Evening star., 1935-10-13

SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE.
measure with the slim majority of
eight votes.
The Senate was in the throes of the
closing rush and the inventor, with
sinking heart, waited patiently until
on March 3-the closing day Of Con-
gress-his bill was still l40th on The
waiting list. All that day Prof. Morse
sat in the Senate balcony. Night came
and the huge crystal chandeliers were
lighted. Ten o'clock struck. Morse S
senatorial friends told him there was
no hope that his bill would be con-
Sidered.
Forlorn and discouraged. he left the
Capitol and bought a ticket to New
York. Then he hurried to his hotel
and paid his bill, including breakfast
the next morning. He had only BIZ
cents left to pick up the threads OF
his old life Never again. he felt,
would he be in position to push the
adoption of his invention. Back to
his brush and canvas he must go for
a living.
The next morning Morse's breakfast
was happily interrupted by a visit
from Annie G. Ellsworth, the daughter
of his old schoolmate and friend,
Henry L. Ellsworth, the commissioner
of patents. She came bearing the JOY
full news that just before midnight,
the Senate, without debate or division,
had passed the telegraph bill and the
President had promptly signed it,, In
gratitude for her thoughtfulness, the
inventor promised Annie Ellsworth
the honor of sending the first message
over the telegraph line.
The fight was won. An appropria-
ton of $4,000 was assured for a prac-
tical demonstration of the electro
magnetic telegraph.
Without delay Prof. Morse began
work on an experimental line between
Washington and Baltimore. He pro-
posed to encase the wire in pipe and
run it underground, as this plan had
seemed effective in English cXperi-
ments. As helpers the inventor chose
Alfred Vail and two professor-friends
who had aided him in the difficult
days of his early experimentation.
EZRA CORNELL, an enterprising
young man, offered the use OF a
machine he had invented to lay the
pipe for carrying the wires. Sensing
the certain success of the project,
Cornell allied himself permanently
with the telegraph business, from
which he amassed a great fortune. He
helped to organize the Western Union
Telegraph Co. and in later years
founded Cornell University in Ithaca,
N. Y.
Starting at the old Mount Clare
Depot in Baltimore, Ezra Cornells
machine began to pillow
its way along the railroad track to-
But by the time the workers reached
the Relay House. miles out of Balti-
more. Morse knew that the under
ground cable was impracticable. The
loss of power by induction was too
great, and already two-thirds of the
precious appropriation had been con-
sumed and only one-eighth of the
distance covered. But he dared not
admit his mistake publicly and there
by swell the scoffers' ranks.
Learning of the inventors predica-
ment, Cornell obligingly smashed his
pipe-laying apparatus against a rock.
Then as time was too short to con-
struct another machine, Morse an
that they were compelled to
change the plan and to string the
wires on poles. Construction opera
lions on the overhead line began i'm
at both ends of the pro-
posed course, and the two columns of |
rough cherry poles were extended
rapidly toward each other.
The National Wing Convention, held |
n Baltimore the first of May, offered |
an opportunity for a try-out. Morse
waited at his instrument in Washing
ton, while Alfred Vail was stationed
1T the junction Of the Annapolis and
,he Baltimore-Washington roads, the
point to which the line had been com.
pleted. When the afternoon train
ouffed into the junction, Vail learned
he Wings had nominated Henry Clay
and quickly sped the news to WASH
ngton over the wires. When the
rain arrived in the Capital an hour
ater, the passengers, bursting with +
he news OF the convention, found to
heir amazement that the telegraph
mad been too swift for them.
Then came May "a, 1874, the day Of
he epoch-making test of the magic
strand which was stretched the entire
distance between Washington and
Baltimore. Alfred Vail manned the
Baltimore terminus, while at the
end sat Samuel Morse
With a selected group Of friends in the
Id Supreme Court room of the Capi-
ol, now the law library.
True to his promise, Prof. Morse
sked Annie Ellsworth to indite the
Irst message. Slowly, surely, at her
ictation, the inventor licked Of the
Inspired words what hath God
'rought!" They were received accu-
ately in Baltimore, 40 miles away, and
ashed back in few moments to the
reathlessly waiting group at the
'apitsl. !
No longer was the telegraph a fig-
rent Of dreamer's imagination! It
as now an established, workable fact,
ound to increase In power and efd- |