We think of the Internet as something that has developed in the last few years through advances in computer technology. British editor and author Tom Standage suggests that all the essentials of today's Internet were in place and used in rudimentary form more than a century ago. The Victorian Internet'' was the telegraph that spanned the world. Standage, a deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph in London, has written a lively book on the telegraph and its role in helping 19th century business and technology grow. The telegraph, as it was developed electrically by Samuel F.B. Morse in America, is a simple thing.
Electricity passes along the wires when the telegraph key is depressed, completing the circuit.
The wires conduct the power to a receiving key, which clicks up and down in response to the electromagnet in the receiver. He thought government would make good use of his invention and then the public, seeing its advantages, would begin to use it. That turned out not to be the case. The public liked the chess matches that were staged on it, but not much else. In 1845, Morse set up a company to connect the big East Coast cities.