First Commercial Telegraph Use

Date: July 25, 1837 • Location: London, United Kingdom

The first commercial use of an electrical telegraph is successfully demonstrated in London by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone.

Electrical telegraphy is point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most widely used of a number of early messaging systems called telegraphs, that were devised to send text messages more quickly than physically carrying them. Electrical telegraphy can be considered the first example of electrical engineering.