Samuel Morse set up his telegraph in a room at the university. People came to see it, but they could not believe that it would ever be more than a toy. Morse needed more money to build a telegraph over a distance. He could never prove what it could do if it was just set up in one room. But it was very expensive to build a telegraph line over a distance. Morse asked Congress to give him $30,000 for such a line. But many people in Congress laughed at his idea so he didn't get the money. Morse struggled on hoping that some day he could prove the value of his invention. He went to several European countries to try to get them to use the telegraph there, but European governments didn't want to have anything to do with his "wild" idea. He returned to America sad and without money. When he asked Congress for the money again this time, Congress granted him $30,000. As soon as he got the money, Morse built a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, a distance of about forty miles. At first he tried to lay his wires underground, but that did not work well. So he decided to nail the wires to poles. Finally the line was ready for the first test. One day in 1844 - after 12 years of work - Morse stood at Washington with a group of friends. He was ready to send the first telegraph message. Another group was in Baltimore ready to receive it. The message went through clearly. From then on people believed in the telegraph.
Soon poles and wires were spread over the United States. Then cables were laid under the oceans and telegraph service was in use all over the world.