here. The trip was not a
success. In England his application was refused, on the alleged
ground that his invention had been already published; and while he
obtained a patent in France, it was subsequently appropriated by the
French Government without compensation to himself. His negotiations
also with Russia proved futile, and after a year's absence he
returned to New York.

On February 23, 1843, Congress passed the long-delayed appropriation
of $30,000; and steps were at once taken to construct a telegraph
from Baltimore to Washington. On May 24, 1844, it was used for the
first time, Mr. Morse himself sending over the wires the first and
ever-to-be-remembered message, "What hath God wrought."

[Illustration: Samuel F. B. Morse, Inventor of the Telegraph.]

Morse's parents were already secured to him and his associates, and
companies were soon formed for the erection of telegraph lines all
over the United States. In the year 1847 he was compelled to defend
his invention in the courts, and successfully vindicated his claims
to be called the original inventor of the electro-magnetic recording
telegraph. Thenceforward Morse's life was spent in witnessing the
growth of his enterprise, and in gathering the honors which an
appreciative public bestowed upon him. As years went by he received
from the various foreign governments their highest distinctions,
while in 1858 the representatives of Austria, Belgium, France, the
Netherlands, Piedmont, Russia, the Holy See, Sweden, Tuscany, and
Turkey appropriated the sum of 400,000 francs in recognition of the
use of his instruments in those countries.

The telegraph is not the only great success with which the name of
Samuel Morse is honorably connected. Having made the acquaintance of
Daguerre in Paris, he studied with him the infancy of photography,
and was the first to take sun pictures, or daguerreotypes, in
America. Also it was he who made the first submarine electric cable.
This was laid in New York Harbor; and from it he was the first to
conceive that stupendous idea of the transoceanic telegraph. In the
preparations for laying the first Atlantic cable he took an active
part, though the attempt of 1857, in which he personally engaged,
was not successful. He died April 2, 1872, at New York, where his
statue in bronze now stands in the Central Park.

PETER COOPER[12]

[Footnote 12: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

By CLARENCE COOK

(1791-1883)

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