The Electric Telegraph:A Revolutionary Invention

A Faster Form of Communication

 With the means of almost instantaneous communication of intelligence between the most distant points of the country, and simultaneously between any given number of intermediate points which this invention contemplates, space will be, to all practical purposes of information, completely annihilated between the States of the Union, as also between the individual citizens thereof.
--Samuel F.B. Morse (Morse, 87)

The electric telegraph was revolutionary because it made communication faster and easier, creating a more united nation.

-Before the electric telegraph(1837): Means of long-distance communication were either by train or mail deliveries such as the Pony Express 

-After the telegraph:Marked the end of inaccurate and outdated information and introduced an easy, near-instantaneous means of long distance communication
 

- Changed urban lifestyle- helping businesses and  providing jobs for many people to become specialized operators

-By 1854, over 23,000 miles of telegraph wire crossed the country from the east coast to the Pacific, making a more united nation.

-Fun Fact:  The first message ever sent on the telegraph was "What hath God Wrought."


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Railroad operators used the telegraph in order to communicate faster, resulting in less train crashes and trains could move regularly
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Samuel Morse Using the Telegraph in New York while people admire his invention. This is a picture shown in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newpaper from the 1870s