INVENTOR

Alfred Vail

1807 - 1859

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Alfred Lewis Vail (September 25, 1807 – January 18, 1859) was an American machinist and inventor. Along with Samuel Morse, Vail was central in developing and commercializing American electrical telegraphy between 1837 and 1844. Vail and Morse were the first two telegraph operators on Morse's first experimental line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, and Vail took charge of building and managing several early telegraph lines between 1845 and 1848. He was also responsible for several technical innovations of Morse's system, particularly the first sending key, which Vail invented, and improved recording registers and relay magnets. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Alfred Vail is the 165th most popular inventor (down from 153rd in 2019), the 2,746th most popular biography from United States (down from 2,169th in 2019) and the 48th most popular American Inventor.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Alfred Vail ranks 165 out of 426. Before him are Christopher Latham Sholes, Edwin Howard Armstrong, Elizabeth Holmes, Zacharias Janssen, Oliver Lodge, and Georg Luger. After him are Guillaume Amontons, Robert Watson-Watt, Robert Metcalfe, Charles Algernon Parsons, Jang Yeong-sil, and John Ericsson.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1807, Alfred Vail ranks 17. Before him are Bezmiâlem Sultan, Harriet Taylor Mill, Charles Francis Adams Sr., Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Théophile-Jules Pelouze, and Princess Cecilia of Sweden. After him are Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, Hermann Burmeister, Aloysius Bertrand, Joseph E. Johnston, Amir Kabir, and Jónas Hallgrímsson. Among people deceased in 1859, Alfred Vail ranks 32. Before him are John Austin, Tatya Tope, Robert Stephenson, Abd al-Rahman of Morocco, Joseph Diez Gergonne, and Yoshida Shōin. After him are Zygmunt Krasiński, Karl Baedeker, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, William Cranch Bond, Sergey Aksakov, and Thomas Horsfield.

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Others Deceased in 1859

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Alfred Vail ranks 2,746 out of 20,380. Before him are Nancy Kassebaum (1932), Ivan Sutherland (1938), Tanya Roberts (1955), Richard Ford (1944), Gloria Steinem (1934), and Paul Revere (1735). After him are Virginia Cherrill (1908), Robert Stroud (1890), Thomas Watson Jr. (1914), Ray Price (1926), Siri Hustvedt (1955), and Phil Murphy (1957).

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Among INVENTORS In United States

Among inventors born in United States, Alfred Vail ranks 48. Before him are Richard Jordan Gatling (1818), Mary Anderson (1862), Robert Moog (1934), Christopher Latham Sholes (1819), Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890), and Elizabeth Holmes (1984). After him are Robert Metcalfe (1946), Harold Eugene Edgerton (1903), Arnold Orville Beckman (1900), Larry Sanger (1968), Sequoyah (1770), and Garrett Morgan (1877).

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