TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
BIRTHPLACE OF S. F. B. MORSE
The inventor of the telegraph was born at the foot of Breed’s Hill, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
THE NEW YORK HOME OF S. F. B. MORSE
This house was located on West Twenty-second Street near Fifth Avenue.
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE
THE FIRST TELEPHONE
THE FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT
With Morse the turning point was reached in 1827 when, some years after his return from England, he attended a course of lectures in New York on the subject of electromagnetism. What he then heard fired his imagination, and led him, during a second visit abroad, to study more closely the nature of electricity. He specially became interested in the possibility of utilizing this great natural force as a medium for long-distance communication, and when homeward bound, in the autumn of 1832, applied himself to this one problem to such good purpose that before landing in New York he was able to show to his fellow passengers plans of the instrument that was to immortalize his name.
“LONG DISTANCE”
Alexander Graham Bell opening the New York-Chicago long distance telephone line, October 18, 1892.
It was not until five years afterward, however, that Morse made the first working demonstration of his invention, which by most people was regarded as a scientific toy rather than a creation of the highest practical utility. And a scientific toy it remained until, after a heartbreaking struggle to secure the necessary financial aid, Morse persuaded Congress in 1843 to appropriate $30,000 for the construction of a telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. The first message to be flashed over this line, May 1, 1844, was the news of the nomination of Henry Clay for the presidency; and with the sending of that message one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind definitely gained recognition as an accomplished fact.
Alexander Graham Bell, experimenting in the same field of long-distance communication by the aid of electricity, was more fortunate in securing early acknowledgment of the merits of his telephone, a public demonstration of which was given at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Connected with this invention a most interesting story is told. Bell, it is said, was experimenting with a device for multiplex telegraphy, when the accidental snapping of a wire sent a sound vibrating through another wire which had attached to it at each end a thin sheet-iron disk a few inches in circumference. At once Bell asked himself if the sound could be repeated. Experiment showed that it could, and the query then suggested itself to him, Could vocal sounds be thus transmitted? Forthwith he set himself to the task that resulted, after many failures, in the creation of the telephone.
But even in the case of this marvelous instrument it was for a long time impossible to obtain the necessary financial support. When, in 1877, Bell took the telephone to England, he could find no purchaser for half the European rights at $10,000, and in this country a personal friend declined to advance $2,500 for a half interest. Today, so it is stated, there are in use in the United States alone approximately seven and a half million telephones.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL’S SUBURBAN RESIDENCE AT WASHINGTON, D. C.