The world to-day knows SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE principally as the man who perfected a practical system of communication by telegraph, and as the inventor of the Morse Code. Yet, in his own time Morse was famous as an artist, and, indeed, he considered himself primarily to be an artist, regarding his scientific interests in electricity and telegraphy as little more than amusing and diverting hobbies.

  Samuel Morse was by no means unjustified in this attitude, for he was, in fact, a very fine artist, and probably the most gifted of America’s 19th century painters. As recently as 1932 the Metropolitan Museum of New York honoured his memory by holding a one-man exhibition of his work, and his pictures to-day are valued at large sums.

  Young Samuel and his two brothers went to Yale, where Samuel graduated at the age of nineteen, and under the necessity of choosing a career, plumped for art. Despite vigorous parental opposition, he stuck to his guns, and when his work won praise from the foremost critic of the day, Samuel was permitted to proceed to England to further his studies.

  Morse spent five productive years in London, becoming internationally famous at the age of twenty-two when one of his pictures was chosen among the best nine in a total entry of more than two thousand at the Royal Academy. His best work was in portraiture, and he was soon inundated with commissions and earning a good living.

  Returning to America in 1815 he found himself a celebrity and Society's favourite, so that soon he was earning more than ten thousand dollars a year with his portraits. After some years, however, an economic depression kicked the bottom out of the portrait business, and, looking about for employment, Morse was appointed to the newly founded New York University as Professor of Sculpture and Painting, the first professorship in the fine arts established in the U.S.A.

  But Morse was now keenly interested in, and spending all his money and leisure time on, the hobby he had never forgotten. His work was directed to one end; “The instantaneous transmission of intelligence by electricity to any distance” to use his own expression. The idea for this had come to him in 1832 while on a voyage from Europe to his home, and he had worked at it unceasingly during the whole of the passage. When he had landed in New York his artist's sketch book was full of drawings of an instrument and circuit, the basic principles of which have never changed, and which is still regarded as a masterpiece of simplicity.

  By now Samuel was extremely poor and he decided to make some money with a novel idea. He painted a huge canvas, a monumental work showing the interior of the exhibition gallery of the Louvre in Paris, together with no fewer than 37 masterpieces hanging on the wall. These pictures, originals by Murillo, Van Dyck, Corregio and others, were all copied faithfully and in detail. The work, when exhibited, caused comment and controversy among the critics, but failed to interest the general public, and the venture, instead of earning money drove him to the verge of bankruptcy.

  Morse was now so penniless that he could not pay his rent so he moved into his studio at the University. To save money for his experiments he even cooked his own meals, which were not quite as good as his pictures. Apart from financial difficulties he had others, being compelled to manufacture each part of the equipment needed; batteries, insulated wires; the lot.

  For his first receiver he utilised an old picture frame, with the works of a clock to draw a ribbon of paper under a pendulum, to which a pencil was attached. The pencil point swung back and forth making a wavy line which could be read as dots and dashes. This was a start, but was not good enough, and soon, in 1836, he hit on the idea of the relay, using the transmitted signal in one circuit to open and close contacts, making it possible to send each dot and dash separately along the wire.

  On January 24th, 1838, Morse gave his first demonstration of sending messages over the electric telegraph wire, which was so successful that a petition was addressed to Congress on Samuel’s behalf, seeking funds to further the work. It soon became apparent, however, that the Government was not interested, and Morse therefore went to Europe to take out patents there. His application in England was refused! The French granted a patent but neglected to pay for it, though the invention was appropriated by the Government and used extensively, as it still is.

  Embittered, Morse returned to his native land, there to resume his efforts to get Congressional support, with as little success as before. Regretfully he turned to a new field.

  In Paris he had become friendly with Daguerre, and Morse now set about building the first camera made in America. Together he and Professor John Draper took the first photographs ever made in the Western Hemisphere.

  Income from this field kept the wolf from the door, and meanwhile, Samuel continued to apply to Congress for funds to progress his first love, the telegraphy experiments. Eventually 30,000 dollars was voted, but not without severe opposition. In fact some Congressmen were so convinced of the futility of the scheme that they tried to add a rider to the Bill that part of the money so voted should be diverted to support Mesmerism!

  Morse now began the construction of a forty mile underground telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, obtaining aid from a friend, Ezra Cornell, who invented a trenching plough which was supposed to dig the trench, lay the cable and cover it, all in the one operation.

  When 27,000 dollars had been expended, Samuel found to his horror that his wire could not efficiently be insulated for underground use, whereupon he and Cornell “accidentally” wrecked the plough beyond repair. They were forced to string the wires aloft on poles.

  The line was completed in May, 1844, and the first words transmitted were, “What God hath wrought”.

  Despite the successful outcome of the work the Government were still disinterested, and this is the reason that telegraph business in America is still in the hands of private companies, for the development of Morse’s invention was left to private enterprise.

  In 1858 the Governments of many countries, including Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey and the Vatican made grants of money to Samuel Morse in recognition of their use of his invention. Britain and America, with France, declined to fork out.

  For years Morse had been experimenting with submarine cable, backed by wealthy groups of businessmen, and after three failures a successful Transatlantic Cable was laid in 1866.

  Morse was now an old man, having been born in 1791. His last years were spent in unsuccessful attempts to enter politics. He failed in his candidature for Mayor of New York, and his attempt to enter Congress on a slavery ticket was equally fruitless.

  That he was possessed of a fine intellect, and a vigorous mind and body can scarcely be doubted; he was sixty-seven when his second wife produced the last of his offspring.

  The Gentleman to whom we Communicators owe so much sweat and tears and profanity died peacefully in 1872, a few days short of his 81st birthday.