Paintings--Beginnings of His Invention--The First Instrument--The
Morse Code--The First Written Message.
When we consider the youth and immaturity of America in the first half
of the nineteenth century, it seems the more remarkable that the honor
of making the first great practical application of electricity should
have been reserved for an American. With the exception of the isolated
work of Franklin, the development of the new science of electrical
learning was the work of Europeans. This was natural, for it was
Europe which was possessed of the accumulated wealth and learning
which are usually attained only by older civilizations. Yet, with all
these advantages, electricity remained largely a scientific plaything.
It was an American who fully recognized the possibilities of this
new force as a servant of man, and who was possessed of the practical
genius and the business ability to devise and introduce a thoroughly
workable system of rapid and certain communication.
We have seen that Wheatstone was early trained as a musician. Samuel
Morse began life as an artist. But while Wheatstone early indicated
his lack of interest in music and devoted himself to scientific
studies while yet a youth, Morse's artistic career was of his own
choosing, and he devoted himself to it for many years. This explains
the fact that Wheatstone attained much scientific success before
Morse, though he was eleven years his junior.
It was in 1791 that Samuel Morse was born. Samuel Finley Breese Morse
was the entire name with which he was endowed by his parents. He came
from the sturdiest of Puritan stock, his father being of English and
his mother of Scotch descent. His father was an eminent divine, and
also notable as a geographer, being the author of the first American
geography of importance. His mother also was possessed of unusual
talent and force. It is interesting to note that Samuel Morse first
saw the light in Charlestown, Massachusetts, at the foot of Breed's
Hill, but little more than a mile from the birthplace of Benjamin
Franklin. He came into the world about a year after Franklin died.
It is interesting to believe that some of the practical talent of
America's first great electrician in some way descended to Samuel
Morse.
He received an unusual education. At the age of seven he was sent to a
school at Andover, Massachusetts, to prepare him for Phillips Academy.
At the academy he was prepared for Yale College, which he entered when
fifteen years of age. With the knowledge of science so small at the
time, collegiate instruction in such subjects was naturally meager in
the extreme. Jeremiah Day was then professor of natural philosophy at
Yale, and was probably America's ablest teacher of the subject.
His lectures upon electricity and the experiments with which he
illustrated them aroused the interest of Morse, as we learn from the
letters he wrote to his parents at this time.
One principle in particular impressed Morse. This was that "if the
electric circuit be interrupted at any place the fluid will become
visible, and when it passes it will leave an impression upon any
intermediate body." Thus was it stated in the text-book in use at Yale
at that time. More than a score of years after the telegraph had been
achieved Morse wrote:
The fact that the presence of electricity can be made visible
in any desired part of the circuit was the crude seed which
took root in my mind, and grew into form, and ripened into the
invention of the telegraph.
We shall later hear of the occasion which recalled this bit of
information to Morse's mind.
But though Yale College was at that time a center of scientific
activity, and Morse showed more than a little interest in electricity
and chemistry, his major interest remained art. He eagerly looked
forward to graduation that he might devote his entire time to the
study of painting. It is significant of the tolerance and breadth of
vision of his parents that they apparently put no bars in the path
of this ambition, though they had sacrificed to give him the best
of collegiate trainings that he might fit himself for the ministry,
medicine, or the law. As a boy of fifteen Samuel Morse had painted
water-colors that attracted attention, and he was possessed of enough
talent to paint miniatures while at Yale which were salable at five
dollars apiece, and so aided in defraying his college expenses.
After his graduation from Yale in 1810, Morse devoted himself entirely
to the study of art, still being dependent upon his parents for
support. He secured the friendship and became the pupil of Washington
Allston, then a foremost American painter. In the summer of 1811
Allston sailed for England, and Morse accompanied him. In London he
came to the attention of Benjamin West, then at the height of his
career, and benefited by his advice and encouragement.
That he had no ambition other than his art at this period we may learn
from a letter he wrote to his mother in 1812.
My passion for my art [he wrote] is so firmly rooted that I
am confident no human power could destroy it. The more I study
the greater I think is its claim to the appellation divine. I
am now going to begin a picture of the death of Hercules, the
figure to be large as life.
When he had completed this picture to his own satisfaction, he showed
it to West. "Go on and finish it," was West's comment. "But it is
finished," said Morse. "No, no. See here, and here, and here are
places you can improve it." Morse went to work upon his painting
again, only to meet the same comment when he again showed it to West.
This happened again and again. When the youth had finally brought it
to a point where West was convinced it was the very best Morse could
do he had learned a lesson in thoroughness and painstaking attention
to detail that he never forgot.
That he might have a model for his painting Morse had molded a figure
of Hercules in clay. At the advice of West he entered the cast in a
competition for a prize in sculpture, with the result that he received
the prize and a gold medal for his work. He then plunged into the
competition for a prize and medal offered by the Royal Academy for the
best historical painting. His subject was, "The Judgment of Jupiter
in the Case of Apollo, Marpessa, and Idas." Though he completed the
picture to the satisfaction of West, Morse was not able to remain in
London and enter it in the competition. The rules required that the
artist be present in person if he was to receive the prize, but Morse
was forced to return to America. He had been in England for four
years--a year longer than had originally been planned for him--and he
was out of funds, and his parents could support him no longer.
Morse lived in London during the War of 1812, but seems to have
suffered no annoyance other than that of poverty, which the war
intensified by raising the prices of food as well as his necessary
artist's materials to an almost prohibitive figure. The last of the
Napoleonic wars was also in progress. News of the battle of Waterloo
reached London but a short time before Morse sailed for America. It
required two days for the news to reach the English capital. The young
American, whose inability to sell his paintings was driving him from
London, was destined to devise a system which would have carried the
great news to its destination within a few seconds.
But while he gained fame in America and secured praise and attention
as he had in London, he found art no more profitable. He contrived to
eke out an existence by painting an occasional portrait, going from
town to town in New England for this purpose. He turned from art
to invention for a time, joining with his brother in devising a
fire-engine pump of an improved pattern. They secured a patent upon
it, but could not sell it. He turned again to the life of a wandering
painter of portraits. In 1818 he went to Charleston, South Carolina,
at the invitation of his uncle. His portraits proved very popular and
he was soon occupied with work at good prices. This prosperity enabled
him to take unto himself a wife, and the same year he married Lucretia
Walker, of Concord, New Hampshire.
After four years in the South Morse returned to the North, hoping that
larger opportunities would now be ready for him. The result was again
failure. He devoted his time to huge historical paintings, and the
public would neither buy them nor pay to see them when they were
exhibited. Another blow fell upon him in 1825 when his wife died. At
last he began to secure more sitters for his portraits, though his
larger works still failed. He assisted in the organization of the
National Academy of Design and became its first president. In 1829 he
again sailed for Europe to spend three years in study in the galleries
of Paris and Rome. Still he failed to attain any real success in his
chosen work. He had made many friends and done much worthy work, yet
there is little probability that he would have attained lasting fame
as an artist even though his energies had not been turned to other
interests.
It was on the packet ship _Sully_, crossing the Atlantic from France,
that Morse conceived the telegraph which was to prove the first great
practical application of electricity. One noon as the passengers
were gathered about the luncheon-table, a Dr. Charles T. Jackson,
of Boston, exhibited an electro-magnet he had secured in Europe, and
described certain electrical experiments he had seen while in Paris.
He was asked concerning the speed of electricity through a wire, and
replied that, according to Faraday, it was practically instantaneous.
The discussion recalled to Morse his own collegiate studies in
electricity, and he remarked that if the circuit were interrupted the
current became visible, and that it occurred to him that these flashes
might be used as a means of communication. The idea of using the
current to carry messages became fixed in his mind, and he pondered,
over it during the remaining weeks of the long, slow voyage.
Doctor Jackson claimed, after Morse had perfected and established his
telegraph, that the idea had been his own, and that Morse had secured
it from him on board the _Sully_. But Doctor Jackson was not a
practical man who either could or did put any ideas he may have had
to practical use. At the most he seems to have simply started Morse's
mind along a new train of thought. The idea of using the current as
a carrier of messages, though it was new to Morse, had occurred to
others earlier, as we have seen. But at the very outset Morse set
himself to find a means by which he might make the current not only
signal the message, but actually record it. Before he landed from the
_Sully_ he had worked out sketches of a printing telegraph. In this
the current actuated an electro-magnet on the end of which was a rod.
This rod was to mark down dots and dashes on a moving tape of paper.
Thus was the idea born. Of course the telegraph was still far from an
accomplished fact. Without the improved electro-magnets and the relay
of Professor Henry, Morse had not yet even the basic ideas upon
which a telegraph to operate over considerable distances could
be constructed. But Morse was possessed of Yankee imagination and
practical ability. He was possessed of a fair technical education
for that day, and he eagerly set himself to attaining the means to
accomplish his end. That he realized just what he sought is shown by
his remark to the captain of the _Sully_ when he landed at New York.
"Well, Captain," he remarked, "should you hear of the telegraph one of
these days as the wonder of the world, remember that the discovery was
made on board the good ship _Sully_."
With the notion of using an electro-magnet as a receiver, an alphabet
consisting of dots and dashes, and a complete faith in the practical
possibilities of the whole, Morse went to work in deadly earnest. But
poverty still beset him and it was necessary for him to devote most of
his time to his paintings, that he might have food, shelter, and the
means to buy materials with which to experiment. From 1832 to 1835 he
was able to make but small progress. In the latter year he secured an
appointment as professor of the literature of the arts of design in
the newly established University of the City of New York. He soon had
his crude apparatus set up in a room at the college and in 1835 was
able to transmit messages. He now had a little more leisure and a
little more money, but his opportunities were still far from what
he would have desired. The principal aid which came to him at the
university was from Professor Gale, a teacher of chemistry. Gale
became greatly interested in Morse's apparatus, and was able to give
him much practical assistance, becoming a partner in the enterprise.
Morse knew little of the work of other experimenters in the field of
electricity and Gale was able to tell Morse what had been learned by
others. Particularly he brought to Morse's attention the discoveries
of another American, Prof. Joseph Henry.
The electro-magnet which actuated the receiving instrument in the
crude set in use by Morse in 1835 had but a few turns of thick
wire. Professor Henry, by his experiments five years earlier, had
demonstrated that many turns of small wire made the electro-magnet far
more sensitive. Morse made this improvement in his own apparatus. In
1832 Henry had devised a telegraph very similar to that of Morse by
which he signaled through a mile of wire. His receiving apparatus
was an electro-magnet, the armature of which struck a bell. Thus the
messages were read by sound, instead of being recorded on a moving
strip of paper as by Morse's system. While Henry was possibly the
ablest of American electricians at that time, he devoted himself
entirely to science and made no effort to put his devices to practical
use. Neither did he endeavor to profit by his inventions, for he
secured no patents upon them.
Professor Henry realized, in common with Morse and others, that if
the current were to be conducted over long wires for considerable
distances it would become so weak that it would not operate a
receiver. Henry avoided this difficulty by the invention of what is
known as the relay. At a distance where the current has become
weak because of the resistance of the wire and losses due to faulty
insulation, it will still operate a delicate electro-magnet with a
very light armature so arranged as to open and close a local circuit
provided with suitable batteries. Thus the recording instrument may
be placed on the local circuit and as the local circuit an opened and
closed in unison with the main circuit, the receiver can be operated.
It was the relay which made it possible to extend telegraph lines to
a considerable distance. It is not altogether clear whether Morse
adopted Henry's relay or devised it for himself. It is believed,
however, that Professor Henry explained the relay to Professor Gale,
who in turn placed it before his partner, Morse.
By 1837 Morse had completed a model, had improved his apparatus, had
secured stronger batteries and longer wires, and mastered the use
of the relay. It was in this year that the House of Representatives
ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to investigate the feasibility
of establishing a system of telegraphs. This action urged Morse to
complete his apparatus and place it before the Government. He was
still handicapped by lack of money, lack of scientific knowledge, and
the difficulty of securing necessary materials and devices. To-day the
experimenter may buy wire, springs, insulators, batteries, and almost
anything that might be useful. Morse, with scanty funds and limited
time, had to search for his materials and puzzle out the way to make
each part for himself with such crude tools as he had available. Need
we wonder that his progress was slow? Instead we should wonder that,
despite all discouragements and handicaps, he clung to his great idea
and labored on.
But assistance was to come to him in this same eventful year of 1837,
and that quite unexpectedly. On a Saturday in September a young man
named Alfred Vail wandered into Professor Gale's laboratory. Morse
was there engaged in exhibiting his model to an English professor then
visiting in New York. The youth was deeply impressed with what he saw.
He realized that here were possibilities of an instrument that would
be of untold service to mankind. Asking Professor Morse whether he
intended to experiment with a longer line, he was informed that such
was his intention as soon as he could secure the means. Young Vail
replied that he thought he could secure the money if Morse would admit
him as a partner. To this Morse assented.
Vail plunged into the enterprise with all the enthusiasm of youth.
That very evening he studied over the commercial possibilities, and
before he retired had marked out on the maps in his atlas the routes
for the most needed lines of communication. The young man applied to
his father for support. The senior Vail was the head of the Speedwell
Iron Works at Morristown, New Jersey, and was a man of unusual
enterprise and ability. He determined to back his son in the
enterprise, and Morse was invited to come and exhibit his model. Two
thousand dollars was needed to make the necessary instruments and
secure the patents. On September 23, 1837, the agreement was drawn
up by the terms of which Alfred Vail was, at his own expense, to
construct apparatus suitable for exhibition to Congress and to secure
a patent. In return he was to receive a one-fourth interest. Very
shortly afterward they filed a caveat in the Patent Office, which is a
notice serving to protect an impending invention.
Alfred Vail immediately set to work on the apparatus, his only helper
being a fifteen-year-old apprentice boy named William Baxter. The
two worked early and late for many months in a secret room in the
iron-works, being forced to fashion every part for themselves. The
first machine was a copy of Morse's model, but Vail's native
ability as a mechanic and his own ingenuity enabled him to make many
improvements. The pencil fastened to the armature which had marked
zigzag lines on the moving paper was replaced by a fountain-pen which
inscribed long and short lines, and thus the dashes and dots of the
Morse code were put into their present form. Morse had worked out an
elaborate telegraphic code or dictionary, but a simpler code by which
combinations of dots and dashes were used to represent letters instead
of numbers in a code was now devised. Vail recognized the importance
of having the simplest combinations of dots and dashes stand for the
most used letters, as this would increase the speed of sending. He
began to figure out for himself the frequency with which the various
letters occur in the English language. Then he thought of the
combination of types in a type-case, and, going to a local newspaper
office, found the result all worked out for him. In each case of type
such common letters as _e_ and _t_ have many more types than little
used letters such as _q_ and _z_. By observing the number of types of
each letter provided, Vail was enabled to arrange them in the order of
their importance in assigning them symbols in the code. Thus the
Morse code was arranged as it stands to-day. Alfred Vail played a
very important part in the arrangement of the code as well as in the
construction of the apparatus, and there are many who believe that the
code should have been called the Vail code instead of the Morse code.
[Illustration: MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT
A pen was attached to the pendulum and drawn across the strip of paper
by the action of the electro-magnet. The lead type shown in the lower
right-hand corner was used in making electrical contact when sending a
message. The modern instrument shown in the lower left-hand corner is
the one that sent a message around the world in 1896.]
Morse came down to Speedwell when he could to assist Vail with the
work, and yet it progressed slowly. But at last, early in January
of 1838 they had the telegraph at work, and William Baxter, the
apprentice boy, was sent to call the senior Vail. Within a few moments
he was in the work-room studying the apparatus. Alfred Vail was at
the sending key, and Morse was at the receiver. The father wrote on a
piece of paper these words: "A patient waiter is no loser." Handing it
to his son, he stated that if he could transmit the message to Morse
by the telegraph he would be convinced. The message was sent and
recorded and instantly read by Morse. The first test had been
completed successfully.
VI
"WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?"
Congress Becomes Interested--Washington to Baltimore Line
Proposed--Failure to Secure Foreign Patents--Later Indifference of
Congress--Lean Years--Success at Last--The Line is Built--The First
Public Message--Popularity.
Morse and his associates now had a telegraph which they were confident
would prove a genuine success. But the great work of introducing this
new wonder to the public, of overcoming indifference and skepticism,
of securing financial support sufficient to erect a real line, still
remained to be done. We shall see that this burden remained very
largely upon Morse himself. Had Morse not been a forceful and able man
of affairs as well as an inventor, the introduction of the telegraph
might have been even longer delayed.
The new telegraph was exhibited in New York and Philadelphia without
arousing popular appreciation. It was viewed as a scientific toy; few
saw in it practical possibilities. Morse then took it to Washington
and set up his instruments in the room of the Committee on Commerce
of the House of Representatives in the Capitol. Here, as in earlier
exhibitions, a majority of those who saw the apparatus in operation
remained unconvinced of its ability to serve mankind. But Morse
finally made a convert of the Hon. Francis O.J. Smith, chairman of
the Committee on Commerce. Smith had previously been in correspondence
with the inventor, and Morse had explained to him at length his belief
that the Government should own the telegraph and control and operate
it for the public good. He believed that the Government should be
sufficiently interested to provide funds for an experimental line a
hundred miles long. In return he was willing to promise the Government
the first rights to purchase the invention at a reasonable price.
Later he changed his request to a line of fifty miles, and estimated
the cost of erection at $26,000.
Smith aided in educating the other members of his committee, and one
day in February of 1838 he secured the attendance of the entire body
at a test of the telegraph over ten miles of wire. The demonstration
convinced them, and many were their expressions of wonder and
amazement. One member remarked, "Time and space are now annihilated."
As a result the committee reported a bill appropriating $30,000 for
the erection of an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore.
Smith's report was most enthusiastic in his praise of the invention.
In fact, the Congressman became so much interested that he sought a
share in the enterprise, and, securing it, resigned from Congress that
he might devote his efforts to securing the passage of the bill and to
acting as legal adviser. At this time the enterprise was divided into
sixteen shares: Morse held nine; Smith, four; Alfred Vail, two; and
Professor Gale, one. We see that Morse was a good enough business man
to retain the control.