The electric telegraph
Information travels faster than a person for the first time.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 22 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Morse's line opens between Washington and Baltimore in 1844, and the first durable transatlantic cable is laid in 1866. Until this moment a message could travel no faster than the fastest horse, ship or train carrying it. Afterwards, markets, newspapers, diplomacy and empire all operate on a different timescale — commodity prices converge across continents, and a colonial government can be instructed from London within hours.