The book is an interesting and beautifully illustrated overview of telegraph keys and an excursion into the history of the invention of Morse code and the world's first telegraph key. This is the first, without pretensions to completeness, attempt to close the “blank spot” for the Russian-speaking reader, which was the history of the code and Morse key. The reader is introduced in detail to telegraph pioneers George W. Conkling, Jesse H. Bunnell, Horace G. Martin, Theodore R. McElroy and others. The book also gives some details about the Russian inventor of the telegraph, Pavel Lvovich Schilling. The communication line on which the telegraph apparatus he invented worked began to operate in Russia 5 years before the official demonstration of the telegraph line in the USA on May 24, 1844. The illustrative material of the book was mainly the collection of the author’s keys and information about them for searching and processing (translation ) which took several years. The translation of the original texts was done by the author, in some cases with abbreviations or in the form of a retelling.