CDL: The Telegraph: "Wonder Working Wire"

Many scientist where involved with the invention of the Telegraph Samuel Morse was beyond dedicated to the invention. Samuel Morse was a professor of design and art at a New York University in 1835 when Morse could prove that signals could be transmitted through a wire. Samuel used pulses of current to deflect an electromagnet which moved a marker to produce written codes on a strip of paper this is also known as the Morse Code On June 20,1840 Samuel Morse patented his idea for the Telegraph. The machine was modified to emboss the paper with dots and dashes. Samuel gave a public demonstration in 1838 but it took five years to get congress to fund $30,000 to the construction of an experimental telegraph line that was from Washington to Baltimore which was a distance of 40 miles. It took six years before the congress could witness the sending and receiving of messages over part of the telegraph line. The telegraph changed the way Americans could communicate they no longer had to receive messages via horseback or ships. People did not have to be rich to have the use of the telegraph it wasn’t a luxury item for the rich it was a necessity for both the American people but also the government.  During the year of 1866 the underwater transatlantic cable was put into place which linked Europe to America. The invention of the Telegraph made Samuel Morse the riches man of his time but in the end he was also a hard worker and was devoted to the invention of the telegraphy which ended up actually working and changed the way all Americans communicated.

Question
1. How long do you think it would have taken for America to be able to
communicate without the help of horseback and ship? Do you think someone else
would have invented something different?

Question
2. Why do you think that some of the other scientist such as Andre' Ampe're and
Alessandro Volta were unable to complete the invention of the Telegraph?