Historical copy of the improved relief-writer telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse

From 1837 Samuel F. B. Morse developed the first electromagnetic telegraph. His colleague, Alfred Vail, developed the Morse code. This combination of dots and dashes for each letter of the alphabet was recorded on a strip of paper. In 1844 the first, 37-mile long, telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington was established. The Reich Postal Museum commissioned this copy—now in the Smithsonian in Washington—from the equipment used as early as 1878.