Inventor Samuel Morse is born, April 27, 1791

Morse painted this self portrait in 1812.

Samuel Morse first established himself as a talented painter, but his interest in long-distance communication led to innovations that laid the groundwork for a communications revolution.

Born in Charlestown, MA in 1791, Morse was the son of a pastor who invented cerographic sterotypy, a wax-based printing process. He studied religious philosophy, mathematics, and the science of horses at Yale College, graduating in 1810. He then pursued a career as a painter, and began studying under American Romantic landscape painter Washington Allston. He became a well respected portrait painter with subjects including President James Monroe.

In the 1830s Morse decided to give up his career as a painter, and began to focus on communication. He reportedly set out to improve long distance communication after it took days for him to learn of his wife’s illness and death.

Morse became fascinated with the idea of transmitting messages instantly using electricity. He developed a single-circuit telegraph that worked by pushing the operator key down to complete the electric circuit of the battery, which sent the electric signal across a wire to a receiver at the other end. It took four years to create his first model of the telegraph, and he demonstrated the device publicly in 1837.

In 1846 Morse received a patent for a “mode of communicating information by signals by the application of electromagnetism.” Other inventors had established telegraphs that transmitted over 26 electrical wires, but Morse’s device used just one wire.

With the help of Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail, Morse added relays to his system that enabled it to carry a message 10 miles, but he needed funding to improve the system. After years of seeking sponsorship, Congress awarded Morse $30,000 to build a 41-mile test line from Baltimore to Washington, DC. The first transmission on the line was May 24, 1844 with the message, “What hath God wrought?”

This 1844 telegraph key is believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line. It is an improved version of Morse’s design created by Vail. Source: Smithsonian Institution

Vail and Morse also developed a system of telegraphy signals that used short signals (dots) and long signals (dashes), which in combination spelled out messages. Known as Morse code despite the collaboration, the system became the primary language of telegraphy and is still used today, though the modern version is slightly different than the original.

Morse’s electric telegraph built on previous advances by other inventors, which caused a patent controversy, but he was declared the inventor of the telegraph by the US Supreme Court in 1954.

His success as a painter and inventor allowed him to live comfortably until his death in 1872. Biographer Carleton Mabee has called Morse “The American Leonardo,” comparing him to artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci.

Related articles:

• Invention of the Telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress
• Storing Morse code in C — A comparison of techniques
• 1st permanent transatlantic telegraph cable completed, July 27, 1866
• Alexander Graham Bell is born, March 3, 1847
• Communication pioneer Elisha Gray is born, August 2, 1835
• 1st permanent transatlantic telegraph cable completed, July 27, 1866
• The 5 greatest engineers of all time

For more moments in tech history, see this blog. EDN strives to be historically accurate with these postings. Should you see an error, please notify us.

Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on April 27, 2015 and edited on April 27, 2019.