Samuel Morse

Born April 27 1791- April 2 1872 in Charlestown, Ma.

Samuel Morse was originally a renowned painter/sculptor. His most famous work was "Dying Hercules".

In 1832 on a ferry trip he had the idea for a prototype of an electromagnetic recording telegraph. It would use a simple dot/dash code system.

In the Autumn of 1835, Morse constructed a working prototype recording telegraph with a moving paper ribbon and demonstrated it to several friends/acquaintances.

In Jan. of 1836 he demonstrates his recording telegraph to Dr. Leonard Gale, a professor of science at New York University.

In the spring of 1837 he shows Dr. Gale his plans for "relays," where one electric circuit is used to open and close a switch on another electric circuit further away.The professor becomes part owner of the telegraph rights because of his crucial help.

By Nov 1837 a message could be sent through 10 miles of wire arranged on reels in Dr. Gale's university lecture room.

In Sep 1837 Alfred Vail, an acquaintance of Morse, is taken on as a partner with Morse and Gale due to his financial resources, mechanical skills, and access to his family's iron works for building telegraph models.

In Jan 1838 Morse changes from using a telegraphic dictionary, where words are represented by number codes, to using a code for each letter. This eliminates the need to encode and decode each word to be transmitted.

In Oct, 1842 Morse experiments with underwater transmissions. Two miles of cable are submerged between the Battery and Governor's Island in New York Harbor and signals are sent successfully.

On Mar 3, 1843 Congress votes to appropriate $30,000 for an experimental telegraph line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. Construction of the telegraph line begins several months later. Initially, the cable is placed in lead pipes underground, using a machine designed by Ezra Cornell; when that fails, above-ground poles are used.

On May 24, 1844 Samuel Morse sends the telegraph message "What hath God wrought?" from the Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to the B & O Railroad Depot in Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1846 the telegraph line is extended from Baltimore to Philadelphia. New York is now connected to Washington, D.C., Boston, and Buffalo. Different telegraph companies begin to appear, sometimes building competing lines side by side. Morse's patent claims are threatened, especially by the telegraph companies of Henry O'Reilly.

By 1849 there are an estimated twelve thousand miles of telegraph lines run by twenty different companies in the United States.

In 1852 a submarine telegraph cable is successfully laid across the English Channel; direct London to Paris communications begin.

On August 16, 1858 the first transatlantic cable message is sent from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan. However, while this fourth attempt to establish an Atlantic cable is successful, it stops working less than a month after its completion. On September 1, the governments of ten European countries award Morse four hundred thousand French francs for his invention of the telegraph.

On October 24, 1861 Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line to California.

In 1866 two Alantic cables are operational. By 1880, an estimated one hundred thousand miles of undersea telegraph cable have been laid. Western Union merges with the American Telegraph Company and becomes the dominant telegraph company in the United States.

On June 10, 1871 a statue of Morse is unveiled in Central Park in New York City. With much fanfare, Morse sends a "farewell" telegraph message around the world from New York.

On April 2, Samuel Morse dies in New York City at eighty-one years of age. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.

Samuel Morse

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On Sep. 29, 1818 he married Lucretia Pickering Walker in Concord NH.