Ottoman Telegraph Engineers

Permanent embassies have been established in European countries by Ottoman Empire, especially since the industrial revolution, which has led European countries reaching a striking level of development. It is aimed to be informed of any changes and developments in the country via embassies. The main aim was to observe and transfer innovations. The telegram, a breakthrough technology of its time, was monitored by Ottoman Empire closely. Changing the period of communication from months to seconds, telegram is the breaking point in communication. As a direct result of invention of telegraph, the distance factor did no longer played a role in transfer time for correspondence. In other words, telegraph gave people opportunity to communicate for longest distance in shortest time. The telegraph was quickly accepted in the innovative policy of the Ottoman Empire and put into practice in a short time. Accordingly, experts from abroad have been brought in Ottoman Empire to provide training on this field. Students who were educated by foreign experts in the field of telegraph were sent to Paris to study for telegraph engineering. After completing their study those students returned to Ottoman Empire and trained other students. In this article, the process will be assessed starting from how the Ottoman Empire became aware of the telegraph technology. Secondly, the education on this field will be analyzed on institutional basis. Thirdly, the Ottoman education policy about telegraph will be disscussed. Under this discussion, the education and work process of Salih Zeki Bey who is a specialist on history of science, will be taken into account. Lastly positive and negative effects of telegraph on the society will be illustrated.

Keywords

Ottoman telegraph engineers, history of communication, history of science, education