What Is Telegraphy?

It's been a long time since the telegraphs, but if you're looking for a new hobby or something to do on your commute home from work, you should consider picking up the ancient art of telegraphy. Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of written messages. The word comes from the Greek terms tele (far off or at a distance) and graphein (to write). Telegraphy is used for remote communication between distant points involving coded signals. Modern-day internet traffic is a form of telegraphy, but the term is generally associated with legacy telecommunications. Most people need to learn that a telegraph operator can still send messages over hundreds or thousands of miles using Morse code and a key. You can learn about it by picking up some old books on telegraphy or visiting one of the many websites committed to this fascinating field. Communications at a distance have a surprisingly long history. From the earliest times, humanity has found clever ways to send messages beyond earshot. Smoke signals and torches were used as telecommunications media, often to send news of war or instructions for military maneuvers. In the days before telephones and telegraphs, people relied on the "post" to deliver messages from one person to another. This system was limited by geography: where there were no roads or railways. There was no postal service. Even in places where roads existed, messages had to be carried by horseback or foot, a time-consuming method that could take weeks or months. The invention of the printing press changed all this dramatically. While still slow and expensive compared with modern means of communication, newspapers made it possible for people in distant locations to read about current events as soon as they occurred and even before they happened in some cases!