The telegraph

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More than one hundred years we are using the telegraph. By means of it we can easily send a friendly message or some business information to a person in the next town or even clear across the continent in a few seconds. Most of the news printed in our newspapers is sent by telegraph; we can read of happenings in distant places almost as soon as those happenings have taken place. Our weather reports are sent by wire. In this way farmers and sailors and anyone interested in the kind of weather may learn when a severe storm or a cold wave is approaching.

At first people would not believe that messages could possibly come ova" a wire. They waited until the mails brought the same news before they would believe it. Even then they had queer ideas about the telegraph. "How large a bundle can be sent over the wires?" one man inquired. A woman who saw a telegraph pole planted in her yard complained, "Now I suppose I can't punish my children any more without the whole world knowing about it." She did not know that it was necessary to have operators to send or receive messages.

At first very few messages were sent. After a while people became convinced that the telegraph could be depended upon; so the wires were gradually extended until today there is a regular network of telegraph wires over the country.

Should you like to know something of the man who invented this wonderful instrument? His name was Samuel Morse. He had studied both painting and sculpture and expected to earn his living as an artist. But as there was little or no demand for this kind of work he had plenty of time for other things.

He and his brother spent many of their evenings planning an improved force pump for fire engines; but the pump was not a success. Morse then began tramping from town to town, painting portraits for a living for himself and his three children.

All the time, however, he was thinking of other inventions. One evening he was talking with a group of men about some recent experiments with electricity.

"Do these experiments mean," one man asked, "that an electric current passes through any length of wire in less than a second?"

"Yes," replied another man, "it passes almost instantly over any length of wire."

"If electricity can be sent ten miles without stopping, I can make it go around the globe," said Morse. "I believe that messages could be sent by electricity."

That very night Morse began working on his invention. For twelve years he planned and worked on it. During all these years he had to earn money for the support of his three motherless children; so he had to give much time to his painting, too. But he did not give up.

There was no such thing as telegraph wire in those days. The ladies wore a kind of high bonnet, called a "skyscraper," the front of which was stiffened with wire. Morse found that this wire made excellent telegraph wire; so he bought up all the bonnet wire on the market.

He also had to invent an alphabet to use in sending telegrams. It consisted of dots, dashes. and spaces. For instance, a dot, represents the letter "e"; a dash, the letter "t"

Finding the right kind of wire for his telegraph and inventing an alphabet for it were not the hardest part of Morse's work. Many times when he thought that his invention was about completed, something about it did not work out right. He found it difficult, too, to persuade people to lend him money to carry on his work. Often he had to live for days upon crackers and tea because he could not afford other food.

But at last, after having all these trials and discouragement’s. Morse was successful. Sitting at the instrument that he had himself placed for trial. Morse sent the following message which a friend had chosen: "What hath God wrought!" Forty miles away the message was instantly received; the telegraph was successful! Morse had given the world a wonderful gift.