52 
THE SCIENTIST. 
line Arts. In 18il he returned to New 
Haven. Ct., an:l while still pursuinf^ his 
profession became interested in the study 
of electricity and galvanism under Prof, 
Still man at the Yale Laboratory. Dur- 
ing this year he painted his famous 
'"House of Kepresentatives" in full ses- 
sion, each liojure being a portrait. In 
1823 he invented a machine for carving 
marble which was successfully used in 
carving designs out of solid marble and 
stone. In Sept. of this year, he set up 
his studio in New York, on Broadway, 
immediately opposite Trinity Chuich- 
yard. His first portrait painted here was 
that of Chancellor Kent. During this 
year both his wife and father died. He 
was painting the portrait of Lafayette 
when he received notice of his wife's 
death. Later in the same year he founded 
the New York Academy of Design and 
was elected its President which office he 
held until his death in 1872. In 1827 he 
again had an opportunity to study the 
new science of electricity and magna- 
tism, (in which he took a great interest,) 
through his friend, James Freeman I>ana 
of Columbia College. This was practi- 
cally his second step toward the inven- 
tion of the telegraph. The first at Yale, 
the second at Columbia. Between 1827 
and 1829 he pursued his profession with 
great success and inaugurated a series of 
lectures on the Fine Arts, the first of the 
kind ever attempted in this country. 
In 1829 he again sailed for Europe. He 
was absent three years, during which 
time he made still further improve- 
ment in his profession and became 
famous as an artist. He made many 
acquaintances among the distingushed 
men of that day through his former 
aquaintance, and through Gen. Lafayette 
who formed an affectionate attachment 
for him . It was also on this trip that a 
lasting friendship sprung up between 
himself and Washington Irving and J. 
Fenemore Cooper the two American 
Novelists. In (blooper's novel entitled 
" The Sea Lion," on j>age 140 wiil be 
found an illusion to Morse in wiuch he 
speaks of Lim as my worthy friend 
This it will be remembered, v/as before 
he ever thought of the telegraph. His 
title of Professor was received in 1835, 
at which time he was appointed Pro- 
fessor at the ai-ts in the New York Uni- 
versity. In 1832 he sailed from Havre 
on the 1st of October in the Packet ship 
Sully (Captain Pill) for New York, and 
it was on this homeward voyaee that lie 
first conceived the idea which afterwards 
developed into Morse's Magnetic Tele- 
graph. On that voyage he made draw_ 
ings and notes of what is practically the 
same instrument that is in daily use 
to-daj\ W hat followed you all know. 
How he struggled with poverty, disa})- 
pointment and ridicule. How others 
tried to steal his ideas and inventions, 
but how he triumphed in the end and 
lived to see the day when a message 
could be flashed around the world in a 
few seconds, and to i-eap the reward his 
genius deserved. His first working 
model was made out of an old picture 
frame and is kept in a glass case in the 
rotunda of the Western Union Tele- 
graph OflJce in New York together with 
other relics. In some of his experimen- 
tal apparatus he hnd magnets as large as 
half barrels, and manipulating keys two 
or three feet long. It should be remem- 
bered that at tliat time there was no in- 
sulated wire or supplies of any kind elec- 
trical to be bought. He had to make 
everything himself and insulate his wire 
by wrapping it with tape, before he 
could v.ind his magnets. 
In 1855 Prof. Morse took the first Da- 
guerreotype ever taken in this country * 
and established the art in the United 
States, he having been taught the process 
and provided with apparatus by the in- 
ventor, M. Daguerre when in Paris in 
1835. At that time and stage of the art 
the subject was obliged to sit for from ten 
