LESSON 60 - Railroads & Telegraph

LESSON 60 - Railroads & Telegraph

Today we will explain the effects of technological innovations, such as the telegraph and railroads, using a reading selection.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: How did the telegraph and railroads contribute to the growth and development of the U.S.?

Vocabulary Terms for Today

• RAILROAD

• STEAM ENGINE

• TELEGRAPH

• URBANIZATION

• NATIONAL ROAD

• TURNPIKES

Multiple Choice

Review Question:

Which region of the country had a lot of manufacturing?

• the north

• the south

• the west

• Alaska

Railroads

In 1830, Peter Cooper designed and built the first American steam-powered locomotive. The Tom Thumb, as it was called, got off to a slow start. By 1840, steam locomotives were pulling trains in the United States. In 1840 the United States had almost 3,000 miles of railroad track. By 1860, the nation had about 31,000 miles. Most tracks were in the North and Midwest.

Multiple Choice

Why were railroads so important during this time?

• they moved goods more quickly and less expensively over greater distances

• they were fun to ride on to go visit family in other states

• people could ride on railroads to get to their jobs in another city

Multiple Choice

The growth of railroads during the nineteenth century affected U.S. businesses by -

• discouraging congress from instituting tariffs

• increasing the cost of raw materials

• decreasing the wages of unskilled workers

• opening new markets for goods.

The new rail lines connected many cities. One line linked the cities of New York and Buffalo. Another connected Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Railway builders connected these lines to ones farther west in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. By 1860, the nation's railroads connected the Midwest and the East.

Communication

The growth of industry and faster travel created a need for faster communication. The telegraph—a device that used electric signals to send messages—filled that need.

Multiple Choice

What changed the way that news and information was spread in the mid 1800s?

• The telephone

• The Telegraph

• The railroad

• The Mill

Telegraph & Morse Code

Samuel Morse was an American inventor. He created a way to send coded messages instantly along electrical wires. Telegraph operators sent messages quickly by using Morse code. This code uses different short and long signals—dots and dashes—to represent letters of the alphabet. Telegraph companies opened, and workers put up telegraph lines across the country. By 1852, there were about 23,000 miles of telegraph lines in the United States.

With the telegraph, information could be sent in minutes rather than days. People could quickly learn about news and events from other areas of the United States. The telegraph also helped businesses to improve their production and shipping.

Multiple Choice

Samuel Morse's innovation contributed to U.S. growth and development by--

• enabling instantaneous communication over long distances
• increasing the fuel efficiency of trains

Multiple Choice

Which factor best completes this diagram?

• New transportaton systems

• Increased government regulation

• A decline in agricultural production

• The growth of labor unions