MORSE, SAMUEL F. B. 



557 



traits at fifteen dollars a head. Then he went 

 to Charleston, S. C., and there his art proved 

 more profitable. About 1822 he took up his 

 residence in New York, where his talents 

 were better appreciated, and, under a commis- 

 sion from the city, he painted a full-length 

 portrait of General Lafayette, who was then 

 on a visit to the United States. He was one 

 of the founders of the National Academy of 

 Design in 1846, and was its first president; he 

 was about the same time lecturer on the fine 

 arts at the New York AthensBum ; and during 

 his second residence abroad was elected to 

 the professorship of the Literature of the Arts 

 of Design in the University of the City of New 

 York. He made a second voyage to Europe 

 in 1829, to complete his studies in the chief 

 cities of the Continent, where he produced a 

 number of paintings which are held in high 

 repute. It was on the voyage home in 1832, 

 to enter upon the duties of this position, that 

 he conceived the great invention to which he 

 owes his world-wide fame. The new discov- 

 eries in the science of electro-magnetism had 

 a special attraction for him, and he had dis- 

 cussed them, over and over again, with his 

 friend Prof. J. F. Dana. On board the Havre 

 packet Sully, which brought him home in Oc- 

 tober, 1832, the subject formed one day a 

 topic of conversation among the passengers. 

 Dr. Charles S. Jackson, of Boston, described 

 an experiment recently made in Paris, by 

 means of which electricity had instantaneous- 

 ly been transmitted through a great length of 

 wire. " If that is so," said Morse, "I see no 

 reason why messages may not be instantane- 

 ously transmitted by electricity." Before the 

 packet reached New York, the invention of 

 the telegraph was virtually made, and even, 

 the essential features of the electro-magnetic 

 transmitting and recording apparatus were 

 sketched upon paper. Of course, in reaching 

 this result, Prof. Morse made use of the ideas 

 and discoveries of many other minds. It is 

 not sufficient that a brilliant project be pro- 

 posed, that its modes of accomplishment are 

 foreseen and properly devised; there are, in 

 every part of the enterprise, other minds and 

 other agencies to be consulted for information 

 and counsel to perfect the whole plan. Va- 

 rious forms of telegraphic intercourse had 

 been devised before; electro-magnetism had 

 been studied by savans for many years ; Frank- 

 lin even had experimented with the transmis- 

 sion of electricity through great lengths of 

 wire. It was reserved for Morse to combine 

 the results of many fragmentary and unsuc- 

 cessful attempts, and put them, after years of 

 trial, to a practical use ; and, though his claims 

 to the invention have been many times at- 

 tacked, in the press and in the courts, they 

 have been triumphantly vindicated by the law 

 and the verdict of the people, both at home 

 and abroad. The Chief-Justice of the United 

 States, in delivering the decision of the Su- 

 preme Court, said: "It can make no differ- 



ence whether he " (the inventor) " derives 

 his information from books or from conversa- 

 tion with men skilled in the science ; " and 

 "the fact that Morse sought and obtained the 

 necessary information and counsel from the 

 best sources, and acted upon it, neither im- 

 pairs his right as an inventor nor detracts 

 from his merits." Part of the apparatus was 

 actually constructed by Mr. Morse in New 

 York, before the close of the year 1832, but it 

 was not until 1835 that he succeeded in put- 

 ting up an experimental line, consisting of half 

 a mile of wire stretched around and around 

 a room, and exhibiting a telegraph in actual 

 operation. In 1837 he gave greater publicity 

 to his scheme by an exhibition at the Univer- 

 sity. The invention attracted a great deal of 

 interest, but very few persons could be per- 

 suaded of its financial value. The same year 

 he abandoned his profession, and filed his 

 caveat at the Patent-Office in "Washington ; 

 and it is somewhat singular that, during the 

 same year. Wheatstone in England, and Stein- 

 heil in Bavaria, both invented a magnetic tele- 

 graph, differing from the American and from 

 each other. But Morse's was superior to 

 either, and at a convention held in 1851 by 

 Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Wurtemberg, and 

 Bavaria, for the purpose of adopting a uniform 

 system of telegraphing for all Germany, his 

 was, by the advice of Steinheil, selected. At 

 the close of 1837 Mr. Morse went to "Washing- 

 ton and asked Congress for an appropriation 

 to build a telegraph-line from "Washington to 

 Baltimore. The House Committee on Com- 

 merce, at the head of which was F. O. J. 

 Smith, of Maine, gave him an attentive hear- 

 ing, and a favorable report, but the session 

 passed without further action, and the disap- 

 pointed inventor went to England and France. 

 He met with no encouragement in Europe, 

 and struggled on for four years longer, reneAv- 

 ing his appeal at "Washington year after year, 

 and still hopeful in the midst of poverty and 

 trouble. On the last night of the session in 

 March, 1843, he left the Capitol entirely dis- 

 heartened, after patiently waiting through the 

 long day. But the next morning, to his 

 amazement, he learned that in the hurry and 

 confusion of the midnight hour the expiring 

 Congress had voted $30,000 for his experi- 

 mental essay. The difficulties, however, were 

 not yet surmounted. Mr. Morse purposed en- 

 closing the wires in lead pipes buried in the 

 earth a plan which soon proved impracti- 

 cable. The expense far exceeded his expecta- 

 tions, and he was endeavoring, with the aid 

 of his friend Mr. Smith, of the Committee on 

 Commerce, to devise a sort of plough, that 

 would both open and cover a trench for the 

 pipes, when accident brought him into asso- 

 ciation with Ezra Cornell, afterward so inti- 

 mately connected with the progress of the 

 telegraph in the United States. Mr. Cornel] 

 devised a machine drawn by a yoke of oxen, 

 which, as it moved along, opened the ground, 



