The first optical telegraph messages sent over great distances were transmitted at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1838, the American painter, inventor and professor Samuel Morse (1791-1872) invented the alphabet that would come to be known as Morse code.
How far is a nautical mile? Surprisingly, it was not until 1929 that a body of countries agreed in Monaco that the sea mile (officially, the international nautical mile) measures 1,851.8 metres.
