320 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



great flood or fire devastates a city and leaves the people 

 destitute and homeless, the telegraph sends out the news 

 and relief conies back at once. 



Compare the conditions to-day with those a hundred years 

 ago, when there were no railroads nor telegraphs. The 

 battle of New Orleans, in the War of 1812, was fought after 

 the treaty of peace had been signed, because the news 

 traveled so slowly that the soldiers had not yet learned that 

 the war was ended. 



History of the telegraph. On May 24, 1844, the now 

 famous words, " What hath God wrought," were sent by 



telegraph from Washing- 

 ton to Baltimore, a dis- 

 tance of forty miles. The 

 credit for this achievement 

 of being the first to send 

 messages at this distance 

 belongs to Samuel Morse. 

 Back of this success, 

 however, is a story of 

 struggle, poverty, and per- 

 sistence. Samuel Morse 

 was a professor in the 

 University of the City of 

 New York, and he gave 

 his spare time to a study 

 of electricity. In 1832 

 he conceived the idea of 

 conveying signals at a 



FIG. 129. Morse and his first instrument. 



distance by means of 



electricity. He worked for eleven years in perfecting his 

 instrument, which was finally finished in 1843. He then 

 devised a system of dots and dashes for sending messages. 

 During this period he underwent many deprivations in 

 order to get enough money to carry on his experiments. 



