Telegraph, Telephone, and Radio But in 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse built the first telegraph, which sent coded electrical impulses over wires. Human beings were now able to control electricity and use it to transmit information around the world. Our world has not been the same since that time. Other inventions that used electricity to transmit information developed quickly. By 1900, major US cities had telephone service. In 1895, Marconi sent the first wireless message, and the radio developed quickly after that. Soon people could listen to the news in their own homes. Radiotelephones connected North America to Europe. Information could now travel through the air waves. Later, in 1956, the first transatlantic cable opened more telephone channels across oceans.