What was this early long-distance invention called?

The telegraph is correct because it let people send messages using patterns of clicks — dots and dashes, known as Morse code — that traveled instantly along wires strung across long distances, long before telephones existed.

A bicycle and an umbrella are useful everyday inventions, but neither one sends messages or electric signals anywhere — they solve completely different problems, like getting around or staying dry.

Before the telegraph, sending a message across a country could take days or weeks by horse or ship — with the telegraph, that same message could arrive in minutes!