The Telegraph

By: Micah Collins

Table of Contents

• The Two Different Telegraphs

• How the Telegraph Works

• The Parts of the Telegraph

The Two Different Telegraphs

• There were two types of telegraphs.• One built by Samuel Morse.• The other by Cooke and Wheatstone.

The Two Different Telegraphs (Continuation)

• Cooke and Wheatstones telegraph was difficult to use and costly to install.

• Thus, Morse’s telegraph prevailed.

How the Telegraph Works

• Morse code is the “code’ that telegraph messages are in.

• Morse code was invented by Samuel Morse.• It is basically a bunch of dots and dashes.

How the Telegraph works (Continuation)

• A special pen wrote the pulses it received in Morse code on a strip of paper.

• As a sender taps out a word, the machine completes a circuit and sends the message.

The Parts of the Telegraph

• The operating handle is moved left or right to select symbols to send in the message.

• The receiver needle display also moves left or right to show the message it received.

• The needle display used to have a special alphabet on it, but it eventually used Morse code.

The Parts of the Telegraph (Continuation)

• The electromagnetic coil controls the needle display in front of it.

• It sits on a pivot so it could swing left or right depending on which way the electric current flowed.

Conclusion

• The telegraph is a complex and difficult machine to use.

• Before you could use one, you would have to learn Morse code, learn how to use each part, and know what king of telegraph you are using.

Bibliography• Scarbrough,Mary. Long-Distance Communication. San Diego: Black Birch

Press, 2004• Tomecek, Stephen, and Dan, Stuckenschneider. What a Great Idea!

Inventions that Changed the World. United States: Scholastic Inc. 2003.

• “How the Telegraph Works.” Connected-Earth. 9 May, 2013 http://connected-earth.com/learningresources/Howitworks/telegraph/Howthetelegraphworks/index.htm