Electrifying Communications

Summary
This lesson explains how electricity made rapid communication possible.

Objectives
• To be able to explain how a telegraph works.

• To be able to explain how a telephone works

• To be able to describe how electricity made rapid communication possible.

Suggested Grades
3rd Grade
4th Grade
5th Grade

Excerpt
The telegraph was a network of electromagnets. Each electromagnet had a beeper. A person in one place could use a telegraph to send electrical impulses over wires to a person that was far away. A different electromagnet at the destination of the message would receive the impulses and sound its beeper. The person could then interpret the sounds to decode the message. Morse developed a code of long and short beeps, called Morse Code. This is how people would decode the messages they received. Morse code used a code of long and short beeps to indicate different letters or words.

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