Samuel Morse Biography. This man is known to be very instrumental in communications technology. Although a painter, Samuel Morse is known as the inventor of Morse code and the telegraph machine.
His creations are still used today, especially Morse code, used in communication, especially during the world wars. Meanwhile, the Telegraph became a tool that revolutionized the world of communications and became a turning point in communications technology in world history.
Samuel Morse Biography
He was born with the full name Samuel Finley Breese Morse. Who later became known as Samuel F.B Morse or Samuel Morse. The inventor of Morse code and the Telegraph was born on April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, outside Boston, Massachusetts.
Since he was four years old, Morse has been interested in drawing. When he was four, he tried to draw his teacher’s face. When he was 14 years old, he tried to collect pocket money by drawing the faces of his friends and people in the city. Stay up-to-date with Deltsapure! Provide accurate and updated news for readers.
Aspiring to be a painter
While studying at Yale College, Morse could have been a more bright student. His interest in science arose while attending a lecture on the latest developments in electricity. However, he feels more comfortable when drawing miniature portraits.
One day, he sent a letter to his parents about his desire to become a painter. His father and mother were worried that he would be unable to make ends meet by becoming a painter. So, they told him just to become a bookseller.
Become a Bookseller
Eventually, Morse worked as a bookseller, but he continued to paint at night. His parents were aware of Morse’s love for the world of art. They tried and found and raised money to send Morse to an art school in London.
When Samuel Morse was at the Royal Academy in London, his teacher always said he didn’t finish his assignments. He has approximately 20 drawing assignments that he still needs to complete. Morse kept making this mistake over and over again until his teacher often advised him against it.
Finally, he tried to make a model of a statue of Hercules made of clay in class. His teacher liked the statue and told Morse to enter it in a competition.
There’s no mistake. He also managed to win a gold medal for his work. This high level of trust makes Morse successful in finding what is best for himself. He started trying again to draw photos of people in Europe.
In 1818, he married and later had two sons and a daughter. It turns out that life is not easy. No one gave him money for his paintings until Morse had no money.
In 1825, his wife died of a heart attack. Morse didn’t even know what happened to his wife or when she died. He was always sad and almost gave up on continuing to paint.
After that, Morse and several other painters tried to establish the National Academy, and he became its first president. He worked as a painter from seven in the morning until midnight. He was successfully selected as a painter in the Round Room in the Capitol, America.
One of the four wall paintings on display is his work. After that, he and his children and brother-in-law returned to Europe to continue his career as a painter.
History and Inventor of the Telegraph
At the beginning of the 19th century, two major advances in electricity opened the door to the discovery of the telegraph machine by Samuel Morse. First, in 1800, an Italian physicist named Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) discovered the battery, which could store electrical energy.
Second, in 1820, the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851) discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism. He carried out the experiment by deflecting a magnetic needle with an electric current.
Meanwhile, scientists and inventors worldwide began experimenting with batteries and the principles of electromagnetism. The goal is to develop some communication systems.
Two groups of figures from England played a role in the invention of the Telegraph, namely Sir William Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone. Then, Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale, and Alfred Vail were from America.
The history of the Telegraph began in the 1830s when British scientists named Cooke and Wheatstone developed the first telegraph system. He designed a device where five magnetic needles could be directed around a panel of letters and numbers using an electric current.
His system was then used as a signal system on trains in England. Meanwhile, Samuel Morse worked alone to develop the electric Telegraph in another location.
He reportedly became interested in Cooke and Wheatstone’s ideas about electromagnetism when he sailed from Europe to America in the early 1830s.
Samuel Morse later learned more about the topic from American physicist Joseph Henry. Morse then worked with Leonard Gale and his assistant Alfred Vail.
After hard work, Samuel Morse finally invented the single-circuit electric Telegraph. The telegraph mechanism created by Morse involved pressing the operator’s button to complete the battery’s electrical circuit.
This action sends an electrical signal through the cable to the receiver at the other end. All the system requires is a lock, battery, cable, and a pole line between the station for the cable and the receiver.
Inventor of Morse Code
To send messages over telegraph cables in the 1830s, Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail created what became known as Morse code or cipher.
The code is created in alphabets and numbers, as well as a set of dots (short marks) and dashes (long marks) based on frequency of use. Frequently used letters such as “E” get a simple code.
Meanwhile, rarely used letters, like “Q,” get a longer and more complex code. Originally, the code was marked on paper when sent via the telegraph system, which the telegraph operator would then translate back into English.
However, over time, the operator could hear and understand the code by listening to the clicking sound from the message-receiving device. So, the paper is replaced with a receiver that produces a clearer beep.
The codes created by Morse, together with the Telegraph, became known as Morse Code. Dissatisfied with his artistic career, Morse gave all his time to the Telegraph.
Development of Telegraph Communication Tools
In Samuel Morse’s biography, as quoted from history.com, it is known that in 1843, he and Alfred Vail received funding from the American Congress. The funds were to set up and test a telegraph system as a new communications system between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland.
On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first historic message via Telegraph to Vail that read, “What is God doing!”. The telegraph communication system then spread throughout America and began to be adopted worldwide.
Furthermore, the machine and communication system via Telegraph continued to be developed and perfected. Among these improvements was the discovery of good insulation for telegraph cables.
The person behind this innovation is Ezra Cornell, one of the university’s founders in New York. Another improvement from the famous lamp inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, in 1874. Alva Edison invented the Quadruplex system, which allows four messages to be sent simultaneously using the same cable.
The use of the Telegraph was quickly accepted by people who wanted a faster and easier way to send and receive informational messages. However, the continued widespread and successful use of the device required an integrated system of telegraph stations through which information could be transmitted.
Cornell founded the company Western Union, which was originally one of many developing telegram service companies.
In 1861, Western Union succeeded in building the first transcontinental telegraph line. This made it the first national telegraph company. The telegraph system then began to spread widely throughout the world.
In 1866, the first permanent telegraph cable was successfully installed across the Atlantic Ocean, and there were around 40 telegraph cable lines across the Atlantic in 1940.
The benefits of the electric Telegraph also changed how warfare was conducted and how journalists and newspapers conducted their business. The benefits of the TelegrapTelegrapheconomic field are also very large. For example, it allows money at that time to be “transferred” across very long distances.
Even at the end of the 19th century, although new technologies began to emerge, many were based on the same principles when the telegrapTelegraphented. Although the Telegraph was replaced by the more convenient telephone, fax machine, and Internet, its invention has been a turning point in communications technology throughout history.
Samuel Morse Dies
Samuel Morse is known to have died of pneumonia in New York on April 2, 1872. He died at the age of 80. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, America.
After the death of Samuel Morse, the tools he created, namely the telegrapTelegraphse code, began to be widely used by society. During World War I and II, the military widely used Morse code to exchange messages or communicate long distances via Telegraph and Telegraph.
