Electro-magnetic Telegraph.
This invention, conceived more than a century ago, was first brought to perfection as an intelligent medium of communication
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Morse apparatus, circuit and battery. |
beteen points distant from each other by
Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse (q. v.), of New York, and was first presented to public notice in 1838.
In the autumn of 1837 he filed a caveat at the Patent Office; and he gave a private exhibition of its marvellous power in the New York University in January, 1838, when intelligence was instantly transmitted by an alphabet composed of dots and lines, invented by
Morse, through a circuit of 10 miles of wire, and plainly recorded.
Morse applied to Congress for pecuniary aid to enable him to construct an experimental line between
Washington and
Baltimore.
For four years he waited, for the action of the government was tardy, in consequence of doubt and positive opposition.
At the beginning of March. 1842, Congress
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Morse Key |
appropriated $30,000 for his use; and in May, 1844, he transmitted from
Washington to
Baltimore, a distance of 40 miles, the first message, furnished him by a young lady— “What hath God wrought!”
The first public message was the announcement of the nomination by the Democratic National Convention in
Baltimore (May, 1844) of
James K. Polk for
President of the
United States.
Professor Morse also originated submarine telegraphy.
He publicly suggested its feasibility in a letter to the
Secretary of the Treasury in 1843.
As early as 1842 he laid a submarine cable, or insulated wire, in the harbor of
New York, for which achievement the American Institute awarded him a small gold medal.
In 1858 he participated in the labors and honors of laying a cable under the sea between
Europe and
America.
(See
Atlantic Telegraph). Monarchs gave him medals and orders.
Yale College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Ll.D., and in 1858, at the instance of the
Emperor of the
French, several
European governments combined in the act of giving
Professor Morse the sum of $80,000 in gold as a token of their appreciation.
Vast improvements have been made since in the transmission of messages.
For more than a quarter of a century the messages were each sent over a single wire, only one way
at a time.
Early in 1871, through the inventions of
Edison and others, messages were sent both ways over the same wire at the same instant of time.
Very soon four messages were sent the same way. Now multiplex transmission is a matter of everyday business.
