Samuel F. B. Morse

Samuel F. B. Morse, a pioneer of modern communication. - Without our present facilities of communication, modern civilization could not continue. Deprived of telegraph, telephone, and radio, the wheels of industry would be stopped and the economic welfare of nations destroyed. We can not too greatly emphasize this benefaction conferred upon all people through the accomplishment oof Samuel Morse and the brilliant men who followed him with improvements upon his basic invention, the telegraph. Opening of the Erie Canal. - Morse trained himself to think. Of all the thousands whose attention was engaged by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, he alone caught the significance of the passage of time in relaying the message heralding that event. The signal was delivered by cannon placed at intervals between Buffalo and New York City, the successive reports of which, conveyed from one emplacement to the next, consumed one and a half hours of time in delivering the message a distance of 500 miles. Invention of the telegraph. - Reason and logic compelled him to believe that electricity made to travel many miles over a copper wire in an instant of time could by some method be interrupted in its passage so as to produce certain signals susceptible of interpretation. Busy in his profession as an artist in London, Italy, France, and at home, the idea of the control of electricity ever persisted in his mind. With the passage of years his patience was rewarded with the invention of a crude telegraphic instrument and a system of dot and dash signals to be used therewith. Forming a partnership with Alfred Vail, they labored together in the perfection of the device until their funds were exhausted. Appropriation from Congress. - Undismayed, their persistent appeal to Congress for assistance was finally rewarded with an appropriation of $80,000 for the erection of a telegraph line a distance of 40 miles between the cities of Baltimore and Washington. With the completion of its construction, on the morning of May 24, 1844, in the presence of the chief officers of the Government, in the Supreme Court room of the Capitol, Professor Morse, operating the key of his instrument, successfully transmitted to the wonder of all present that first and memorable message, "What hath God wrought?" Improvement and amplification. - Morse was a man of vision. He predicted the day when telegraph lines would span the earth and bridge the seas, yet even his far-seeing mind could never have encompassed the stupendous results which have come from his creation as a rich boon to all mankind. Men great in scientific accomplishments have followed with improvements and amplifications upon his invention. Alexander Bell and associates applied his principle in perfecting the telephone; Thomas Edison improved the technique as telegraph operator and inventor, following his own powers of deduction into still broader fields. Marconi and others enriched his creative efforts in the field of wireless communication. Each passing year witnesses other improvements and accomplishment, all a living testimonial to Samuel Morse, the man of vision, who, standing apart from the crowd, sold himself to a great idea, persisted against all odds until his efforts were crowned with success.