Morse, Samuel | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

American Inventor
1791–1872

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was responsible for the creation of the Morse Code, an electronic alphabet that carries messages via electric wires. Morse was born in 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. At a young age, he began to display artistic talent that he developed throughout his life. While attending college lectures in natural philosophy, Morse learned about electricity. Although formal academics did not interest Morse, these lectures were the foundation for his later work and, at the time, inspired him to construct models of batteries.

To supplement his college income, Morse began to paint portraits of fellow students and faculty members. He considered painting professionallyand in 1811 went abroad to study painting, returning home in 1815. During a European trip in 1829 to expand his artistic horizons, he became aware of the French telegraph, a semaphore system. Morse quickly realized that an electric spark could transmit a message more rapidly than the semaphore. His interest again turned toward potential uses for electricity.

As he returned from Europe in 1831, Morse began efforts to develop what would become the American telegraph. In conversations with fellow passengers, Morse learned about sparking properties of an electromagnet and the fact that wires can carry current. These two factors would allow the transmission of coded messages, and Morse started developing a numerical based code.

The digits from one to five were represented by one to five dots, the digits from six to nine by a combination of dots and dashes. The next step was to translate the coded numbers to words. Each group of numbers translates to a word, for example, dots representing 215 would translate to the word "war" and fifteen to "Belgium." Morse started to develop a conversion dictionary for translating the number groups to words. Another problem was how to record the transmissions. Morse's early drawings show an electromagnet causing a pencil to contact a moving paper strip when the electrical circuit closed and another magnet to raise the pencil when the circuit was broken. The pencil marks would record the code dots.

Although he was an art professor, Morse continued working on the telegraph, experimenting with various ways for recording the message and trying various methods to extend the distance over which the message could travel. His art studio doubled as a laboratory where he demonstrated working models of the telegraph to students and visitors. Some changes in the model resulted from discussing ideas and problems with the visitors. He determined that an electronic message could be sent any distance by relaying the signals. There had to be a way to increase the signal distance between relays. Morse needed more than casual advice; he needed partners with expertise.

In 1835 Leonard Gale, a professor of geology and mineralogy, became the first partner. Gale provided the techniques needed to solve the distance/relay problem based on Professor Joseph Henry's scientific articles. The second partner, Alfred Vail, joined in 1837 to design and supervise the production of the instruments. Vail's major contributions were replacing the pencil with a blunt stylus and designing a key for transmitting the message. In 1837 the fourth partner, Maine congressman F. O. J. Smith was enlisted to help with obtaining financial support from Congress and to contact for the services necessary to construct the communications network.

As the telegraph came closer to reality, it became apparent that the number to letter code was too cumbersome. By 1838 the first version of dots and dashes representing letters appeared. The code uses combinations of dots and dashes from one to a set of four. The most frequently occurring letters have the shortest code. For example an E is one dot; the Q is two dots, one dash, one dot. There are two versions of the code: American Morse and International Morse. "What hath God wrought!" was the first inter city telegraph message, which was sent from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore,Maryland, on May 24, 1844. Telegraphed reports of events and votes at the 1844 Democratic Convention in Baltimore proved the usefulness of the telegraph for transmitting information.

Morse viewed the telegraph as source of financial security and a means to obtain resources to support education. He served as a charter trustee of Vassar College and donated gifts to Yale University, the Cleveland Female Seminary, and other educational institutions. His other ventures included developing improvements in Daguerreotype, an early form of photography using silver and copper plates; running twice for mayor of New York City; and cofounding and serving as first president of the National Academy of Design. At the end of his life, Morse had attained international stature as the inventor of the American telegraph. Today he is also recognized as an important American artist. Morse died in April 1872.

Bertha Kugelman Morimoto

Codes; Coding Techniques; Internet; Telecommunications.

Mabee, Carleton. The American Leonardo. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944.

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