"'Well, Strother, my boy, how are we off for money?'
"'Why, professor, I am sorry to say I have been disappointed; but I expect a remittance next week.'
"'Next week!' he repeated, sadly; 'I shall be dead by that time.'
"'Dead, sir?'
"'Yes; dead by starvation!'
"I was distressed and astonished. I said, hurriedly: 'Would ten dollars be of any service?'
"'Ten dollars would save my life; that is all it would do.'"
The money was paid, all the student had, and the two dined together. It was Morse's first meal in twenty-four hours.
The Morse telegraph sounder (Fig. 61) consists of an electromagnet and a soft-iron armature. When no current is flowing the armature is held away from the magnet by a spring. When the circuit is closed a current flows through the coils of the magnet and the armature is attracted, causing a click. When the circuit is broken the spring pulls the armature away from the magnet, causing another click. The circuit is made and broken by means of a key at the other end of the line. In Morse's first instrument (Fig. 62) the armature carried a pen, which was drawn across a ribbon of paper when the armature was attracted by the magnet. If the pen was held by the magnet for a very short time, a dot was made; if for a longer time, a dash. The pen was soon discarded, and the message taken by sound only. The Morse alphabet now in use was devised by a Mr. Vail, who assisted Morse in developing the telegraph. The thought occurred to Mr. Vail that he could get help from a printing-office in deciding the combinations of dots and dashes that should be used for the different letters. The letters requiring the largest spaces in the type-cases are the ones that occur most frequently, and for these letters he used the simplest combinations of dots and dashes.