What was the telegraph and what effect did it have on the us

The telegraph made it easier for big businesses to operate,
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of textual or symbolic messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pigeon post is not. Telegraphy requires that the method used for encoding the message be known to both sender and receiver.

Ibelieve that the answer is (a).