Communications pioneer Paul Julius Reuter (1816 - 1899) exploited the crude technology of the telegraph to create one of the world's first international news services. The news agency he founded, Reuters, established the model for transmitting news quickly around the world. It has remained one of the most effective, innovative and respected communications outlets.

Reuter was born on July 21, 1816 in Kassel, in the Electorate of Hesse in Germany. His Jewish parents named him Israel Beer Josaphat. As a young man he worked as a clerk at his uncle's bank in Gottingen, Germany. At the bank he became acquainted with Carl Friedrich Gauss, a well-known mathematician and physicist who was a pioneer at applying mathematical theory to electricity and magnetism. At the University of Gottingen, Gauss was a professor and director of the observatory. Gauss was experimenting with the electric telegraph, and Josaphat developed a keen interest in telegraphy. Josaphat began...