samuel morse

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791–1872) was an American inventor and painter, best known for developing a single-wire telegraph system and co-developing Morse code with his friend Alfred Vail in 1837-1838. His telegraph system allowed rapid long-distance communication using a code of dots and dashes that represent letters and numbers. Morse was originally a painter and art professor but shifted focus to invention, particularly the telegraph. The first major telegraph line built using his invention connected Washington, D.C. and Baltimore in 1844, where he sent the first message: "What hath God wrought?" He played a pivotal role in making telegraphy commercially viable and expanding its networks across North America and eventually across the Atlantic Ocean by the 1860s. Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, studied at Yale, and was initially a successful portrait artist before dedicating himself to inventing. His contributions greatly accelerated the development and adoption of electric telegraphy worldwide.