Among others, he experimented with the idea of telegraphy – sending messages over a wire by electricity.
When Morse finally completed his telegraphic instrument, he went before Congress to show that it worked.
He sent a message over a wire from Washington to Baltimore.
The message was: "What hath God wrought?" This was on May twenty-fourth, eighteen forty-four.
Quickly, companies began to build telegraph lines from one place to another.
Men everywhere seemed to be putting up poles with strings of wire for carrying telegraphic messages.
The workmanship was poor. And the wires were not put up straight.
Some of the results looked strange. People said they looked like a grapevine.
