Morse, Samuel
Achievements: Telegraph
Born: April 27, 1791; Charleston, Massachusetts
Died: April 2, 1872; New York, NY (Aged 80)
Field & Discipline: Art; Communications; Invention; Painter
Language: English
Education: Phillips Academy, Andover. Yale.
Major Work: The telegraph
Life & Times:
In 1805, like his father, [father was] Jedediah Morse*, Samuel Morse went to Yale, where he was only interested in lectures given by Jeremiah Day and [taught by] Silliman Snr*. Day’s lectures on electricity fascinated him and, after taking a battery apart in Silliman’s class, Morse went on to construct some of his own. His talent for art became apparent in his third year. After meeting [taught by] Allston*, he asked his parents for the money to study under the painter and to visit Europe. They agreed and, in July of 1811, he set sail for England with Allston.
In London Morse was soon taken under the wing of Royal Academy President, American artist Benjamin [a patron was] West*. In 1812 Morse successfully exhibited ‘The Dying Hercules’ and ‘The Judgement of Jupiter.’ In 1818 after six years of study, he ran out of money and returned to America to live with his uncle Finley, in Charleston, SC, where he was given enough painting commissions to earn a living and marry Lucretia Walker in September of that year. He was also given his first government commission: a portrait ordered by the city council to celebrate the visit of President [painted portrait of] Monroe*.
He began work on ‘The House of Representatives’ in the winter of 1822. Painting the eighty figures involved was a huge undertaking, but Morse enjoyed the creative challenge. In 1823, he moved to New York, where his art began to mature, and the Common Council selected him for the important job of painting the [painted portrait of] Lafayette*. In 1826, he helped set up the National Academy of the Arts of Design in New York, and became its president. Three years later he decided to go back to Europe, visiting Paris and meeting Lafayette again before going on to Rome, where he spent his days painting at the Vatican. It was in Rome that he met [met] Fenimore Cooper*.
Back in America in 1832, he was still hoping to launch his career as a history painter, with ‘The Gallery of the Louvre’. Its failure, coupled with failing to win the commission to paint panels in the Capitol Rotunda, disillusioned him and he turned away from art. On the ship home he had talked with fellow passenger, [discussed telegraph with] CT Jackson*, about the electromagnetism experiments of the French scientist [studied work of ] AM Ampère*. From the lectures of his friend, James Freeman Dana, Morse also found out about [work related to] Sturgeon’s* new electromagnet. Morse felt that there must be some way to use electricity to send messages.
In the interests of earning a living, he accepted an appointment as professor of sculpture and painting at the University of the City of New York, while he began work on developing the telegraph. By 1835, he had developed a crude device capable of transmitting messages across a room. Unfortunately, Morse was not aware of [work related to] Ohm’s* resistance work of 1827, so he didn’t know why his signals didn’t go further. Gale was able to adapt Morse’s knowledge of [learned from] Joseph Henry’s* work on magnets to the problems of resistance on the telegraph. By November of 1837, they had managed to send electrical impulses ten miles.
Alfred [collaborated with] Vail*, a student at UCNY, joined the experiment in September 1837, bringing mechanical skills and money to the project. For these contributions to the work, Gale and Vail were eventually to receive a share of the profits from the invention. An instrument for marking dots and dashes on a strip of paper was constructed by Vail and, after much trial and error, a code was devised in October 1838. In February of the following year, Morse and Vail demonstrated the telegraph at the Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia.
Although the Institute were already aware of the German telegraph of [his work preceded by] Gauss* and [his work preceded by] Wilhelm Weber*, as well as that of [his work preceded by] Wheatstone* in England, they gave a favourable report on Morse’s apparatus. Congress had expressed an interest in having a telegraph system like the one in France, so Morse and Vail went to Washington.
In May 1838, Morse sailed again for Europe to register patents on his invention, but without success.
In France he found that his patent would not be valid, if he were not using a telegraph there within two years. Russia was uninterested in his invention , and the English already had a similar invention by Wheatstone. While he was in France, Morse met the inventor of a new kind of photography, [agent for] Daguerre* and in 1840 introduced the Daguerrotype to the United States at a studio in New York (he taught Matthew Brady, who documented the Civil War and President Lincoln).
He was also granted a patent for his [developed] telegraph*.
To continue with the work he petitioned Congress and was granted $30,000. Work began on the construction of a long distance communication line along a forty-mile stretch between Baltimore and Washington. At first, by means of a special plough developed by [collaborated with] Cornell*, the wires were laid underground. However the insulating pipes were defective so, as Wheatstone had done, Morse used overhead lines. On 24th May 1844 the completion of the first inter-city telegraphic line was marked by the transmission of the words: ‘What hath God Wrought’.
Following this success, the expansion of the telegraph was now pushed ahead by the four partners Morse, Vail, Gale and Smith. Amos [agent was] Kendall*, a former post-master general, offered to manage after Morse’s business transactions, and proposed selling telegraphic rights to government or businesses, for a commission of ten per cent. Morse and his partners agreed to this arrangement and Kendall proved to be an effective negotiator on their behalf. Over the years, Morse made hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.
In 1854, the American entrepreneur [collaborated with] Field* wrote to Morse, suggesting a transatlantic cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. Morse (with [collaborated with] Maury*) advised on the project. Morse retired to a quiet old age.
Father: Jedidiah Morse
Mother: Elizabeth Ann Breese
Siblings: Richard; Sidney
Spouse: 1) Lucretia Pickering Walker (1818); 2) Sarah Ann Griswold (1848).
Children: Charles Walker; Samuel Arthur Breese; Susan Walker (Mrs Edward Lind); William Goodrich
Extra Connections: Helped [helped] Colt* with an experiment.
His work related to that of [work related to] Nobel* and [work related to] Mach*.
He transmitted news of [telegraphed news of] Polk’s* election.
[lost commission to] Trumbull* got the Rotunda art commission.
Taught one of [work related to] Perry*’s lieutenants
Did portrait of [did portrait of] Noah Webster*
His code was used for the first [used in] barcode*
His work was supported by President Millard [supported by]Fillmore*
Assessment: While his idea of using electromagnetism in telegraphy was not original, he was the first to construct a telegraphic apparatus able to make it happen.
Oneliner: Samuel Morse, an inventor of the telegraph
Bibliography:
- Mabee, Carlton, The American Leonardo – the Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1957.
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