[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF S. F. B. MORSE
_The inventor of the telegraph was born at the foot of Breed’s Hill,
Charlestown, Massachusetts._]
[Illustration: THE NEW YORK HOME OF S. F. B. MORSE
_This house was located on West Twenty-second Street near Fifth
Avenue._]
[Illustration: SAMUEL F. B. MORSE]
[Illustration: THE FIRST TELEPHONE]
[Illustration: THE FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT]
With Morse the turning point was reached in 1827 when, some years
after his return from England, he attended a course of lectures in New
York on the subject of electromagnetism. What he then heard fired his
imagination, and led him, during a second visit abroad, to study more
closely the nature of electricity. He specially became interested in
the possibility of utilizing this great natural force as a medium for
long-distance communication, and when homeward bound, in the autumn of
1832, applied himself to this one problem to such good purpose that
before landing in New York he was able to show to his fellow passengers
plans of the instrument that was to immortalize his name.
[Illustration: “LONG DISTANCE”
_Alexander Graham Bell opening the New York-Chicago long distance
telephone line, October 18, 1892._]
It was not until five years afterward, however, that Morse made the
first working demonstration of his invention, which by most people was
regarded as a scientific toy rather than a creation of the highest
practical utility. And a scientific toy it remained until, after a
heartbreaking struggle to secure the necessary financial aid, Morse
persuaded Congress in 1843 to appropriate $30,000 for the construction
of a telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. The first message
to be flashed over this line, May 1, 1844, was the news of the
nomination of Henry Clay for the presidency; and with the sending of
that message one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind
definitely gained recognition as an accomplished fact.
Alexander Graham Bell, experimenting in the same field of long-distance
communication by the aid of electricity, was more fortunate in
securing early acknowledgment of the merits of his telephone, a public
demonstration of which was given at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876.
Connected with this invention a most interesting story is told. Bell,
it is said, was experimenting with a device for multiplex telegraphy,
when the accidental snapping of a wire sent a sound vibrating through
another wire which had attached to it at each end a thin sheet-iron
disk a few inches in circumference. At once Bell asked himself if the
sound could be repeated. Experiment showed that it could, and the query
then suggested itself to him, Could vocal sounds be thus transmitted?
Forthwith he set himself to the task that resulted, after many
failures, in the creation of the telephone.
But even in the case of this marvelous instrument it was for a long
time impossible to obtain the necessary financial support. When, in
1877, Bell took the telephone to England, he could find no purchaser
for half the European rights at $10,000, and in this country a personal
friend declined to advance $2,500 for a half interest. Today, so it
is stated, there are in use in the United States alone approximately
seven and a half million telephones.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL’S SUBURBAN RESIDENCE AT
WASHINGTON, D. C.]