MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE ( ,1791-1872), American artist and inventor, was born at Charlestown (Mass.) on April 27, 1791. In 1810 he graduated at Yale college, where under the instruction of Jeremiah Day and Benjamin Silliman he received the first impulse towards electrical studies. In 1811 Morse, whose tastes during his early years led him more strongly towards art than towards science, became the pupil of Washington Allston and accompanied his instructor to England. In 1825 he was one of the founders of the National Academy of Design, and was its first president (1826-45). The year 1827 marks the re vival of Morse's interest in electricity. But he was still devoted to 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. He completed rough drafts of the necessary apparatus, upon which the modern telegraph substantially is modelled. During the 12 years that followed Morse was engaged in perfecting his invention and securing for it a proper presentation to the public. He made his own models, moulds, and castings. It was not until 1836 that he completed an apparatus that would work, and finally, on Sept. 2, 1837, the instrument was exhibited at the university of the City of New York with such satisfactory results as to interest Messrs. Vail, iron and brass workers in New Jersey, who thenceforth became associated with Morse in his undertaking. Morse's peti tion for a patent was soon followed by a petition to Congress for an appropriation to defray the expense of subjecting the telegraph to actual experiment to demonstrate its value.
Congress, however, adjourned without making the appropri ation, and Morse sailed for Europe to take out patents there. In England his application was refused, and, while he obtained a patent in France, it was subsequently appropriated by the French government without compensation to himself. His negotiations with Russia proved futile, and after a year's absence he returned to New York. In 1843 Congress passed the appropriation, steps were taken to construct a telegraph from Baltimore to Washing ton, and on May 24, 1844 it was used for the first time. In Morse was compelled to defend his invention in the courts, and successfully vindicated his claim to be called the original inventor of the electro-magnetic recording telegraph.
In 1858 the representatives of Austria, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Piedmont, Rus sia, the Holy See, Sweden, Tuscany, and Turkey made a monetary appropriation in recog nition of the use of his instru ments in those countries. He intro duced into America Daguerre's process of photography, patented a marble cutting machine in 1823, and in 1842 made experiments with telegraphy by a sub marine cable. He died on April 2, 1872 at New York. (See TELE GRAPH.) See S. Irenaeus Prime, Life of S. F. B. Morse (1875). MORSE CODE : see TELEGRAPH.