# Who invented the telegraph?

Canonical: https://worldradionow.top/museum/exhibits/electric-telegraph/
Language: en

[← From sparks to streaming](/museum/exhibition/) Original interpretive illustration, not an archival photograph. 1837–1844 / Sending without wires 

# Who invented the telegraph?

Several systems developed along different paths. Cooke and Wheatstone demonstrated a needle telegraph in Britain in 1837. Morse and Vail demonstrated their coded system between Washington and Baltimore in 1844. A key closes an electrical circuit; the receiver detects the changing current.

Look closer How can an electrical pulse stand for a letter?

[Morse playground →](/museum/lab/)

## Sources & further reading

Science Museum · Cooke & Wheatstone, 1837

[View the original record ↗](https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/revealing-the-real-cooke-and-wheatstone-telegraph-dial/) [Library of Congress · Morse to Vail, 24 May 1844](https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.019/)

[Listen today →](/?lang=en&country=GB)

## Keep exploring

[ 1895 

### Signals without a wire

Marconi experimented with wireless signals in 1895. Explore the step from laboratory work to communication over distance; wireless telegraphy and spoken broadcasting are different stages of this story.

Read the story → 

](/museum/exhibits/wireless-signals/)

[ 1920–1925 

### Listening through a crystal

This Science Museum Group record describes a crystal receiver made in Manchester around 1920–1925. A small object opens a question: how much skill did early listening require?

Read the story → 

](/museum/exhibits/crystal-listening/)

[ 1922 

### 2LO: a voice from London

The Science Museum dates the first BBC broadcast from 2LO to 14 November 1922. A transmitter helps us connect technical equipment with the growth of regular programmes.

Read the story → 

](/museum/exhibits/2lo-london/)

## Sources & further reading

- [Signals without a wire](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1909/marconi/biographical/)
- [Listening through a crystal](https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8414466/cats-whisker-crystal-radio)
- [2LO: a voice from London](https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/this-is-2lo-london-broadcasting-station-calling/)
- [The contested airwaves](https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80014599)
- [A radio you could carry](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_713528)
- [The world is still on air](https://worldradionow.top/about/)
- [Who invented the telegraph?](https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/revealing-the-real-cooke-and-wheatstone-telegraph-dial/)
- [Who discovered radio waves?](https://www.deutsches-museum.de/museumsinsel/ausstellung/physik)
- [Morse: a language of timing](https://www.itu.int/rec/R-REC-M.1677-1-200910-I/)
- [Titanic and listening for distress](https://www.itu.int/en/history/pages/itushistory-page-2.aspx)
- [FM: changing how a signal carries sound](https://reach.ieee.org/multimedia/edwin-h-armstrong-radio-pioneer-fm-radio-and-the-later-years/)
- [Sputnik: a signal heard around the world](https://www.nasa.gov/history/65-years-ago-sputnik-ushers-in-the-space-age/)
- [Who invented the radio receiver?](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1909/summary/)