Inventor of Telegraph - Samuel Morse                                                                                           

Samuel Morse was one equally great in two unrelated fields. Today he is as much remembered for the splendid portraits that he painted as for his invention of the Telegraph and the Morse Code. He started his career as an artist. He was over 40 years old when he first conceived the idea of Telegraphy. 
                  Morse was born in Charleston, in Massachusetts, U.S.A on 27 April 1791. His father was a clergyman. Morse was an indifferent student. Much to the disappointment of his parents, he developed a taste for painting and decided to make it his career. At Yale University he also became interested in the newly developing field of electricity. In 1811 Morse went over to England to study art at the Royal Academy. During the 1812 war between England and the U.S.A, led Morse to becoming a super patriot.
Morse returned to the U.S.A in 1815 and proceeded to make a living as a portrait painter. His paintings reflected the influence of the English. After several years he could make his marks as a portrait painter and his fortunes picked up. A happy marriages to Lucretia Walker ended seven years later with her death. Morse travelled with her death. Morse travelled widely to drown his sorrow. When returning frim England in 1832, on board the Sully , Morse witnessed a demonstration. Among the passengers was Dr. Charles Thomas jackson, a Boston physician. He amused his fellow passengers by alternately energising and de-energising an electromagnet. He made it first attract iron nails and then drop them. His interest in electricity , not active so far, made him realize that this phenomenon could be used to send messages over long distances.
                    An idea entered Morse's head and he could not free himself from it . He was quite sure that an electric current flowing in a wire between two distant places could be periodically interrupted in keeping with an accepted code and the movement of an electromagnet at the receiving end could be used to record the message. He spent the rest of the voyage mostly locked up in his room and tried to translate the idea into workable circuit diagrams. Back in New York he still painted to earn a living. In his spare time he gradually built up a crude telegraph system. But its range was only 45 feet. Soon on the suggestion of Prof. Gale in the University of New York, Morse revitalised the current by batteries wherever it became weak. The range was extended impressively.  Morse needed money and a skilled assistance to make a success of the telegraph. he was fortunate to find both in one person. In 1837, after his demonstration of the telegraph in a New York University lecture, Alfred Vail, a student ,was highly excited by the idea. He offered Morse his own practical skills and financial backing. The two got down to work
                            

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                In January 1838, Morse and Vail succeeded in sending telegraphic messages over a distance of eight miles. But Morse was dissatisfied with the clumsy method of messages being scratched by a pencil on paper. One day, ,while the two were working , Morse took a newspaper from Vail and then explained his brain wave. The most used letter of the alphabet,"e", as found from the newspaper,was assigned a single dot, the next most used letter,"it", was assigned a dash and the others a combination of dots and dashes, which could be translated into the movements of a "key". Thus the famous Morse Code was born. Morse tried to get the U.S Government interested in his invention. Inspite of resistence from vested interests the "Morse Bill" was introduced in the Congress to grant Morse $ 30000 to construct a telegraph line from Washington D.C., to Baltimore. The line was completed on 24 May 1844. Fame and wealth came to him. But being essentially an artist by temperament, Morse was content to leave business matters to Vail and went back to his brushes.
                 On his eightieth birthday, a Morse festival was held in New York. even subsequent grand developments in communications have not made the Morse Telegraph out of use. It is still the poor man's quickest means of communication.

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