Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 5 is called "A Nervous System for the Earth (What Can One Expect of a Few Wretched Wires)." By the 1840s, the technology of the telegraph was starting to gain a foothold in the larger cities of the world such as New York and London. Electricity was seen as a wondrous force and was little understood at the time, but all kinds of possible uses were imagined after the telegraph became established.

Prior to the electric telegraph, there was the French invention by the same name created by Claude Chappe and his brothers during the French Revolution. These were towers built in the line of sight of other towers with an apparatus at the top with arms that could be arranged into various positions according to a code. Backed by the French government, these telegraphs were built across the whole of...