#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Andrei D. Sakharov: Alarm and Hope”

(February 16 – March 6, 2011)

The exhibition honors the legacy of Andrei Sakharov, a Russian physicist, Nobel Peace Prize winner. Andrei Sakharov was one of the most prominent human rights activists in USSR and an outstanding thinker of the world. His ideas have contributed to the non-violent revolutionary changes in 1989 and continue to influence the activity directed to the protection of human rights. In his honor in 1988 the European Parliament has established a human rights award – the Sakharov Prize.

The exhibition “Andrei D. Sakharov: Alarm and Hope” was initiated by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg. It has been produced in cooperation with the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center from Moscow and with the Russian Human Rights Association “Memorial” awarded with the 2009 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament. The exhibition was inaugurated in December 2009 and now is traveling from country to country in Europe.

The exhibition consists from nine panels 80x180 cm and reflects through the images and quotations the Sakharov’s activity against nuclear weapons testing, wars and local conflicts, totalitarian regimes, hatred, hunger and injustice, for conservation of environment and intellectual freedom.

The exhibition promotes human rights, freedom and democracy in Europe and worldwide and represents a tribute to Academician Andrei Sakharov’s memory.

The period of its exposure at the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova: February 16 – March 6, 2011.