#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

"From the Past of Chisinau"

The National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova in collaboration with the Scientific Archives of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, and the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova organizes the exhibition "From the Past of Chișinău" dedicated to the celebration of the 575^th anniversary of the first documentary evidence about Chișinău. The exhibition presents the objects reflecting the history of Chișinău from ancient times to the early 19th century.

An important section of the exhibition presents the archaeological remains discovered in Chișinău. Among these there are objects found at Valea Morilor, which cover several historical periods, from Paleolithic to the 15th century; a hoard of tools dated from the Bronze Age; objects found near the Mazarache church. Many of these artifacts will be exhibited for the first time.

For years in the city area there were discovered many coins, in hoards or as individual finds, which evidence the trade activity of the market town. The exhibition includes coin hoards found in Chișinău, which are kept in the collections of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova

In medieval times Chișinău and places in its vicinity, which now are the parts of the city, have been mentioned in a great number of gospodars' papers, in which Chișinău was represented as a market town, as a property of the Galata and St. Paraskevi Monasteries from Iași, etc. In these acts there are also mentioned other owners of the town, as well as founders of churches who contributed to the development of Chișinău. The collection of such documents is kept in the Scientific Archives of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and will be presented to the public in this exhibition. Most of these papers will be exposed for the first time.

Opening of the exhibition took place on Thursday, October 13, 2011, at the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, 121"A" 31 August 1989 St., (Room no. 1, ground floor).

In the framework of the event "Poșta Moldovei" SE presented a series of postcards and stamps dedicated to the anniversary.