Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-04-10
Meath Of Samuel Morse,

Professor Morse, the father Of prac.
: tical telegrapby and utilizer of elec-
trieity to the common purposes of
social life, died in New York city at
fOrty-three minutes past seven O'Clock
on the evening of April I'd inst. His
full name was Samuel Finley Breese
Morse, and he was born at Charles
town, Mass on the 9th Of April,
1871, his father being the Rev. Jede-
diah Morse, a writer known in liters-
ture by some able treatises or ge0gra-
ply, The subject of this memorial
tribute graduated at Yale in 1910. His
early tastes inclined him to cultivate
what are known as the Fine Arts, and
so great an aptitude did he show for
painting that means were found to
send him to London, where he studied
under Benjamin West, then the
Ameriean-bOrn President of the Royal
Academy. While a student he be-
came acquainted with Mr.. @. r. Les
lie, also an American. though from
life long association ranking with
English artists. Morse and Leslie
made their first public essay as linn
ners of each others portraits. After
further application TO the easel, Mr..
Morse exhibited in 1913 his first great
picture, ''The Dying Hercules" and
secured no ordinary measure OF praise.
A plaster model which he had con-
strueted to aid him in painting was
also shown, and won the Adelphi gold
medal. Shortly after he returned to
America. He came unto his town of
Boston, aud Boston knew him not
He therefore betook himself to New
Hampshire, where he eked out liv-
ing by painting portraits at fifteen
dollars each. Then he went to
Charleston, s c., where he reaped a
more bountiful harvest, but in 1922 he
took up his residence in New York.
The corporation authorized him to
paint the portrait of Lafayette, when
that general was on visit 10 this
country. In New York, in 1924. he,
with some other artists, organized a
! drawing association, which was the
/ basis on which the National Academy
of Design was erected in 1926. Mr..
Morse was the first President, holding
I the Office for sixteen years. In 1929
he returned 10 Europe and remained
there for three years. His return to
America in 1882 must be forever men,
orable, for in that year, while return !
ing from Havre, in the packet ship |
Sully, he first laid the foundation of (
his great invention. While in college 1
his attention had been carefully /
directed to chemistry and other /
branches of natural philosophy. On /
bard the Sully discussion of recent /
discoveries in electric magnetism |
took place, and in the course of 1t an
observation was made which planted /
in the mind of Mr.. Morse the seeds Of /
his great invention. Before he left +.
the ship he had crudely digested and 4
outlined the rough plan of telegraph 1
system, even so far as TO partly realize
the theory Of printing the language of 4
the magnetic fluid as il passed through i
the imperfect circuit he had then OBJ
tanned.
His original idea was 10 pass strip .
of paper saturated with a chemical
preparation which would be decOm-
posed when brought in connection
with the wire along which.the electric
current was passing, and thus form an
alphabet by marks varying in width
and number. With this idea in his
brain he steadily followed his profes
sion after his return TO New York. de-
voting his leisure to his scientific
pruject. In 1885 he completed his
first apparatus, an extremely rude
one, as may be supposed, sufficient to
enable him TO communicate with g
person half q mile distant. but not
capable OF receiving an answer back
from the opposite extremity. In 1886
this Instrument wRs shown in success
full operation. This was in its rudest
and elementary form the well known
Morse Instrument, In which The paper
hrr Ia .norTc 10 d
tors, il is unnecessary to say, do not
look with much favor on inventors,
and Morse found his proposition for
aid submitted in 1875 10 Congress
received very eoolly. He then went
to England and was there refused q
patent, In France he obtained a
breUet d'inUentiOn. On his return to
America he was indefatigabls in try
ing to persuade Congress to enable
him TO practically test his invention.
At last, when all hope was abandon
ed, il allotted him $50, 900 on March /
4, 1913, Vat the midnight hour of the ,
expiring session. In 1874 he had con- /
structed the line between Washington
and Baltimore, and sent over its wires
the first message, "What hath God .
wrought?P Within sixteen years /;
nearly 10000 miles of wire were in |
full working order. Curiously enough, !
in 1887 two other inventors had dis
covered a system of telegraphy-
Wheatstone, in England, inveuting {
the defecting-needle instrument, and [
in Bavaria, constructing a
recording telegraph, which, however, [
come into general use. Honors poured I
oil hnnnrnh har -
academic roll by enrolling him among s
her doctors of law. The Sultan Of
Turkey sent him a diamond decora- {
ton. The King of Prussia gave him a
a gold medal OF merit, set in massive {
snuff: box The rulers of Wurtemberg I
and Austria were not behind hand
By France he was made eheyalier Of c
the Legion Of Honor, and by Den I
mark a knight of the Dannebrog. In (
1858 Isabella, the Catholic, sent him 1
tie cross of the knights commander S
Df the order which bear the name of 1
her patron saint. In 1857 the repre- .
of ten countries which had i
Deen benefited by his labors as d
sembled in Paris and voted him a
grant of 00,000 francs. In London Q
md Paris grand dinners were given I
% him. The first submarine cable {
vas laid by Morse across New York a
larbor In 1872. an achievement which /
vas rewarded by the American Insti-
ute with its gold medal. His claim n
o the invention of the telegraph has 4
,een contested in the law courts of |,
he United States and England but. a
While il may be that the principles b
which be elaborated were previously O
inown to few experimentors, there il
al be no doubt it was he who first S
nut them in practical operation and c
dapted them TO the great public con- q
which has become a world u
vide necessity measure of honor Ii
an be too fun that a grateful world I
pontaneoosly offers to his memory. 8
a