On April 1, 1845, the US Post Office Department inaugurated the first commercial telegraph service. Prior to the 1830s, the word “telegraph” was used to describe any system of sending messages over a distance without there being a physical exchange between the sender and receiver. There were only a few such systems in place and they were “optical telegraphs,” which didn’t send messages electronically, rather they were sent visually through the use of visible signals. These systems couldn’t be used at night or in bad weather.