In the past, people used smoke signals as a form of communication; however, smoke signals could only send a few simple messages. As America changed and the population grows people needed to send longer messages as well as sending them further in distance. Therefore, people replaced smoke signals for letter writing. People wrote letters to communicate with friends and family separated by distance because it was the only way to communicate long-distance, at least until the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century. The telegraph was invented by a man named Samuel Morse, hence “Morse Code.”