Storiascopio · Era 10 of 12 · lower secondary year 2
The electric telegraph
1844 · Washington and Baltimore, United States
In short
The American painter and inventor Samuel Morse worked for years on a telegraph that sent electrical signals along a wire. With his assistants he invented a code made of dots and dashes, short and long pulses, to stand for letters and numbers. On 24 May 1844 he sent the first official message from Washington to Baltimore, about 60 kilometres away. Soon telegraph wires crossed continents and even the ocean.
Why it matters News could travel in minutes instead of days: instant long-distance communication was born.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Samuel Morse”
Where we are in the era “Age of revolutions”
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1712Event 16 of 251895
Your turn
Name ______________________ Class ______ Date __________
When did it happen? Find the date at the top and write it here:
Tell it in your own words: what happened?
Draw the scene below.
storiascopio.com/en/event/the-electric-telegraph/ · free worksheet, you may photocopy it for your class