Samuel F. B. Morse
(1791 - 1872)

M.I.T. - Inventors
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1791. His family was wealthy and well connected. "Finley's" first career was painting, which he studied in the US and Europe. He became a member of Britain's Royal Academy, and helped found the National Academy of Design in New York City. (He also twice ran for Mayor of New York, unsuccessfully.)

In 1832, Morse became intrigued by the telegraph, a device first proposed in 1753 and first built in 1774. Through 1833, the machines were impractical, requiring 26 separate wires, one for each letter of the alphabet. In that year, two German engineers had invented a five-wire model; but Morse wanted to be the first to reduce the number of wires to one. In 1838, Morse made this possible by creating a code that used different numbers to represent the letters of the English alphabet and the ten digits. ... more at M.I.T.

Obituary - April 3, 1872, The New York Times
Prof. Morse died last evening at 8 o'clock, his condition having become very low soon after sunrise. Though expected, the death of this distinguished man will be received with regret by thousands to whom he was only known by fame.

Few persons have ever lived to whom all departments of industry owe a greater debt than the man whose death we are now called on to record. There has been no national or sectional prejudice in the honor that has been accorded to him, from the fact that the benefit he was the means of bestowing upon mankind has been universal, and on this account the sorrow occasioned by his death will be equally world-wide. Prof. Morse was born in Charlestown, Mass., April 27, 1791. His father, Dr. Jedidiah I. Morse, was a prominent Congregational minister, who had accrued considerable celebrity for works both on theology and geography.

At an early age Samuel was sent to Yale College, and was graduated from that institution in 1810. ... more at "The Telegraph Office"