Morse ponders sending signals over electric wire

In the early 1830s, Samuel Morse, an American artist and inventor, began contemplating the idea of sending signals over electric wires. This interest was sparked by a conversation about electromagnetism and the work of scientists like André-Marie Ampère and Michael Faraday. Morse envisioned a system that could transmit messages across long distances using electrical impulses. By 1837, he had developed the first working prototype of the electric telegraph and, in collaboration with Alfred Vail, created the Morse code—a system of dots and dashes representing letters and numbers. This invention revolutionized communication, making it possible to send messages quickly over vast distances, and laid the foundation for modern telecommunications.