Samuel Morse
By Illa Vij

SAMUEL MORSE was an American artist, who was struck by a scientific idea and turned inventor. While on a voyage from London to New York, Morse had a casual conversation, with a fellow passenger, regarding electricity. Inspired by the idea that electricity can be sent over any length of wire, he thought of a way of sending a message through electricity. This idea finally led to the invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph and the Morse Code.

Samuel Finely Breese Morse was born to Jedidiah Morse and Elizabeth Ann Breese Morse, on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

His father was a village parson in Connecticut. During his early youth, Morse tried to help his parents by earning a few dollars. This he did by drawing the portraits of his schoolmates. Even as a student in school he was interested in chemistry and electromagnetism. He studied at Phillips Academy in Andover and graduated from Yale University in 1810. On graduating, he decided to become an artist. He studied painting at the Royal Academy, London. Dying Hercules, a sculpture made by him, won him a gold medal of the Adelphi Art Society. Some of his works also found a place in the Royal Academy Hall. When he returned to America in 1815, he had become a successful portrait painter. In 1817, along with his brother Sidney, Morse patented a workable piston pump for fire engines and, a few years later, constructed a marble cutting machine.

In 1826 in New York, he also founded the National Academy of Arts and Design. In 1832, while on a voyage from Europe to America, the idea of the telegraph germinated in his fertile, inventive mind. All along the voyage he shut himself in his cabin and worked on sketches and working of a telegraph machine. The years ahead were not easy. Morse literally struggled at the invention. He spent all his energy, time and money on working out an instrument that would send and receive coded messages. Money ran out and his family life was disrupted. His wife Lucretia died and his children were left in the care of relatives.

Since he could not afford to buy long stretches of insulated wire he used to buy pieces of wire, solder them together and insulate them with cotton thread. He completed the first model of an electro-magnetic, telegraph apparatus in 1835. With the help of Alfred Vail, a colleague’s student, on September 4, 1837, Morse gave the first demonstration of the telegraph.

It marked the birth of a new instrument of communication that was capable of transmitting messages with a lightning speed. The message consisted of the following words. Successful experiment with telegraph September 4, 1837. The code followed was an adaptation of the signalling alphabet used in the American Navy, but it was not practical. A simple code was the next requirement. On January 24, 1834, a new code called Morse Code was put upon the black board of the New York University.

He also invented a relay system, so that the messages could be transmitted over long distances. In 1838, Morse requested the US Congress for aid so that he could prove the experiment by sending a message from Washington D.C. to Baltimore — a distance of about 40 miles. But the aid was refused, and that made Morse feel most dejected. He even sought help from England, France and Russia, hoping to gain some foreign help, but all his efforts were in vain. The determination of this inventor never failed him. Finally on March 4, 1843, the US Congress granted him a sum of $ 30,000 to build a telegraph line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore.

On May 24, 1844 Morse sent the first telegraphic message; what hath god wrought? Hence forth there was no looking back. The telegraph was used in many countries and in 1850, an under water cable was laid across the Atlantic between England and France.

Honours were showered upon the inventor. A Doctor of Letters degree was conferred on him by the Yale University and he was awarded the decoration of the Nishan Iftichar in diamonds by the Sultan of Turkey. The King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria, honoured him by awarding him gold medals for his great achievement.

In 1858, many countries joined together and awarded him an honorary gratuity of 400,000 Francs. In 1871, on his 80th birthday the telegraph operators of America gave him an unusual honour by unveiling his statue in Central Park.

A year later he died, his finger still on the telegraph key, which had opened the door to a new age of communication between people.