Museum of Innovation and Science

Telegraph key and repeater, Western Union, 1875-1900

Code Lights

Western Electric rotary dial telephone, 1930-1934

Times Gone By

Prototype loudspeakers invented at the GE Research Laboratory, 1925

Seeing Speakers

Western Union telegraph key and repeater, 1875-1900

Making a Simple Telegraph

Western Electric telegraph repeater and sounder, 1875-1900

Morse Code Keychain

Vibrating Hangers

Explore the changes in the ways consumers interact with telephone technology over the years

Engineering the Telephone Timeline

Program Description
As electricity became more prominent and its uses more widespread, its uses for communication immediately became apparent. Whereas writing letters or carving symbols was good for shorter distances or for situations that required slower response times, electricity allowed for more urgent messages to be sent and received promptly, allowing quicker actions to be taken.

Though we take for granted the ability of phones and instant messaging nowadays, even with this faster, electricity-based communication, there were still several pitfalls faced and skills needed in order to translate the information as accurately as possible.

In the following activities, students will explore some of these earliest forms of electricity-based communication which helped to jumpstart our modern information era.

·        Describe the different ways electricity has been used to facilitate or improve communication

·        Compare and contrast the different forms of electricity-based communication (morse code, telegraphs, early telephones etc.)

·        Investigate the relationship between the increased use of electricity and increasingly long-distance communication

·        Discuss how the telephone has evolved in size, shape, usage, and price, as expressed through advertising

·        1-PS4-4. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.* 

o  Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include a light source to send signals, paper cup and string “telephones,” and a pattern of drum beats.

o  Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include technological details for how
communication devices work

Communication by Electricity

educator materials