Why didn't people have Samuel Morse's telegraph in their homes?

Answer 1

There are two main reasons:

• not everyone would be willing to learn the Morse Code needed to operate it (it is effectively a different language that must be learned by "ear" and practiced extensively; this was and is the main roadblock).
• telegraphs were easy to connect point to point but not into the complex network that would be needed to support home telegraphs.

Both of these problems were later solved with the telephone as you could just speak into it without having to learn anything and the network switching was managed initially by low paid women operators at switchboards and later by automatic electromechanical switching equipment and even later by electronic then computerized switching equipment.

But initially even the telephone was rare in homes as the service charges were quite high.

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Many do, even today. We're called "Hams", or "amateur radio operators".

It never became as widely used as, for example, the telephone, because learning to key and understand the Morse code is effectively learning another language. It takes a couple of months of steady practice to get good at it, and you need to keep doing it to maintain that skill level.

Today, "ham" radio operators operate networks that carry free radio messages to and from ships, to remote military locations, and to the sites of natural disasters.

The "continuous wave" or CW telegraphy doesn't require much power, and the equipment is easily portable. Every spring, clubs of Ham operators participate in "Field Day", in which they set up their radios and antennas in parks, back yards, and other places to practice contacting other clubs doing Field Day activities.

The expansion of the internet has decreased the interest level in amateur radio, but it's fairly easy to learn, even for children. The youngest Ham I ever knew got her license at age 7.