Samuel Morse

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Samuel Morse
Samuel Morse, c. 1840
Born	Samuel Finley Breese Morse April 27, 1791 Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	April 2, 1872 (aged 80) New York City, New York, U.S.
Education	Yale College
Occupation	Painter, inventor
Known for	Morse code, telegraph
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Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American painter and inventor. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of the Morse code and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy.

Early life and education

Morse was born in Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts, the first child of the geographer and pastor Jedidiah Morse and Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, before enrolling at Yale College in 1805. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman and Jeremiah Day and was also interested in painting.

Career as a painter

After graduating from Yale in 1810, Morse pursued a career as a painter. He traveled to England to study under the American painter Washington Allston and became a highly skilled portrait artist. His notable works include portraits of John Adams and James Monroe.

Invention of the telegraph

In 1832, Morse encountered Charles Thomas Jackson, who had been working with electromagnetism. This meeting inspired Morse to develop a means of communication using electrical impulses. By 1837, Morse had developed a working model of the telegraph and, with the help of Alfred Vail, created the Morse code.

Morse code

Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes. It was first used in 1844 to send the message "What hath God wrought" from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.

Later life and legacy

Morse continued to work on improving the telegraph and Morse code throughout his life. He received numerous honors and awards for his contributions to science and technology. He died in New York City in 1872 and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Related pages

• Telegraph
• Morse code
• Alfred Vail
• Jedidiah Morse
• Washington Allston
• Phillips Academy
• Yale College