franklin Wednesday, July 26, 1775, by decree of the Second Continental Congress, this was Americas first attempt at revolutionizing communication. The Post Office Department was enlarged during the tenure of President Andrew Jackson. As the Post Office expanded, difficulties were experienced due to a lack of employees and transportation. The Post Office's employees at that time were still subject to the so-called "spoils" system, where faithful political supporters of the executive branch were appointed to positions in the post office and other government corporations as a reward for their patronage. These appointees rarely had prior experience in postal service and mail delivery. The Post Office used steamboats to carry mail between post towns where no roads existed. In 1833 waterways were declared post roads. Once it became clear that the postal system in the United States needed to expand across the entire country, the use of the railroad to transport the mail was instituted in 1832, on one line in Pennsylvania. All railroads in the United States were designated as post routes, after passage of the Act of July 7, 1838. Mail service by railroad increased rapidly thereafter. In 1847, the U.S. Mail Steamship Company acquired the contract to carry the U.S. mail from New York, with stops in New Orleans and Havana, to the Isthmus of Panama for delivery in California. In 1855, William Henry Aspinwall completed the Panama Railway, providing rail service across the Isthmus and cutting to three weeks the transport time for the mails, passengers and goods to California. (This was the beginnings of the Panama Canal). This remained an important route until the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. Railroad companies greatly expanded mail transport service after 1862, and the Railway Mail Service (RMS) was inaugurated in 1869. Rail cars designed to sort and distribute mail while rolling were introduced. RMS employees sorted mail 'on the fly' during the journey, and became some of the most skilled workers in the postal service. An RMS sorter had to be able to separate the mail quickly into compartments based on its final destination, before the first destination arrived, and work at the rate of 600 pieces of mail an hour. They were tested regularly for speed and accuracy.

First US postage stamp

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