Morse-Vail Telegraph Key
date: label: Date made
content: 1844
label: used date
content: 1844
name: label: demonstrator
content: Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
label: demonstrator
content: Vail, Alfred
label: maker
content: Vail, Alfred
label: maker
content: Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
notes: label: Description
content: Alfred Vail made this key, believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, as an improvement on Samuel Morse's original transmitter. Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving coded electrical signals over a wire, which was successfully demonstrated in 1844.
label: Description
content: Morse's telegraph marked the arrival of instant long-distance communication in America. The revolutionary technology excited the public imagination, inspiring predictions that the telegraph would bring about economic prosperity, national unity, and even world peace.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New Jersey, Morristown
label: used
content: United States: Maryland, Baltimore
label: used
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Government, Politics, and Reform
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Work
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content: Communications
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content: Computers & Business Machines
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: American Enterprise
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content: National Treasures exhibit
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content: Artifact Walls exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Western Union Telegraph Co.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181411
label: catalog number
content: 181411
label: accession number
content: 31652
objectType: label: Object Name
content: telegraph transmitter
label: Object Name
content: telegraph key
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 in x 2 in x 6 3/4 in; 7.62 cm x 5.08 cm x 17.145 cm