How Electricity Learned to Talk: The Story of the Telegraph
Before the middle of the nineteenth century, sending a message across long distances took patience. If you wanted to write to a friend who lived forty miles away, your letter had to travel on horseback, by stagecoach, or by train. Getting an answer could take days, or even weeks. Everything changed when scientists and inventors figured out how to make electricity carry human words over a metal wire.
On May 24, 1844, an inventor named Samuel Morse sat inside the Supreme Court chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. In front of him sat a small machine made of brass and wood, attached to a long metal wire that stretched along railroad tracks all the way to Baltimore, Maryland. Morse tapped out a historic demonstration message: "What hath God wrought!" In Baltimore, another machine received the signal and recorded it almost instantly. This event proved to government leaders and the public that long-distance electrical communication was real.
- circuit:
- A complete, circular path through which electric current can flow.
- demonstration:
- An event that shows or explains how something works to an audience.
- electromagnet:
- A piece of metal that acts like a magnet only when electricity passes through it.
- infrastructure:
- The basic physical structures and systems, such as wires or roads, needed for a network to operate.
- instrument:
- A tool or device designed to do a specific kind of precise work.
- network:
- A large, interconnected system of people, wires, or routes.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1How were long-distance messages delivered before the middle of the nineteenth century?
- 2What historical message did Samuel Morse send during his 1844 demonstration?
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About this explanatory article passage for Upper Elementary
“How Electricity Learned to Talk: The Story of the Telegraph” is a explanatory article reading passage about The Telegraph and Electrical Communication, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 4 minutes to read (543 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.