Which of the following best describes how samuel morse's telegraph revolutionized mass media and communication?
a) the telegraph was the starting point for the science behind modern communication devices like the telephone and fax machine.
b) the telegraph was the first device that allowed information to travel over a distance without being physically transported by a person.
c) the telegraph was the first machine used to broadcast news using sound.
d) the first message sent on the telegraph was transatlantic, proving that a message could be sent over a long distance without a human being needed to transport it.

The correct answer is A. The telegraph was the starting point for the science behind modern communication devices like the telephone and fax machine.

The telegraph was one of the inventions that most revolutionized communications, since it allowed instant communication at a distance, something unthinkable in those years.

It was the photographer and painter Samuel F. B. Morse who managed to create the first telegraph in 1837, in addition to creating an alphabet to transmit the information that would later bear his name, the Morse code. He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on April 27, 1791.

The idea arose because of a tragic event. Morse was painting a portrait of General Lafayette in Washington when his wife died in Connecticut. The news came a week later. Due to the delay with which the information had arrived, he decided to try to invent a machine that allowed to maintain a communication without barriers of space or time.

The first thing he did was to take interest in discoveries that had taken place in Europe, such as the electromagnet and electromagnetism. After his trip to the Old Continent, he returned to the United States and there he began to develop the bases of the electric telegraph. He had the help of Henry and Alfred Vail for the creation of the alphabet he would use. To do this, two types of electrical signals were used, one short, or point, and one long, or streak. Each of the letters would be composed of a combination of these signals.

Both the device and the alphabet began to be used 7 years after its invention. The first communication was made between Washington and Baltimore, separated by only 60 kilometers. The communication was made on May 24, 1844 and the message that was sent was "What God has created."

The invention was a success and began to spread throughout all parts of the world, sowing the seed so that decades later the phone would emerge.