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