#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.

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Events Archive

Christmas concert

December 14, 2017

The National Museum of History of Moldova hosted on 14th December 2017 a Christmas Concert offered by the Organ Hall from Chișinău.

Under the musical direction of conductor Cristian Florea performed the National Chamber Orchestra and the National Chamber Choir, together with soloist, a virtuoso trumpeter, Gianmario Strappati (Italy).

From the concert program:

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Concerto grosso in sol minor
„Fatto per Notte di Natale", op. 6 no. 8 (1690?)
I. Vivace - Grave. Arcate, sostenuto e come stà
II. Allegro
III. Adagio - Allegro - Adagio
IV. Vivace
V. Allegro - largo. Pastorale ad libitum

Wolfang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1793)
Sancta Maria, mater dei for choir and orchestra, KV 273 (1777)

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël for mixed choir, FP 152 (1951-1952)
I. O magnum mysterium (Oh big mystery)
II. Quem vidistis pastores dicite (Shepherds, tell us what you have seen)
III. Videntes stellam (We saw the star)
IV. Hodie Christus natus est (Today Christ is born)

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
St. Paul's suite for string orchestra, op. 29 no. 2 (1912-1913)
I. Jig
II. Ostinato
III. Intermezzo
IV. Finale (the Dargason)

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
Concert in Mi-bemol major for oboe and orchestra (1823) /It is played on the tuba /
Risoluto allegro - Larghetto cantabile - Allegro polonese

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Aria from Suite for orchestra no. 3 in Re major, BWV 1068

Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Flight of the cockchafer
Variation for tuba and orchestra

Vittorio Monti (1862-1922)
Ceardaș
Variation for tuba and orchestra