Charles Benedict Calvert telegraph, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail. On April 9, 1844, Morse and Vail successfully tested their device by transmitting a message from the nation's capital to the Calvert home, Riversdale. This test came 45 days before the more celebrated event when Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore, along telegraph lines that ran above the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line near Riversdale. Calvert became president of the Prince George's County, Maryland Agricultural Society and the Maryland State Agricultural Society, and served as vice president of the United States Pomological Society. He founded the first agricultural
Baltimore–Washington telegraph line Numbers. The phrase was suggested by Annie Ellsworth, whose husband was a supporter of Morse's, and knew Morse was religious. As U.S. Postmaster General, Cave Johnson was in charge of the line. Morse was made superintendent of the line, and Alfred Vail and Henry Rogers the operators. The next year, Johnson reported that "the importance of [the line] to the public does not consist of any probable income that can ever be derived from it," which led to the invention being returned for private development. Baltimore–Washington telegraph line The Baltimore–Washington telegraph line was the first long-distance telegraph system set up