One of the most important ways that electricity and magnetism
have been put to use is making communication faster and easier.
In this day of instant messaging, cell phones, and pagers, it’s
hard to imagine a time when messages had to be written and might
spend weeks or even months reaching their destination. They had
to be carried great distances by ships, wagon, or even by
horseback—you couldn’t just call somebody up to say hello. That
all changed when inventors began using electricity and magnetism
to find better ways for people to talk to each other. The
telegraph was first conceived of in the 1700s, but few people
pursued it. By the 1830s, however, advancements in the field of
electromagnetism, such as those made by Alessandro Volta and
Joseph Henry, created new interest in electromagnetic
communication. In 1837, English scientist Charles Wheatstone
opened the first commerical telegraph line between London and
Camden Town, a distance of 1.5 miles. Building on Wheatstone's
ideas, Samuel Morse, an American