The Telegraph That Changed the World
Lexile: 1010 | Grade: 8
Passage
Before the telegraph, messages could only travel as fast as the person carrying them. News took days—or even weeks—to cross countries. Important events were delayed, decisions slowed, and communication across great distances was uncertain. All of that began to change in the 1840s, when a simple invention rewired the way humans shared information.
The telegraph, created by Samuel Morse and other inventors, allowed people to send messages through electrical wires. Dots and dashes, known as Morse code, represented letters and words. These could be sent almost instantly across long distances using electric signals. For the first time in history, people in different cities—or even on different continents—could communicate in near real-time.
One of the first major uses of the telegraph came during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s. Messages from the battlefield were sent directly to Washington, D.C., allowing government leaders to respond quickly. Later, the telegraph became critical for railroads, helping trains avoid collisions by coordinating their schedules.
But the telegraph did more than speed up information—it changed how people thought about time and distance. A message that once took ten days to arrive could now arrive in seconds. This led to new expectations: faster decisions, quicker reactions, and a growing sense that the world was suddenly smaller.
Some historians argue that the telegraph was the first step toward the global internet. It created a new kind of connectedness—one that didn’t rely on roads, ships, or messengers. In that way, it didn’t just send messages. It reshaped the meaning of connection itself.
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Questions
Q1: What was the most significant impact of the telegraph, according to the passage?
- A. It improved military weapons during the war.
- B. It made Morse code more popular than spoken language.
- C. It allowed information to travel quickly across long distances.
- D. It replaced the need for all face-to-face communication.
Q2: How did the telegraph affect people’s perception of time and distance?
- A. It made people feel like they were living in the past.
- B. It convinced people that geography no longer mattered.
- C. It created the idea that the world was smaller and more immediate.
- D. It confused people about how far messages were traveling.
Q3: Why do some historians compare the telegraph to the internet?
- A. Both were invented by Samuel Morse.
- B. Both connected people instantly across great distances.
- C. Both used Morse code to communicate.
- D. Both required people to send handwritten letters first.
Q4: What role did the telegraph play during the Mexican-American War?
- A. It was used as a weapon on the battlefield.
- B. It slowed down communication due to limited coverage.
- C. It allowed quick communication between leaders and military forces.
- D. It was not yet invented during that time.
Q5: What abstract idea is expressed in the last line of the passage?
- A. Only new inventions can change society.
- B. Connection is not just physical, but also emotional and informational.
- C. Humans will always prefer face-to-face communication.
- D. People in the past were not truly connected at all.
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Answers & Reasoning
Q1: What was the most significant impact of the telegraph, according to the passage?
✅ Correct Answer: C
💡 Reasoning: The central theme of the passage is how the telegraph revolutionized communication by making long-distance messaging nearly instant.
Q2: How did the telegraph affect people’s perception of time and distance?
✅ Correct Answer: C
💡 Reasoning: The passage explains that messages could now travel instantly, which gave people a new sense of global closeness.
Q3: Why do some historians compare the telegraph to the internet?
✅ Correct Answer: B
💡 Reasoning: The author draws a parallel between the telegraph and the internet because both created a new kind of global connection without physical travel.
Q4: What role did the telegraph play during the Mexican-American War?
✅ Correct Answer: C
💡 Reasoning: The passage describes how messages from the battlefield were sent directly to Washington, improving military response times.
Q5: What abstract idea is expressed in the last line of the passage?
✅ Correct Answer: B
💡 Reasoning: The line 'It reshaped the meaning of connection itself' suggests a deeper idea—that technology changed not just how we connect, but what connection *means.*
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