Electric Telegraph — Questions and answers
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What made Samuel Morse want to find a new way to send messages?
Choices
- A. He wanted to paint faster pictures for people.
- B. He learned about his wife's death weeks after it happened due to slow news. ✓
- C. He wanted to make a new type of ship.
- D. He wanted to travel to many different countries.
Answer: B. He learned about his wife's death weeks after it happened due to slow news.
From page 3
What important change did Alfred Vail suggest for the telegraph code?
Choices
- A. He wanted to use numbers instead of letters.
- B. He suggested a system of dots and dashes for letters, with common letters having shorter codes. ✓
- C. He thought they should use pictures instead of words.
- D. He wanted to use a different language for the code.
Answer: B. He suggested a system of dots and dashes for letters, with common letters having shorter codes.
From page 5
What was the first official telegraph message sent by Samuel Morse?
Choices
- A. "Hello, world!"
- B. "What Hath God Wrought?" ✓
- C. "Send more supplies quickly."
- D. "The weather is beautiful today."
Answer: B. "What Hath God Wrought?"
From page 8
How quickly did the electric telegraph network grow after its first message?
Choices
- A. It grew very slowly, taking over a century to connect a few cities.
- B. It spread with astonishing speed, crisscrossing continents and bridging oceans with underwater cables. ✓
- C. It was only used for a short time before being replaced.
- D. It only connected two cities in the United States.
Answer: B. It spread with astonishing speed, crisscrossing continents and bridging oceans with underwater cables.
From page 9
What was one of the biggest and most lasting impacts of the electric telegraph?
Choices
- A. It made the world seem much bigger and harder to connect.
- B. It taught people how to paint better pictures.
- C. It created the first global communication network and paved the way for inventions like the internet. ✓
- D. It was only useful for sending very short, unimportant messages.
Answer: C. It created the first global communication network and paved the way for inventions like the internet.
From page 10