Contributions & development of the telegraph network

The invention of the electric telegraph gave birth to the communications industry . Although Samuel B. Morse succeeded in making the invention useful in 1837 , it was not until 1843 that the first telegraph line of consequence was constructed . By 1860 more than 50,000 miles of lines connected people east of the Rockies . The following year , San Francisco was added to the network .

The national telegraph network fortified the ties between East and West and contributed to the rapid expansion of the railroads by providing an efficient means to monitor schedules and routes . Furthermore , the extension of the telegraph , combined with the invention of the steam-driven rotary printing press by Richard M. Hoe in 1846 , revolutionized the world of journalism . Where the business of news gathering had been dependent upon the mail and on hand-operated presses , the telegraph expanded the amount of information a newspaper could supply and allowed for more timely reporting . The establishment of the Associated Press as a central wire service in 1846 marked the advent of a new era in journalism .