[Sidenote: =Morse, 1791=]
=133. The Coming of the Telegraph.= Samuel Morse was born in
Massachusetts (1791). His father was a Presbyterian minister. Young
Morse went to the common schools and to Yale College.
[Sidenote: =Paints portraits=]
In college he used his spare time in painting, and after graduation he
went to England and studied under the best artists. He came home and
for a time painted portraits for a living.
[Illustration: MORSE WORKING ON HIS MACHINE]
[Sidenote: =The idea came to him of sending news by electricity=]
After having spent some years abroad, in work and study, Morse was
again returning home from France when the idea of sending news by
electricity first came to him.
[Sidenote: =A machine and an alphabet=]
"Why can't it be?" said Morse to a friend, who answered, "There is
great need of sending news by electricity." He began, then and there,
to plan a machine and to invent an alphabet. This was all done on
shipboard. When he reached land he went to work with a will at his
new-found problem.
[Sidenote: =The hungry inventor=]
For a long time the work went on very slowly, for inventors must eat
and sleep and pay their way in the world. While Morse was struggling
over his machine and trying to make himself master of the strange force
called electricity, he was very often hungry and at times even on the
point of starvation.
[Illustration: THE FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT]
[Sidenote: =Alfred Vail=]
Now came a bright spot in his career. A young man named Alfred Vail, an
excellent mechanic, saw Morse's telegraph instruments, and immediately
believed they would be successful. Young Vail borrowed money and became
Morse's assistant in the great work. For what he did he deserves credit
next to Morse himself.
[Sidenote: =Getting ready for Congress=]
[Sidenote: =Behind locked doors=]
A patent must now be had and the telegraph must be so improved that
they could show it to a committee of Congress. It was arranged that
Vail and a mechanic by the name of Baxter should do the work behind
locked doors. For, if some one should happen to see the instruments,
and obtain a patent first, then Morse and Vail would be ruined.
[Sidenote: =The dot and dash alphabet=]
In the locked shop the two men worked steadily day after day. Vail made
many improvements. Among these was the new "dot and dash" alphabet. At
last, one day in January, 1838, everything was in complete working
order. Baxter, hatless and coatless, ran for Mr. Vail's father to come
at once and see the telegraph work.
[Illustration: MORSE SHOWING HIS COMPLETED WORK]
[Sidenote: =The final test=]
[Sidenote: =Patented in Morse's name=]
At one end of the wire stood young Vail, and at the other stood Morse.
This wire was stretched around the room so that it was three miles in
length. The elder Vail wrote: "A patient waiter is no loser." He said
to his son: "If you can send this message, and Mr. Morse can read it at
the other end, I shall be convinced." It was done, and there was great
rejoicing. The invention was hurried to Washington, and young Vail took
out a patent in the name of Morse.
[Illustration: MORSE LISTENING TO CONGRESS MAKING FUN OF HIS INVENTION]
[Sidenote: =Congressmen watch the instruments=]
Morse obtained permission to set up his telegraphic instruments
in rooms in the capitol. These rooms were filled with congressmen
watching the strange business. Members in one room would carry on witty
conversations with persons in the other room. This was great fun for
those looking on. But it was slow work talking with members of Congress
and winning their help.
[Sidenote: =Congress makes fun of the idea=]
=134. The Government Aids.= Finally Morse asked for thirty thousand
dollars to build a line from Washington to Baltimore. The bill met
opposition, one member moving that a part of the money be used in
building a railroad to the moon, another that it be used in making
experiments in mesmerism.
[Illustration: SAMUEL F. B. MORSE
_From a photograph taken by Abraham Bogardus, New York City_]
[Sidenote: =Morse ruined if bill does not pass=]
Morse stood leaning against the railing which separated the outsiders
from the members. He was greatly excited, and turning to a friend,
said: "I have spent seven years and all that I have in making this
instrument perfect. If it succeeds, I am a made man; if it fails, I am
ruined. I have a large family, and not money enough to pay my board
bill when I leave the city."
[Sidenote: =Telegraph line to Baltimore built=]
[Sidenote: =The first message=]
It was ten o'clock, March 3, 1843, the last night of that Congress.
Morse gave up and went to his hotel. In the morning a friend met and
congratulated him on the action of Congress in granting thirty thousand
dollars for his telegraph line--the last thing Congress did that night.
Morse was surprised. The telegraph line to Baltimore was built and the
first dispatch was ready to send. Morse called the young woman who had
been the first to congratulate him, to send this first message: "What
hath God wrought."
[Sidenote: =Honors heaped on the inventor=]
The success of Morse was slow at first, but he lived to see the day
when his instrument was used in Europe. He visited Europe again, was
given gold medals, and received other rewards and honors from many of
the rulers of the different European countries.
[Sidenote: =Morse dies, 1872=]
He died in 1872 at the good old age of eighty-one. Congress and state
legislatures paid tribute to his memory.
[Illustration: THE TELEPHONE]
[Sidenote: =The telephone=]
=135. A Wider Use for Electricity.= Samuel Morse was hardly in his
grave before a wonderful invention was made which called electricity
into far wider use in carrying news. This new invention was the
telephone, and two men, Bell and Gray, applied for patents on it at
almost the same time.
The instruments are wonderful conductors of sound, carrying, as they
do, the actual words and tones of the voice.
[Sidenote: =Marconi beats them all=]
But Marconi has gone beyond them all in his invention. He sends the
electric wave forth without the aid of a wire, thus giving rise to
wireless telegraphy.