Ernst Werner Von Siemens and the Early Evolution and Diffusion of Electric Telegraphy [Scanning Our Past]

The technology of electric telegraphy that revolutionized long-distance communication and established the groundwork for later innovations, such as telephone, fax machine, and internet, emerged in the 1830s and 1840s thanks to the work of many men of science and technology around the world. In 1799, Alessandro Volta's invention of reliable storage electric currents which allowed their use in controlled conditions, and the demonstration two decades later of a connection between electricity and magnetism by Hans Christian Oersted, supported the experimentation which led to a communication system by which electric signals were transmitted over a wire laid between stations.