1791-1872


American painter, but best known for his invention of the electric telegraph, conceived around 1832. He constructed an experimental version in 1835 with a home-made battery and an old clock-work to move the paper on which dots and dashes were to be recorded.

Morse exhibited his telegraph before businessmen and committees of Congress, but he met skepticism that any message could really be sent from city to city over wire. Finally, in 1844, he built an improved system and the first inter-city electromagnetic telegraph line in the world was ready. From the Capitol building in Washington, Morse sent a Biblical quotation as the first formal message on the line to Baltimore.