Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/508

 MORSE

MORSE

painting under Allston, West and Copley. In 1313 he exhibited a colossal painting of the '• Dying Hercules" at the Royal academy, where it received honorable mention, and the same year piesented a model in clay of the same subject to the Society of Arts in comj)etition, and received the prize medal for the best original cast of a sin- gle figure. In July, lbl4, he completed a painting of " The Judgment of Jupiter in the Case of Apollo, Marpesa and Idas." and sent it to the Royal Academy for exhibition. He returned to America in 1815, and his picture was rejected on account of his absence. He en;^aged in portrait painting in Boston, Mass., and in Charleston, S.C. He was married, Oct. 6, 1818, to Lucretia, daughter of Cliarles Walker of Concord, N.H., by whom he had children. Charles Walker, Susan and James Edward Finley. In 1819 he painted a portrait of James Monroe at Washington, D.C., which was placetl in the City Hall at Charleston. He removed to New York city and established a studio on Broadway, opposite Trinity church, where he painted portraits of Cliancellor Kent, Fitz Greene Halleck and a full length portrait of General Lafayette for the city of New York. He founded the New York Drawing association and was elected its first president ; was the first pres- ident of the newly established National Academy of Design, 183ft^-43 ; was president of the Sketch club, and delivered a course of lectures on " The Fine Arts " before the New York Athenaeum. In 1829 he traveled and studied in London, Paris and Italy. While in Paris he produced a canvas on which he depicted in miniature fifty of the finest pictures in the Louvre. He returned to the United States in 1832, on the packet-ship Sully, and on the voyage the subject of electro-magnet- ism and the affinity of magnetism to electricity became a frequent topic of discussion, several of the passengers being well versed in science. Mr. Morse became impressed with the idea that signs, representing figures and letters, might be trans- mitted to any distance by means of an electric spark over an insulated wire, and on his arrival in New York city, making use of the electro- magnet invented by Prof. Joseph Henry (q.v.) of Princeton, N.J., he began to develop the use of his pro|K)8ed alphabet. He devised a system of dots and spaces to represent letters and words, to be interpreted by a telegraphic dictionary. He was professor of the literature of the arts of design in the University of the City of New York, 1832-72, and it was in the University building on Washington square that he completed his experi- ments, with the help and advice of Professor Henry, with whom he was in correspondence. The models were made of a picture frame, fas- tened to a table ; the wheels of a wooden clock moved by a weight carried the paper forward ;

three wooden drums guided and held the paper in place ; a wooden pendulum containing a pen- cil at its iK)wer end was suspended from the top of the frame and vibrated across the paper as it passed over the center wooden drum. An elec- tro-magnet was fastened to a shelf across the frame opiX)site an armature made fast to the pendulum ; a type rule and type for breaking the circuit rested on an endless bank which i)assed over two wooden rollers moved by a crank, this rule being carried forward by teeth projecting from its lower edge into the band ; a lever with a small weight attached, and a tooth projecting downward at one end was operated on by the type, and a metallic form projected downward over two mercury cups. A short circuit of wire embraced the helices of the electro-magnet and connected with the poles of the battery, and ter- minated in the mercury cups. By turning the wooden crank the type in the rule raised one end of the lever and by bringing the fork into the mer- cury it closed the circuit causing the pendulum to move and the pencil to mark upon the paper. The circuit was broken when the tooth in the lever fell into the first two cogs of the types, and the pendulum swinging back made another mark. As the spaces between the types caused the pen- cil to make liorizontal lines long or short, Mr. Morse was able, with tlie aid of his telegraphic dictionary, to spell out words and to produce sounds that could be read. The perfected idea was heartily endorsed by those to whom he exhibited it, and after many improvements in the details he published the results of his exj>eriments in the New York Observer, April 15, 1837. In the sum- mer of 1837 Alfred Vail (q.v.) became interested in the instrument and advanced the means to enable Morse to manufacture a more perfectly con- structed apparatus. In September, 1837, Morse filed an application for a patent and endeavored to obtain from congress the right to experiment between Wash- ington and Baltimore. He went to Europe to obtain aid, but did not , meet with suc- cess. He re- turned to the United States in May, 1839, and it was not until March 3, 1843, just before the close of the session that he obtained from the 47th congress an ap- propriation of $30,000 for experimental purposes, the first vote standing 90 ayes to 82 nays. He at once began work on his line from Washing- ton to Baltimore, which was partially com- pleted May 1, 1844, and the first message trans- mitted a part of the way by wire was the an-

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