SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, INVENTOR OF THE TELEGRAPH
Morse, 1791
133. The Coming of the Telegraph. Samuel Morse was born in Massachusetts (1791). His father was a Presbyterian minister. Young Morse went to the common schools and to Yale College.
MORSE WORKING ON HIS MACHINE
Paints portraits
In college he used his spare time in painting, and after graduation he went to England and studied under the best artists. He came home and for a time painted portraits for a living.
The idea came to him of sending news by electricity
After having spent some years abroad, in work and study, Morse was again returning home from France when the idea of sending news by electricity first came to him.
THE FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT
A machine and an alphabet
"Why can't it be?" said Morse to a friend, who answered, "There is great need of sending news by electricity." He began, then and there, to plan a machine and to invent an alphabet. This was all done on shipboard. When he reached land he went to work with a will at his new-found problem.
The hungry inventor
For a long time the work went on very slowly, for inventors must eat and sleep and pay their way in the world. While Morse was struggling over his machine and trying to make himself master of the strange force called electricity, he was very often hungry and at times even on the point of starvation.
Alfred Vail
Now came a bright spot in his career. A young man named Alfred Vail, an excellent mechanic, saw Morse's telegraph instruments, and immediately believed they would be successful. Young Vail borrowed money and became Morse's assistant in the great work. For what he did he deserves credit next to Morse himself.
Getting ready for Congress
Behind locked doors
A patent must now be had and the telegraph must be so improved that they could show it to a committee of Congress. It was arranged that Vail and a mechanic by the name of Baxter should do the work behind locked doors. For, if some one should happen to see the instruments, and obtain a patent first, then Morse and Vail would be ruined.
The dot and dash alphabet
In the locked shop the two men worked steadily day after day. Vail made many improvements. Among these was the new "dot and dash" alphabet. At last, one day in January, 1838, everything was in complete working order. Baxter, hatless and coatless, ran for Mr. Vail's father to come at once and see the telegraph work.
MORSE SHOWING HIS COMPLETED WORK
The final test
Patented in Morse's name
At one end of the wire stood young Vail, and at the other stood Morse. This wire was stretched around the room so that it was three miles in length. The elder Vail wrote: "A patient waiter is no loser." He said to his son: "If you can send this message, and Mr. Morse can read it at the other end, I shall be convinced." It was done, and there was great rejoicing. The invention was hurried to Washington, and young Vail took out a patent in the name of Morse.
MORSE LISTENING TO CONGRESS MAKING FUN OF HIS INVENTION
Congressmen watch the instruments
Morse obtained permission to set up his telegraphic instruments in rooms in the capitol. These rooms were filled with congressmen watching the strange business. Members in one room would carry on witty conversations with persons in the other room. This was great fun for those looking on. But it was slow work talking with members of Congress and winning their help.
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE
From a photograph taken by Abraham Bogardus, New York City
Congress makes fun of the idea
134. The Government Aids. Finally Morse asked for thirty thousand dollars to build a line from Washington to Baltimore. The bill met opposition, one member moving that a part of the money be used in building a railroad to the moon, another that it be used in making experiments in mesmerism.
Morse ruined if bill does not pass
Morse stood leaning against the railing which separated the outsiders from the members. He was greatly excited, and turning to a friend, said: "I have spent seven years and all that I have in making this instrument perfect. If it succeeds, I am a made man; if it fails, I am ruined. I have a large family, and not money enough to pay my board bill when I leave the city."
Telegraph line to Baltimore built
The first message
It was ten o'clock, March 3, 1843, the last night of that Congress. Morse gave up and went to his hotel. In the morning a friend met and congratulated him on the action of Congress in granting thirty thousand dollars for his telegraph line—the last thing Congress did that night. Morse was surprised. The telegraph line to Baltimore was built and the first dispatch was ready to send. Morse called the young woman who had been the first to congratulate him, to send this first message: "What hath God wrought."
THE TELEPHONE
Honors heaped on the inventor
The success of Morse was slow at first, but he lived to see the day when his instrument was used in Europe. He visited Europe again, was given gold medals, and received other rewards and honors from many of the rulers of the different European countries.
Morse dies, 1872
He died in 1872 at the good old age of eighty-one. Congress and state legislatures paid tribute to his memory.
The telephone
135. A Wider Use for Electricity. Samuel Morse was hardly in his grave before a wonderful invention was made which called electricity into far wider use in carrying news. This new invention was the telephone, and two men, Bell and Gray, applied for patents on it at almost the same time.
The instruments are wonderful conductors of sound, carrying, as they do, the actual words and tones of the voice.
Marconi beats them all
But Marconi has gone beyond them all in his invention. He sends the electric wave forth without the aid of a wire, thus giving rise to wireless telegraphy.