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The telegraph key Samuel Morse used on his first line in 1844 was very
simple--a strip of spring steel that could be pressed against a metal
contact. Alfred Vail, Morse's partner, designed this key, in which the gap
was more easily adjustable because of changes in its spring tension. It was
used on the expanding telegraph system, perhaps as early as the fall of 1844
and certainly by 1845.
Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, from the U.S. Patent
Office.
Morse Telegraph Key, 1844-45, with improvements by Alfred Vail (1807-59) to
the original invented by Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872)
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