SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE. 229 



magnet connected with the positive and negative 

 poles of the battery, and terminating in the 

 mercury-cups." 



Morse was now so poor that he bought his food 

 in small quantities from some grocery, and pre- 

 pared it himself. He says, " To conceal from my 

 friends the stinted manner in which I lived, I was 

 in the habit of bringing my food to my room in 

 the evenings, and this was my mode of life for 

 many years." 



In this year, 1835, says Professor Horsford, 

 " Morse made his discovery of the relay, the most 

 brilliant of all the achievements to which his name 

 must be forever attached. It was the discovery of 

 a means by which the current, which through dis- 

 tance from its source had become feeble, could be 

 reenforced or renewed. This discovery, according 

 to tlie different objects for which it is employed, is 

 variously known as the registering magnet, the 

 local circuit, the marginal circuit, the repeater, 

 etc. It made transmission from one point on a 

 main line through indefinitely great distances, and 

 through an indefinite number of branch lines, and 

 to an indefinite number of way-stations, and regis- 

 tration at all, possible and practicable, from a 

 single act of a single operator." 



Poo'r, longing for money to carry forward his 

 plans, despondent lest some one think out a kin- 

 dred machine and supplant him, Morse was also 

 suffering from injustice in his art work. Our 

 government having offered to American artists 



