For a few decades the electric telegraph was the main tool for long-distance communication; though as had so often been the case with previous systems, it was pregnant with its own demise. The very base for the electric telegraph was the wire for transmitting the electrical current. This wire proved to be an unknown corridor leading to yet another leap offering the possiblity of direct communication between two induviduals, signifying an enormously wider range of expressions, reasoning and subtleness, the telephone.

Two men simultaneoulsy worked on the development of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell and Elsiha Gray. Each of them independently designed devises for the transmission of speech and in 1877 patented their inventions; Bell a few hours before Gray. Bell then won a case over the rights to the patent, partly due to the fact that Gray´s application was a caveat, "a preliminary application for a patent".

It´s significant that Bell´s development was due to his attempt to improve the existing electric telegraph, pondering on the possibility of "transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time." Bell´s deep and extensive knowledge of the nature of sounds and music, together with his assistant, Thomas Watson´s thoughts on an electric telegraph able to transmit sounds finally led to its successful implementation in 1876 (www.the inventors.com/the electric telegraph).

Elisha Gray had studied electricity at the Oberlin College and was a prominent inventor and contributed "with several important inovations in electricity." He was also the founder of the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, todays Lucent Technologies (www.inventors.com/the electric telegraph).

Two people conversing directly with each other, voice to voice by telephone, are able to express thoughts, feelings and emotions that catches undertones and subtleness in a way that no other means of communications can except for talking face to face via a screen or in person. The wire, previously transmitting silent dots and dashes given value, depth and dimensions only through the interpreting receiver, showed a previously unknown capacity for opening up new horizons and fruitful deltas.

Paradoxically, as the capacity of the "wire" to forward electric currents and later on, also light beams began to double within decades and years, this was paralleled by the emergence of a new code, in its basic set up simplified down to the core, "1" and "0", the numbers for programming computers; still, carrying within it an almost unlimited amount of possibilities. This code, and the following revolutionary changes it has brought about within almost all areas of human life, is still only the beginning of a fundamentally new paradigm of human existence that we still only see hints about.

Although the predominance of the electric telegraph lasted only for around thirty years it pioneered a change in communication, that, literally, made it possible to forward words and messages with a speed immensly higher than previously done. This in turn set the base for this new unprecedented and exponential development of human life. The "horsepower" are still with us...