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Editor's note: Who needs to type a message with two thumbs when you can use one finger? We celebrate Scientific American's 165th anniversary with the reproduction of this story, which appeared as text only on page 2 of the inaugural issue. The image is a 21st-century add-on.
This wonder of the age, which has for several months past been in operation between Washington and Baltimore, appears likely to come into general use through the length and breadth of our land. Arrangements are already made for extending the lines to Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buffalo, Springfield, Boston, and various other cities and sections. Hon. Amos Kendall, Ex-Post-master General, has taken the management of the invention—whether as proprietor or agent we are not informed—while the inventor is on a tour to Russia. We shall take an early opportunity to give our readers a full and minute description of this invention, with explanations and illustrations of its principles; but in consequence of the press and variety of matter which presses on this our first number, we are constrained to defer it. We will add the remark, however, that it is contemplated by the merchants of our Western states, to communicate their orders for goods, etc., by means of the telegraph, instead of abiding the slow and tedious progress of rail-road cars.