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L: Railroads and Technology

Page history last edited by Lee Adcock 12 years, 10 months ago

  Railroads and Technology

 

Steam Engines

 

 

Photo courtesy of http://wwwtmpapps.nhcgov.com/lib/history/fales/pages/slides/918.htm

 

 

Developed in England in the early 1800’s, steam locomotives ruled America’s rails from the 1800’s till the 1950’s.  Steam engine locomotives provided the necessary power needed to pull people and heavy cargo long distances, and unlike horses, trains never needing food, shelter, or time to recuperate after a long day. A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.1

 

 

 

 

How they work:

Steam engines operate on a very simple physical principle: fire from burning fuel (coal or wood) boils water to produce steam, which pushes the pistons to move back and forth, which drive the wheel and propel the train.2

 

 

Below is an animation on the operation of the steam engine.  

 

 

 

Video courtesy http://www.howstuffworks.com/steam1.htm

 

 

 

Telegraphs/Morse Code

Photo courtesy of http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/photos/91.jpg

 

 

Before the Internet, cell phones, text, and even regular land-line phones, the telegraph was the major way of communication across long distances. Above is a picture of Samuel Morse’s telegraph patent model.  

 

How it works:

The electric telegraph transmits a series of long and short electrical impulses across a single wire. The electrical impulses are sent by one electric telegraph that the receiving telegraph then gets as a series of dots and dashes. These dots and dashes correspond to letters and numbers in Morse code (the form of written language developed in the early 1840’s by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail to send messages using Morse’s electric telegraph) that the recipient can translate from Morse code into a spoken language (Such as English, French, Spanish, etc.). 3

 

  

Below is the drawing of Samuel Morse’s patent for Morse code. 

Photo courtesy of http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/ig/Samuel-Morse---Patent/Samuel-Morse---Patent.--fJ.htm

 

 

History

       In 1843, Samuel Morse, the co-creator of the Morse code and contributor to the single-wire telegraph system, built the first experimental telegraph line along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.  The line reached all the way from Baltimore to Washington D.C.  On March 24th, 1844, the world’s first telegraphed message “What Hath God Wrought” was send by Morse code.3 Below is the video of the original first telegraphed message. Notice the indentations in the paper above the writing; can you guess what they are?

 

 

Video courtesy of Rory Santaloci from a picture courtesy of http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/ig/Samuel-Morse---Patent/Samuel-Morse---Patent.--fJ.htm

 

 

Benefits

     Since the history of the telegraph and the history of American railroads are so intertwined, railroads received a huge benefit from the invention of the telegraph.  The telegraph allowed railroads to begin the practice of dispatching trains. By having communication along the different stations of the railroads, the railroad companies were able to drastically reduce the number of accidents and collisions of trains traveling on the same line by dispatching, or allowing, one train at a time on a certain track. Railroads also benefited from the use of telegraphs by communicating trainloads, saving time and money by reorganizing the method of trainload transfers.  Railroad and Telegraph companies even set up deals where the Railroad companies would get unlimited free use of the telegraphs and get a share of the profits from the telegraphs send by other people in exchange for the upkeep and maintenance of the telegraph lines.3

 

 

Questions:

1. Why do you think Samuel Morse chose to build the first telegraph lines along the railroad tracks?

 

2. What are some other ways that the telegraphs and railroads helped connect people across North Carolina?

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

G: The Emergence of Railroads in North Carolina

H: Formation of North Carolina's Railroads

I: The Running of the Railroads and Their Impact on Society

J: Railroads and the Arts

K: North Carolina Railroads Lesson Plan

L: Railroads and Technology

M: Bibliography

 

 

 

1. Steam Engine. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine.

2. Brain, Marshall. (2000). How Steam Engines Work. http://www.howstuffworks.com/steam.htm. 

3. Madere, Louis. (1995). Railroads and Telecommunication. http://www.madere.com/firstnet.html.

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