ess lumber, the once
peerless "Rocket" spent a season or two in rain and snow and sunny
weather, when George Stephenson bought it back and put it in his
cabinet at the Newcastle works. After Stephenson's death the
precious relic was placed in the British Museum in London.

"The Rocket" itself was exhibited a few years ago at the Railway
Exposition in Chicago, and an exact copy of it was shown at the
recent World's Fair.

[Signature: C. M. Woodward.]

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE

(1791-1872)

[Illustration: Samuel F. B. Morse.]

Samuel Finley Breese Morse, artist and inventor, was born at the
foot of Breed's Hill, Charlestown, Mass., on April 27, 1791. His
father was the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the author of Morse's
"Geography." At the age of fourteen Samuel Morse entered Yale
College; under the instruction of Professors Day and Silliman he
received the first impulse toward those electrical studies with
which his name is mainly identified.

In 1811 Morse, whose tastes during his early years led him more
strongly toward art than toward science, became the pupil of
Washington Allston, then the greatest of American artists, and
accompanied his master to England, where he remained four years. His
success at this period was considerable; but on his return to
America, in 1815, he failed to obtain commissions for historical
paintings, and after working on portraits for two years at
Charleston, S.C., he removed first to Washington and afterward to
Albany, finally settling in New York. In 1825 he laid the
foundations of the National Academy of Design, and was elected its
first president, an office which he filled until 1845. The year 1827
marks the revival of Morse's interest in electricity. It was at this
time that he learned from Professor J. F. Dana, of Columbia College,
the elementary facts of electro-magnetism. As yet, however, he was
devoted to his art, and in 1829 he again went to Europe to study the
old masters.

The year of his return, 1832, may be said to close the period of his
artistic, and to open that of his scientific, life. On board the
packet-ship Sully, which sailed from Havre, October 1, 1832, while
discussing one day with his fellow-passengers the properties of the
electro-magnet, he was led to remark: "If the presence of
electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no
reason why intelligence may not be transmitted by electricity."

It was not a novel proposition, but the p