Question

From a telegraph office, you could send a message to almost any place in the world instantaneously. Yet, there were problems with the telegraph. Identify at least one of the telegraph’s problems

Answer 1

One major problem was the infrastructure: telegraph service required long runs of wired landlines and undersea cables that were expensive to lay and easy to damage. A single cable break or storm could cut off communication for long periods while repairs were made.

Other common problems:
- Messages had to be encoded/decoded in Morse by trained operators, causing errors and delays.
- Sending was charged by the word, making it expensive for ordinary people and encouraging very terse (sometimes ambiguous) messages.
- Interception and lack of privacy were possible — telegraph traffic could be tapped.