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"Such a network of wires . . . will one day connect together the ends of the earth, and, like the great nerves of the human body, unite in living sympathy all the far-scattered children of men."—George Wilson, Electricity and the Electric Telegraph, 1855
The Worldwide Telegraph Web
After Samuel F. B. Morse successfully demonstrated the electric telegraph in 1844, the rush was on to string telegraph wires across continents and lay cables beneath oceans. Nations, companies, and individuals worked at breakneck speed to build connections along streets, railroads, and river banks, across deserts and seas, from the remotest outposts to the innermost recesses of far-flung nations and empires. By the early 20th century, the telegraph network crossed and linked every landmass except Antarctica.
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