Question

When did the first electric telegraph come into existence?
1. 1842
2. 1843
3. 1844
4. 1845

Answer 1

Hint:
An electric telegraph works by transmitting electrical signals from one station to another which were laid by a wire.
A telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S.A to Europe by 1866.


Complete answer:
In the 1840s, Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors developed the telegraph which revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals from one station to another which were laid by a wire. In addition to this, Samuel Morse developed a code (Morse Code) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet. This allowed even the complex messages to be transferred easily across the telegraph lines.
On May 24, 1844, Morse electrically transmitted his famous message "What hath God wrought?" from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland.
A telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S.A to Europe by 1866. Although by the start of the 21st century, the telegraph had fallen out of widespread use and got replaced by the telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the foundation for the communication revolution which led to those later innovations.
Before the development of the electric telegraph, there were signaling systems that enabled people to communicate over distances. Most were "semaphore" or visual systems using lights or flags. In the 18th century, such systems required an observer who would decipher a signal on a distant hill. Then he would send it on to the next station. Such a method was limited by the weather and requires an uninterrupted line of sight between receptor points. Thus, the effectiveness of the semaphore was lessened due to these limitations. Developed in the early 1790s, the semaphore consisted of hilltop stations. Each of them had large movable arms to signal numbers and letters and two telescopes to see the other stations.
Hence, a different method of transmitting information was needed to make regular and reliable long-distance communication workable.



Therefore the answer is 3. 1844




Note:
In ancient civilizations such as those in China, Egypt and Greece used smoke signals or drum beats to exchange information between far-flung points.
However, they were susceptible to weather and other factors that hindered visibility.