#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

„The Way of Coffee”

March 17 – April 30, 2012

(From the private collection of Alexandru Stucalov)

The exhibition brings together objects related to coffee, which were collected by Alexander Stucalov from 1964. It is complemented by some pieces from the collection of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova.

The exhibition is a journey into the history of coffee, showing not only how they prepare it in different countries, but also the evolution of coffee machines, from ordinary coffee-pots to the present-day coffee makers and espresso-machines.

The history of coffee is reflected by about 480 items of ware, equipment and utensils for preparing and serving this magical liquor: Arabian and Turkish cups, cups produced in Europe, roasters, coffee grinders, coffee pots, coffee makers of different types, espresso-machines, coffee packages, etc. The oldest exhibits date from the late nineteenth century (a coffee pot and a coffee machine with filter), and the latest ones from 2011.

To create an atmosphere of a coffee house and combine everything related to coffee consumption, there were reconstructed two public places: oriental one (Turkish), the main elements of which are coffee on sand and a hookah or a pipe, and European one, where over a cup of coffee people read newspapers and play various games.

The subject of exhibition is backed up by artworks by Aurelia Nașcu, Ana Pronin, Elvira Cemortan-Voloșin, Dorina Casapu, Iurie Palcov, Maxim Egorov, Dumitru Balica, Nata Procop, Victoria Cozmolici, Eduard Maidenberg, and Olga Rusanovskaya, as well as by artistic photos made by the learners of Roman Rybalyov's school.

The exhibition can be visited until April 30, 2012.