"Canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee: Here we
are!" Said the Lord from the whirlwind to afflicted Job, who remained
dumb for he could not answer. The question has been answered in the
affirmative in our day by the perfector of the electro-magnetic
telegraph, the late Professor Morse, by whose invention the promise has
been fulfilled: "I'll put a girdle around the globe in forty minutes."
Samuel Finly Breese Morse was born in Charleston, Massachusetts, April
27th, 1791. His father was the first person to publish geographies in
America. His father was also a celebrated Congregational minister,
spending much of his time in religious controversy, in maintaining the
orthodox faith throughout the New England churches and against
Unitarianism. He was prominent among those who founded Andover
Theological Seminary, and published many religious periodicals.
S. F. B. Morse was a graduate from Yale at the age of nineteen, and soon
went to England for the purpose of studying painting. At the end of two
years he received the gold medal of the Adelphia Society of Arts for an
original model of a "Dying Hercules," his first attempt at sculpture.
The following year he exhibited "The Judgment of Jupiter," a painting
praised by his teacher, Mr. West. Becoming quite proficient in painting
and sculpture, he returned home in 1815, following his profession in
Boston, Charleston, South Carolina, and later in New York city. At the
latter place, in connection with other artists, he organized a drawing
association, which resulted in the establishment of the National Academy
of Design. Prof. Morse was chosen its first President, and was continued
in that office for the following sixteen years. He painted a great many
portraits, among which was a full length portrait of Lafayette, which
was highly prized and commended by the Association. In 1829 he visited
Europe a second time to complete his studies in art reading for more
than three years in the principal cities of the continent. During his
absence abroad he was elected Professor of the literature of the Arts of
Design in the University of New York; and in 1835 he delivered a course
of lectures before that school on the affinity of those arts.
While in college Mr. Morse had paid special attention to chemistry and
natural philosophy; but his love of art seemed to be the stronger;
later, however, these sciences became a dominant pursuit with him. As
far back as 1826-'7, he and Prof. J. Freeman Dana had been colleague
lecturers at the Athenæum in the City of New York, the former lecturing
on the fine arts, and the latter upon electro-magnetism. They were
intimate friends, and in their conversation the subject of
electro-magnetism was made familiar to the mind of Morse. The
electro-magnet on Sturgeon's principle--the first ever shown in the
United States--was exhibited and explained in Dana's lectures, and at a
later date, by gift of Prof. Torrey, came into Morse's possession. Dana
even then suggested, by his spiral volute coil, the electro-magnet of
the present day; this was the magnet in use when Morse returned from
Europe, and it is now used in every Morse telegraph throughout both
hemispheres.
On his second return to the United States he embarked from Havre on the
packet ship Sully, in the autumn of 1832 and in a casual conversation
with some of the passengers on the then recent discovery in France of
the means of obtaining the electric spark from the magnet, showing the
identity or relation of electricity and magnetism, Morse's mind
conceived, not merely the idea of an electric telegraph, but of an
electro-magnetic and chemical recording telegraph; substantially and
essentially as it now exists. The testimony to the paternity of the idea
in Morse's mind, and to his acts and drawings on board the ship is
ample. His own testimony was corroborated by all the passengers with a
single exception, Thomas Jackson, who claimed to have originated the
idea and imparted the same to Morse. However, there is little
controversy in regard to this matter at the present day as the courts
decided irrevocably in favor of Morse. The year 1832 is fixed as the
date of Morse's conception and realization, also, so far as drawings
could embody the conception of the telegraph system; which now bears his
name. A part of the apparatus was constructed in New York before the
close of the first year, but circumstances prevented its completion
before 1835, when he put up a-half mile of wire in coil around a room
and exhibited the telegraph in operation. Two years later he exhibited
the operation of his system before the University of New York.
From the greater publicity of this exhibition the date of Morse's
invention has erroneously been fixed in the autumn of 1837, whereas he
operated successfully with the first single instrument in November,
1835. In 1837 he filed his caveat in the Patent Office in Washington,
and asked Congress for aid to build an experimental line from that city
to Baltimore. The House Committee on Commerce gave a favorable report,
but the session closed without action, and Morse went to Europe in the
hope of interesting foreign governments in his invention. The result was
a refusal to grant him letters patent in England, and the obtaining of a
useless _brevet d'invention_ in France, and no exclusive privileges in
any other country. He returned home to struggle again with scanty means
for four years, during which he continued his appeals at Washington. His
hope had expired on the last evening of the session of 1842-3; but in
the morning, March 4th, he was startled with the announcement that the
desired aid of Congress had been obtained in the midnight hour of the
expiring session, and $30,000 placed at his disposal for his
experimental essay between Washington and Baltimore. In 1844 the work
was completed, and demonstrated to the world the practicability and the
utility of the Morse system of electro-magnetic telegraphing. Violations
of his patents and assumption of his rights by rival companies involved
him in a long series of law suits; but these were eventually decided in
his favor, and he reaped the benefits to which his invention entitled
him.
It is doubtful if any American ever before received so many marks of
distinction. In 1846 Yale College conferred on him the degree of LL.D.;
in 1848 he received the decoration of the _Nishan Iftikur_ in diamonds
from the Sultan of Turkey; gold medals of scientific merit were awarded
him by the king of Prussia; the king of Wurtemberg, and the Emperor of
Austria. In 1856 he received from the Emperor of the French the cross of
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; in 1857 from the King of Denmark the
cross of Knight Commander of the First Class of the Danebrog; in 1858
from the Queen of Spain the cross of Knight Commander of the Order of
Isabella the Catholic; from the king of Italy the cross of the Order of
SS. Maurice and Lazarus, and from the king of Portugal the cross of the
Order of the Tower and Sword. In 1856 the telegraph companies of Great
Britain gave him a banquet in London; and in Paris, in 1858, another
banquet was given him by Americans numbering more than 100, and
representing almost every State in the Union. In the latter year, at the
instance of Napoleon III, representatives of France, Russia, Sweden,
Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Holy See, and Turkey
met in Paris to decide upon a collective testimonial to him, and the
result was a vote of 400,000 francs as a personal reward for his labors.
On December 29th, 1868, the citizens of New York gave him a public
dinner. In June, 1871, a bronze statue of him, erected by the voluntary
contributions of telegraph employes, was formally unveiled in Central
Park, New York, by William Cullen Bryant, and in the evening a reception
was held in the Academy of Music, at which Prof. Morse telegraphed, by
means of one of the instruments used on the original line between New
York and Washington, a message of greeting to all the cities of the
continent.
The last public service which he performed was the unveiling of the
statue of Franklin in Printing House Square, New York, on January 17th,
1872. Submarine telegraphy also originated with Prof. Morse, who laid
the first sub-marine lines, in New York harbor in 1842, and received at
the time from the American Institute a gold medal. He died in the city
of New York April 2nd, 1872. While in Paris in 1839 he made the
acquaintance of Daguerre, and from drawings furnished him by the
latter, he constructed, on his return, the first daguerreotype
apparatus, and took the first sun pictures ever taken in America. He was
also an author and poet of some standing.