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Who was Samuel Morse?
Before phones, computers, and telegraphs were invented, messages would take months or even years to reach. Samuel Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts in April 179…1, not knowing that he would be a famous inventor. Since the age of four, Morse had been interested in drawing. When he was four, Samuel etched his teacher's face on a chest of drawers. When he was fourteen, he earned pocket money by drawing pictures of his friends and people in the town. One day, he wrote a letter to his parents from his college saying that he was made to be a painter. Mr. and Mrs. Morse were afraid that he couldn't make a living as a painter, so they made him be a bookseller. He worked as a bookseller but at night he would paint. Finally his parents realized how he loved art so they found the money for Morse to study art in London. When Samuel Morse went to Royal Academy in London, his teacher kept telling him that he didn't finish his work. He had about twenty unfinished paintings but he didn't have a single finished painting. Morse kept doing this till his teacher told him what he did wrong. In class, he made a model of Hercules in clay. His professor liked it so much that he asked him to enter it in a contest. It won a gold medal. So Samuel Morse had finally found something that he was good at. He began to paint portraits of people in Europe. In 1818, he married. His wife had two boys and one girl. Life wasn't very easy. Not everyone would give Morse money for painting portraits of them so he was almost broke. In 1825, his wife died of heart trouble. He didn't even hear what happened to her and when he did, he was so sad that he almost gave up painting. After that, Samuel and some other painters formed the National Academy and served as the first president of it. He worked from seven to midnight, painting. Four murals were supposed to be painted in a round room in the U.S Capitol. Only four artists would be chosen and he wanted to be one of them. Finally he left with his kids and his wife's sister to paint in Europe again. On October 1832, Samuel Morse and his family, sailed back home on a ship called the Sully. One day during his trip, he heard some passengers talking about electricity. An electromagnet, which can be as simple as wire wound around a nail and attached to a battery, produces an electric current, or jolt. Suddenly, Samuel had an idea. Maybe electricity could transmit messages. For the rest of the trip, he worked on an alphabetical system that was later called Morse code. The only symbols that he made up were a dash and a dot. Common letters had short codes and not so common letters had longer codes. This is the same thing for numbers. For example: the code for s is … (three dots) and the code for w is . - - (one dot and two dashes.) After Morse came home, he started building what he called a telegraph. It was mostly made out of picture frames, lead, and wood from a table. It was easy to make but no one cared for his invention for twelve, long years, with many problems one the way. His biggest problem was that he was broke. He also became a professor of painting and sculpture. Samuel Morse was so poor that his students gave him food and he had to sleep in the classroom. He found out one day, that he wasn't chosen to paint the murals. That's when Morse's art career came to a halt and he wanted to work on the telegraph. thank you Amber Brumley Here's a shorter version from a different person :-) Born in Charleston, Massachusetts, on April 17, 1791, Samuel Morse was the first-born of his family. Attending Phillips Academy, he continued his education while at Yale College. Some of the educational subjects he learned about during his stay were math, religious philosophy, and horses. He attended lectures on electricity, and earned money through painting during his stay. In 1810, he graduated with Phi Beta Kappa. Washington Allston, the artist, was pleased with the artistic ability of Morse and asked for Samuel Morse to accompany him on a trip to England and met Benjamin West, an artist. He married Lucretia Pickering Walker. She died after a short time after giving birth to her fourth child. Samuel Morse started out an artist, but later would be the inventor of the telegraph and the so called, "Morse Code". The Morse Code is a language to communicate over telegraphs,, with the blind, and other ways that it may be used. He got the idea for the telegraph when one day, he heard the startling news that his wife was very sick. He was working on a painting when he heard the news. Unfortunately, he could not make his way home quick enough to see his wife. She died and was buried before he even arrived. He was upset with this, and he decided to quit painting, and find some sort of way to communicate long distance. Samuel Morse then invented the telegraph. He also invented the Morse Code, a series of beeps for each letter. Samuel Morse the an inventor, artist, and genius can be exemplary to many scientists still today. My Source: http://samuelmorsebiography.com/ Take a look! ^ (MORE)
