17-year-old Annie Ellsworth sent one of the earliest text messages.
She was the first to tell Samuel Morse that President John Tyler had signed a bill to “test the practicability of establishing a system of electromagnetic telegraphs,” despite it earlier only passing the House by a count of 89 to 83.
Morse thus promised her authorship of the first official message to be communicated along the forty-mile telegraph line linking D.C. to Baltimore.
He kept his promise. On May 24th, 1844, Annie handed him a piece of paper with four words.
What hath God wrought?
Annie Ellsworth
In the bible, the phrase serves as a rhetorical question expressing awe, but I prefer to read it as a bit more ominous and foreboding: Watch out world, here comes technology.
“What hath god wrought” wasn’t, however, Morse’s first telegram. Not only was an unofficial message sent earlier, but in 1838 Morse received the following message through two miles of looped wire, as part of a proof of concept construction: “A patient waiter is no loser.”
Who sent that? American machinist and inventor, Alfred Vail, who some say is more responsible for “Morse” code than its namesake.