Telecommunications is today widely understood to mean the electrical means of
communicating over a distance. The first form of telecommunications was that of
the Telegraph, which was invented quite independently in 1837 by two scientists,
Wheatstone and Morse. Telegraphy was on a point-to-point unidirectional basis and
relied on trained operators to interpret between the spoken or written word and the
special signals sent over the telegraph wire. However, the use of telegraphy did
greatly enhance the operations of railways and, of course, the dissemination of news
and personal messages between towns.
