The Original Keyset Telegraph - 1844
The first electronic telecommunications device

OK, net surfer. How much do you really know about the global telecommunications revolution?

1. Identify the drawing on the right:

a) An early example of surrealistic art.
b) A semaphore system used by Washington's Army during the Revolutionary War
c) A promotion for Woolworth's, the first 5 and 10 Cents store

2. Who said this?

"The miracle of annihilation of space is at length performed."

a) FDR at the making of the first Trans-Atlantic telephone call.
b) George Gilder in the book "Telecosm".
c) The New York Tribune. May 27, 1844.

3. O'Reilly and Associates is:

a) The greatest of all pioneering telegraph line builders
b) A venture capital firm in Silicon Valley
c) A pioneering Internet publisher based in Sebastapol, CA

4. Messages transmitted electronically straight from the battlefield became an important part of warfare during:

a) the Civil War
b) the Spanish American War
c) World War I

5. Which entrepreneur got his first big break as a telegraph operator:

a) Richard Sears, founder of Sears, Roebuck
b) Thomas Edison
c) Andrew Carnegie

6. When the first Trans-Atlantic cable was put into operation in 1866, the cost of transmitting 20 words from England to the United States was:

a) 10 cents
b) $10 in gold or $15 in greenbacks
c) $100 in gold or $150 in greenbacks