Samuel Morse

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33077, 18 November 1972, Page 11

Samuel Morse

Everyone has heard of the Morse code; here is a stamp which depicts the man who gave his name to it. Samuel Morse was an American who earned a place in history as one of the pioneers of the electric telegraph, a man who helped to revolutionise world communications. Yet he was also a man who achieved considerable fame quite early in life, for a talent of a totally different kind. He was already a noted portrait painter and sculptor when he took up his scientific studies as a spare-time relaxation.

His engineering aptitude was first applied to his art; in 1823 he designed a machine for carving marble. Nine years later he was appointed professor of painting and sculpture at New York University — and about the same time his interest was aroused in electricity. 1 His experiments led in due course to the earliest practical application of telegraphy. To transmit messages over a wire, he used a system of long and short electrical flashes — indicated as dots and dashes. So was born the famous Morse code. The American government of the day showed little interest in the invention. So Morse set up his own private company, to open America’s first telegraph line from New York to Baltimore. The first message to be trans*

mitted, on May 24, 1844, read: “What hath God wrought?”

When the United States issued a set of stamps devoted to American inventors, in 1940, Samuel Morse was one of the subjects chosen. And four years later there was another special stamp to commemorate the centenary of the first telegraph message. As the illustration shows, the stamp of 1940 was small and rather unimpressive in appearance. Morse was in his forties when he made his great discovery; this portrait, heavily bearded, appears to show him in later life.

But the stamp is worth remembering at the present time, as 1972 marks the 100th anniversary of the inventor’s death. Strangely enough, it has been left to the West African republic of Mali to issue a special stamp for this centenary. It shows a similar portrait of Morse, with one of the early telegraph instruments in the back* ground.