Evening star., 1935-10-13
Bv MOnima COuard.

that New York City was the scene
of countless hours of painstaking
labor on the invention and its initial
private exhibition, the electro-mag-
netic telegraph was first publicly in
troduced to a complacent,' skeptical
Nation here in the Capitol.
Within a single century Morses
stalking wires" have multiplied until
today maze of 2,266,054 miles Of
telegraph lines cobweb the United
States-enough to circle the earth 90
times. They have also extended arms
across oceans and stretched animated
fingers into every corner of the globe.
At the rate of 290 messages a
ninute-158,377,6 $50 year-telegrams
now flash hither and yon over the
United States, bearing news of all
the emotions and actions of man
kind-happiness sorrow, success, fail
ure and tragedy. The telegraphs
magic has made millionaires, heroes,
yes, and even Presidents. Its messages
have changed the deStinies of nations.
Behind each dot-and-dash dispatch
is the throb of a human drama.
However, no tale the telegraph tells
is more appealing than the story
of its inventor-the tall, slender,
kindly Prof. Morse, whose quiet dig
nifty and courteous ways hid his rare
talents and inventive genius. But
every inch of his siX-foot stature,
carried erect even in old age, attested
to that unyielding persistence which
finally overcame poverty, contempt
even injustice-and gained recognition
for his epochal invention.
Prof. Morse's early experiments were
conducted in a meagerly furnished
third floor room of an unfinished
building of the New York City Uni
versity, where he was professor of
the literature of the arts of design
Here he also lived, and here, driven
by necessity, he often cooked his fru-
gal meals. Upon the completion of
ment in the late Fall of the year 1885,
he invited few close friends and
university associates to this same
studio-apartment Ito examine piece
of mechanism" which he had devised.
AT FIRST the guests were only
mildly interested in the two crude
instruments-one at each end of the
long room-connected by strings of
wire. But their apathy turned to un-
feigned astonishment as the mild
hammered, earnest inventor used this
rough apparatus to transmit commun-
ications at lightning speed by means
of a dot-an6-daSh code which he had
formulated. He even predicted that
some day such machinery would carry
messages around the world.
Prof. Morse was A years old when
he first demonstrated his invention.
He was born April 81, 1871, in Charles
ton, Mass, and had in early life shown
marked artistic leanings. He partly
earned his way through Yale Uni
versity painting miniatures and sill
houettes. Later he spent several
years in Europe studying art. Upon
his return to New York City, he be-
came a professional historical artist
and portrait painter.
His facile brush has left to posterity
likenesses of President Monroe, Henry
Clay, De Witt Clinton. the Marquis
de Lafayette and many other famous
figures of that day. Samuel Morse
missed lasting fame by the proverbial
hairs breadth when he lost a COM
mission to paint one of the great his
torical pictures for the rotunda of the
Federal Capitol. He was founder of
the National Academy of Design and
was it's president several years.
But throughout the years of his artis-
tic endeavors, the genius Of invention
shadowed his footsteps. He first con-
ceived the idea for ar electromagnetic
telegraph in 1882 as ne was returning
from Europe on the packet ship Sulley,
and as he became obsessed with the
idea of flashing communications over
wires, art held only secondary place
in his life.
At private demonstration of his
invention in 1886, Morse met Alfred
Vail of Morristown, N. =, young
man of marked scientific ability who
possessed both the capital and the in
cliration to further finance the prof.
ect. From this alliance came a new
instrument, completed early in 1888,
which was a great improvement over
the original model. 1t was exhibited
both in New York City and Phila-
delphia with gratifying success.
In February of that year, Prof.
Morse visited Washington to solicit an
appropriation from Congress to prove
by conclusive demonstration that his
instrument was superior to several Eu-
ropean inventions which were loudly
acclaimed by their sponsors.
He assembled his apparatus in the
House Committee on Commerce room
in the United States Capitol. Here,
day after day, he patiently explained
to all who came-Cong-essme for
eign diplomats, even President Van
Buren hinself-the workings of his
invention. But the legislators and the
public remained incredulo;S and Con-
gress closed without making the
longedfor appropriation.
Then for four years Prof Morse and
his telegraph disappeared from Wash
tngton. He went to Europe. but after
q vain effort to obtain foreign recogni-
ton he returned to New York City
and continued to perfect his invention.
For financial support he gave painting
lessons and piled the new trade of
photography, then known as daguer-
reotypy.
IN DECEMBER, 1842, the tireless in
= ventor returned to Washington
with a new instrument, vastly i'm
proved and defined by patent. Once |
more he prepared his exhibit in the |
Capitol. But the weary days lengthen-
ed into discouraging weeks, his limited |
funds diminished, even hb clothing be-
came threadbare. Finally his hope re-
vived when the House Committee on
Commerce favorably reported bill ap-
$4,000 for telegraph ex-
Thursday Eehr1Iarv a. inst eight