Morse’s Telegraph

1. Compare and contrast Morse’s telegraph and other contributing inventions and decide which one was the most important to the Industrial Revolution. 2. Be able to signal and understand a message in Morse Code after completing the activity.

 Invented by Claude Chappe  Used flag-based alphabet  Required a line of sight

 Invented by William Sturgeon  Laid foundations for future creations

 Used Sturgeon’s electromagnet to experiment with other ideas  Sent an electric current through wire causing a bell to ring

 Was a professor of chemistry interested in Joseph Henry’s creation  Published article reflecting on Henry’s creation about a possible way to create an electric telegraph  Article was crucial to Morse’s invention

 Idea to create telegraph came to him when returning from Europe in 1832 when he understood how the electromagnet worked  He built his first telegraph out of basic materials including a picture frame, a table, and lead pieces.  This worked but was ignored  He had to wait twelve years before trying again ◦ He was in debt and had no food  He did not give up

 Failed as a painter  Turned his attention to the telegraph again  He was still very poor and had to make the most of his materials  He found small pieces of wire and tied them together  Demonstrated his progress in the fall of 1837 ◦ He strung ten miles of wire around a classroom ◦ He invited business men who could possibly invest in his invention ◦ No one liked it except Alfred Vail

 Alfred Vail became his partner and was crucial to Morse’s success  They worked together to improve the telegraph  First model used marker to record message  Next model used notched metal rod to transfer messages  Eventually, they changed the code and finished with a series of dots and dashes ◦ Often used letters such as vowels had shorter codes

 Asked Congress for money ◦ Request was approved  A young women notified him of Congress’s support ◦ Morse let the young lady choose the first message to be sent over wires  Message was sent on May 24, 1844 ◦ “What hath God wrought” was sent from Numbers 23:23 in the Bible  Message was received in Baltimore by Alfred Vail

 People were more interested in Morse and his telegraph  It was now easy to send detailed messages from one person to another quickly  Later, translators worked to convert Morse code into words ◦ A skilled translator could transmit words per minute ◦ An automatic transmission was developed later to transmit twice as many words per minute  Telegraph lines connected Europe and America

 Had a great influence on businesses ◦ They could communicate easily with other businesses ◦ As a result, they could connect with each other and eventually even merge together to become one big business which would make even more money ◦ Thy could work faster and more efficiently

 The electric telegraph was a creation that greatly influenced the Industrial Revolution because it changed the lives of many people by providing machinery that could help one communicate.  Before this, people had to use flag signals which took a long time, were inconvenient, and made detailed messages impossible.

 Samuel Morse was a determined inventor ◦ He never gave up even when in debt ◦ He was focused and knew he could create an electric telegraph  He successfully used the experiments of others to invent an electric telegraph that was quick and convenient ◦ Used William Sturgeon’s electromagnet ◦ Improved Joseph Henry’s progress in creating the telegraph

 When I compared and contrasted the inventions of Joseph Henry, William Sturgeon, and Samuel Morse, I thought that William Sturgeon’s creation of the electromagnet was the most important since Henry’s and Morse’s inventions could not have been created without this knowledge.