by Gerald Boerner
Today marks a significant step in technology: the Telegraph. This invention, along with its cryptic code, was given to us by Samuel Morse. This marked the second try at a global communications system (Internet, if you will); the first was the semaphore system installed by Napoleon across France a few years earlier. This communication system served to eventually replace the Pony Express in the west. Later on, the telephone would replace the telegraph in many uses! And the evolution of Technology goes on… GLB
“What God hath wrought?”
— Samuel Morse
“It is an astonishing invention.”
— Samuel Morse
“Education without religion is in danger of substituting wild theories for the simple commonsense rules of Christianity.”
— Samuel Morse
“[His ambition was] to rival the genius of a Raphael, a Michelangelo, or a Titian.”
— Samuel Morse
“If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity.”
— Samuel Morse
“My price is five dollars for a miniature on ivory, and I have engaged three or four at that price. My price for profiles is one dollar, and everybody is willing to engage me at that price.”
— Samuel Morse
“The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler.”
— Samuel Morse
Samuel Morse Demonstrates the Telegraph
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was the American inventor of a single-wire telegraph system and Morse code and a painter of historic scenes. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to receive instruction in the subjects of religious philosophy, mathematics and science of horses. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman and Jeremiah Day. He earned money by painting. In 1810, he graduated from Yale with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
Painting
Morse’s Calvinist beliefs are evident in his painting the Landing of the Pilgrims, through the depiction of simple clothing as well as the austere facial features. This image captured the psychology of the Federalists; Calvinists from England brought to the United States ideas of religion and government thus forever linking the two countries. More importantly, this particular work attracted the attention of the famous artist, Washington Allston. Allston wanted Morse to accompany him to England to meet the artist Benjamin West. An agreement for a three-year stay was made with Jedidiah (his father), and young Morse set sail with Allston aboard the Lydia on July 15, 1811.
The Chapel of the Virgin
at Subiaco
Upon his arrival in England, Morse diligently worked to perfect painting techniques under Allston’s watchful eye; by the end of 1811, he gained admittance to the Royal Academy. At the Academy, he fell in love with the Neo-classical art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to Michelangelo and Raphael. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist successfully produced his masterpiece, the Dying Hercules.
To some, the Dying Hercules seemed to represent a political statement against the British and also the American Federalists. The muscles apparently symbolized the strength of the young and vibrant United States versus the British and British-American supporters. During Morse’s time in Britain the Americans and British were engaged in the War of 1812 and division existed within United States society over loyalties. Anti-Federalist Americans aligned themselves with the French, abhorred the British, and believed a strong central government to be inherently dangerous to democracy.
As the war raged on, his letters to his parents became more anti-Federalist in tone. In one such letter Morse said, “I assert that the Federalists in the Northern States have done more injury to their country by their violent opposition measures than a French alliance could. Their proceedings are copied into the English papers, read before Parliament, and circulated through their country, and what do they say of them… they call them (Federalists) cowards, a base set, say they are traitors to their country and ought to be hanged like traitors.”
Although Jedidiah did not change his political views, he did influence Morse’s in another way. It is unmistakably clear that Jedidiah’s Calvinist ideas were an integral part of Morse’s other significant English piece Judgment of Jupiter.
The years 1815–1825 marked significant growth in Morse’s paintings as he sought to capture the essence of America’s culture and life. He had the honor of painting former Federalist President John Adams (1816). He hoped to become part of grander projects and saw his opportunity with the clash between Federalist and Anti-Federalists over Dartmouth College. Morse was able to paint Judge Woodward (1817) who was involved in bringing the Dartmouth case before the U.S. Supreme Court and the college’s president, Francis Brown. He sought commissions in Charleston, South Carolina (1818). Morse’s painting of Mrs. Emma Quash symbolized the opulence of Charleston. It seemed for the time being, the young artist was doing well for himself (7).
Between 1819 and 1821, Morse experienced a great change in his life. Commissions ceased in Charleston when the city was hit with an economic recession related to the Panic of 1819. Jedidiah was forced to resign from his ministerial position as he was unsuccessful in stopping the rift within Calvinism. The new branch that formed was the Congregational Unitarians which he deemed as detestable anti-Federalists because these persons took a different approach over salvation. Although he respected his father’s religious opinions, he sympathized with the Unitarians. A prominent family that converted to the new Calvinist faith was the Pickerings of Portsmouth whom Morse had painted. This portrait can then be viewed as a further shift towards anti-Federalism. A person could argue that he made his full transition to anti-Federalism when he was commissioned to paint President James Monroe (1820). Monroe embodied Jeffersonian Democracy by favoring the common man over the aristocrat; later reemphasized upon the ascension of Andrew Jackson (8).
Mrs. Daniel de Saussure Bacot,
an example of Morse’s portraiture
There were two defining commissions that shaped Morse’s art career from his return to New Haven until the establishment of the National Academy of Design. The Hall of Congress (1821) and the Marquis de Lafayette (1825) embroiled Morse’s sense of democratic nationalism. The artist chose to paint the House of Representatives, to show American democracy in action. He traveled to Washington D.C. to draw the architecture of the new halls, carefully placing eighty individuals within the painting and believed that a night scene was appropriate.
He successfully balanced the architecture of the Rotunda with the figurines and the glow of the lamplight serving as the focal point of the work. Pairs of people, those who stood alone, individuals bent over their desks working were painted simply but had characterized faces. Morse chose nighttime to convey Congress’ dedication to the principles of democracy transcended day. The Hall of Congress however, failed to draw a crowd in New York City. One possible reason for the disappointment was the shadow of John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence that won popular acclaim in 1820. Perhaps some individuals did not appreciate the inner-workings of the American government.
Morse felt a great degree of honor of painting the Marquis de Lafayette, leading supporter of the American Revolution. He felt compelled to paint a grandiose portrait of the man who helped to establish a free and independent America. In his image, he enshrouds Lafayette with a magnificent sunset as he stands to the right of three pedestals of which two are Benjamin Franklin and George Washington with the final reserved for him. A peaceful wooden landscape below him symbolized American tranquility and prosperity as it approach the age of fifty. The developing friendship between Morse and Lafayette and the discussion of the Revolutionary War, affected the artist upon returning to New York City (10).
Morse was in Europe for three years improving his painting skills, 1830–1832, travelling in Italy, Switzerland and France. The project he eventually selected was to paint miniature copies of some 38 of the Louvre’s famous paintings on a single canvas (6 ft. x 9 ft) which he entitled The Gallery of the Louvre, planning to complete the work upon his return to the United States. On a subsequent visit to Paris in 1839, Morse met Louis Daguerre and became interested in the latter’s daguerreotype, the first practical means of photography. Morse wrote a letter to the New-York Observer describing the invention, which was published widely in the American press and provided a broad awareness.
Telegraph
Original Samuel Morse telegraph
In 1825, the city of New York commissioned Morse for $1,000 to paint a portrait of Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, in Washington. In the midst of painting, a horse messenger delivered a letter from his father that read one line, “Your dear wife is convalescent”. Morse immediately left Washington for his home at New Haven, leaving the portrait of Lafayette unfinished. By the time he arrived she had already been buried. Heartbroken in the knowledge that for days he was unaware of his wife’s failing health and her lonely death, he moved on from painting to pursue a means of rapid long distance communication.
On the sea voyage home in 1832, Morse encountered Charles Thomas Jackson of Boston who was well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson’s electromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph, and The Gallery of the Louvre was set aside. The original Morse telegraph, submitted with his patent application, is part of the collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. In time the Morse code would become the primary language of telegraphy in the world, and is still the standard for rhythmic transmission of data.
William Cooke and Professor Charles Wheatstone reached the stage of launching a commercial telegraph prior to Morse, despite starting later. In England, Cooke became fascinated by electrical telegraph in 1836, four years after Morse, but with greater financial resources. Cooke abandoned his primary subject of anatomy and built a small electrical telegraph within three weeks. Wheatstone also was experimenting with telegraphy and (most importantly) understood that a single large battery would not carry a telegraphic signal over long distances, and that numerous small batteries were far more successful and efficient in this task (Wheatstone was building on the primary research of Joseph Henry, an American physicist). Cooke and Wheatstone formed a partnership and patented the electrical telegraph in May 1837, and within a short time had provided the Great Western Railway with a 13-mile (21 km) stretch of telegraph. However, Cooke and Wheatstone’s multiple wire signaling method would be overtaken by Morse’s superior method within a few years.
In a letter to a friend, Morse describes the challenge of defending his patent on the electromagnetic telegraph (1848).
I have been so constantly under the necessity of watching the movements of the most unprincipled set of pirates I have ever known, that all my time has been occupied in defense, in putting evidence into something like legal shape that I am the inventor of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph!! Would you have believed it ten years ago that a question could be raised on that subject?
Morse encountered the problem of getting a telegraphic signal to carry over more than a few hundred yards of wire. His breakthrough came from the insights of Professor Leonard Gale, who taught chemistry at New York University (a personal friend of Joseph Henry). With Gale’s help, Morse soon was able to send a message through ten miles (16 km) of wire. This was the great breakthrough Morse had been seeking. Morse and Gale were soon joined by a young enthusiastic man, Alfred Vail, who had excellent skills, insights and money. Morse’s telegraph now began to be developed very rapidly.
In 1838 a trip to Washington, D.C., failed to attract federal sponsorship for a telegraph line. Morse then traveled to Europe seeking both sponsorship and patents, but in London discovered Cooke and Wheatstone had already established priority. Morse would need the financial backing of Maine congressman Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith.
Morse made one last trip to Washington, D.C., in December 1842, stringing “wires between two committee rooms in the Capitol, and sent messages back and forth” to demonstrate his telegraph system.³ Congress appropriated $30,000 in 1843 for construction of an experimental 38-mile (61 km) telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, along the right-of-way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. An impressive demonstration occurred on May 1, 1844, when news of the Whig Party’s nomination of Henry Clay for U.S. President was telegraphed from the party’s convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington.. On May 24, 1844, the line was officially opened as Morse sent the famous words “What hath God wrought” from the B&O’s Mount Clare Station in Baltimore to the Capitol Building along the wire. Annie Ellsworth chose these words from the Bible (Numbers 23:23); her father, U.S. Patent Commissioner Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, had championed Morse’s invention and secured early funding for it.
In May 1845 the Magnetic Telegraph Company was formed in order to radiate telegraph lines from New York City towards Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, New York and the Mississippi.
Morse also at one time adopted Wheatstone and Carl August von Steinheil’s idea of broadcasting an electrical telegraph signal through a body of water or down steel railroad tracks or anything conductive. He went to great lengths to win a lawsuit for the right to be called “inventor of the telegraph”, and promoted himself as being an inventor, but Alfred Vail played an important role in the invention of the Morse Code, which was based on earlier codes for the electromagnetic telegraph.
Samuel Morse received a patent for the telegraph in 1847, at the old Beylerbeyi Palace (the present Beylerbeyi Palace was built in 1861–1865 on the same location) in Istanbul, which was issued by Sultan Abdülmecid who personally tested the new invention.
Portrait of Samuel F. B. Morse
taken by Mathew Brady,
in 1866.
In the 1850s, Morse went to Copenhagen and visited the Thorvaldsens Museum, where the sculptor’s grave is in the inner courtyard. He was received by King Frederick VII, who decorated him with the Order of the Dannebrog. Morse expressed his wish to donate his portrait from 1830 to the king. The Thorvaldsen portrait today belongs to Margaret II of Denmark.
The Morse telegraphic apparatus was officially adopted as the standard for European telegraphy in 1851. Britain (with its British Empire) remained the only notable part of the world where other forms of electrical telegraph were in widespread use (they continued to use the needle telegraph invention of Cooke and Wheatstone).
There is an argument amongst historians that Morse may have received the idea of a plausible telegraph from Harrison Gray Dyar some eighteen years earlier than his patent.
According to his The New York Times obituary published on April 3, 1872, Morse received respectively the decoration of the Atiq Nishan-i-Iftikhar (English: Order of Glory) [first medal on wearer's right depicted in photo of Morse with medals], set in diamonds, from the Sultan Ahmad I ibn Mustafa of Turkey (c.1847), a golden snuff box containing the Prussian gold medal for scientific merit from the King of Prussia (1851); the Great Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from the King of Württemberg (1852); and the Great Golden Medal of Science and Arts from Emperor of Austria (1855); a cross of Chevalier in the Légion d’honneur from the Emperor of France; the Cross of a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog from the King of Denmark (1856); the Cross of Knight Commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, from the Queen of Spain, besides being elected member of innumerable scientific and art societies in this [United States] and other countries. Other awards include Order of the Tower and Sword from the kingdom of Portugal (1860); and Italy conferred on him the insignia of chevalier of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in 1864.
Other Events on this Day
- In 1759…
George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis are married. - In 1838…
Samuel Morse conducts a successful demonstration of his telegraph near Morristown, New Jersey. - In 1912…
New Mexico becomes the forty-seventh state. - In 1942…
The Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrives in New York City to complete the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane.
Dates and events based on:
William J. Bennett and John Cribb, (2008) The American Patriot’s Almanac Daily Readings on America. (Kindle Edition)
Background information is from Wikipedia articles on:
Samuel Morse can be found at…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morse
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