Similarly, the telegraph, when Samuel Morse stumbled onto this in the 1830s, was a very significant thing. When George Washington died, it took seven days for that news to travel back from Washington to New York. With the telegraph, they’re transmitting details from one of the nominating conventions in 1844 within seconds. You’re looking at light speed for information transmission, whereas before, the physical speed of mankind was how fast information could travel. It was like magic. There just was no reference point for how such a thing could be possible. People were bewildered and awed by
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