Samuel Morse
Quick facts
- Born
- April 27, 1791, Charlestown, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Died
- April 2, 1872, New York City, U.S.
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Samuel Morse” page (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor. He was the first person to make a telegraph with only one wire, and also helped come up with the idea of Morse code.
Since the 1700s, there were different types of telegraphs being made, but they were hard to use because they had several wires. (The first telegraph ever built had 26 wires, which made it almost impossible to use.) Morse spent years trying to build one with only one wire, and managed to do it in 1836. Morse and his assistant made a code with “dots and “dashes”, which were two different types of “clicks” on the telegraph.
Morse’s invention made it possible to quickly communicate with people far away, and many telegraph lines were built. A telegraph line using his invention was built between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore in 1844. By the 1860s, there were telegraph lines all around North America, and in 1866, a telegraph line was built across the Atlantic Ocean.
Life
Samuel F. B. Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Morse was a painter before he was an inventor. He was a professor of art at New York University. He wanted to do some paintings that were going to be done at the United States Capitol, but was not chosen to do them. He was so disappointed that he gave up painting.
Morse was a devout Christian. The first message he sent on his 1844 telegraph line was “What hath God wrought?”, which comes from the Book of Numbers in the Bible.
He died in New York City on April 2, 1872.
Written for younger readers
Samuel Morse, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Famous Inventors
Link to Samuel F. B. Morse’s Wikipedia entry
Samuel F.B. Morse was born on April 27, 1791 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. His father was Jedidiah Morse and his mother was Elizabeth Ann Breese Morse.
After going to a private school in Massachusetts.
Did You Know?
- Sam Morse was raised strictly religious.
- Sam Morse was a very talented painter.
Sam Morse became interested in science when taking a trip on a ship. There, he talked to another man interested in electronics, magnets and telegraphs.
Sam went to Yale College to learn religious philosophy, math and science of horses. He also learned about electricity. He graduated in 1810.
Before Sam Morse invented Morse Code, people had trouble communicating with others who were far away. Important messages that needed to be delivered quickly couldn’t be.
Other people invented telegraph machines that did not work as well as Sam Morse’s.
With Morse Code, communication became easier all over the world.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Samuel Morse” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
Worksheets, answer keys and printable layouts elsewhere on K5Print are our own work and are not covered by this licence.