1828
His mother, Elizabeth Ann Finley Breese Morse, dies.1829
In November, leaving his children in the care of other family members, Samuel Morse sets sail for Europe. He visits Lafayette in Paris and paints in the Vatican galleries in Rome. During the next three years, he visits numerous art collections to study the work of the Old Masters and other painters. He also paints landscapes. Morse spends much time with his novelist friend James Fenimore Cooper.1831
The American scientist Joseph Henry announces his discovery of a powerful electromagnet made from many layers of insulated wire. Demonstrating how such a magnet can send electric signals over long distances, he suggests the possibility of the telegraph.1832
During his voyage home to New York on the Sully, Samuel Morse first conceives the idea of the electromagnetic telegraph during his conversations with another passenger, Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston. Jackson describes to him European experiments with electromagnetism. Inspired, Morse writes ideas for a prototype of an electromagnetic recording telegraph and dot-and-dash code system in his sketchbook. Morse is appointed professor of painting and sculpture at the University of the City of New York (now New York University) and works on developing the telegraph.1833
Morse completes work on the 6' x 9' painting Gallery of the Louvre. The canvas contains forty-one Old Masters paintings in miniature. The painting loses money during its public exhibition.1835
Morse is appointed professor of Literature of the Arts and Design at the University of the City of New York (now New York University). Morse publishes Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States (New York: Leavitt, Lord & Co.), which had been published serially in his brothers' weekly periodical, New York Observer. It is a treatise against the political influence of Catholicism.In Autumn, Samuel Morse constructs a recording telegraph with a moving paper ribbon and demonstrates it to several friends and acquaintances.
1836
In January, Morse demonstrates his recording telegraph to Dr. Leonard Gale, a professor of science at New York University. In the spring, Morse runs unsuccessfully for mayor of New York for a nativist (anti-immigration) party. He receives 1,496 votes.1837
In the spring, Morse shows Dr. Gale his plans for "relays," where one electric circuit is used to open and close a switch on another electric circuit further away. For his assistance, the science professor becomes part owner of the telegraph rights.By November, a message can be sent through ten miles of wire arranged on reels in Dr. Gale's university lecture room. In September, Alfred Vail, an acquaintance of Morse, witnesses a demonstration of the telegraph. He is soon taken on as a partner with Morse and Gale because of his financial resources, mechanical skills, and access to his family's iron works for building telegraph models.
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, Morse's acquaintance from the 1832 Sully voyage, now claims to be the inventor of the telegraph. Morse obtains statements from those present on the ship at the time, and they credit Morse with the invention. This is the first of many legal battles Morse will face.
On September 28, Morse files a caveat for a patent for the telegraph. After completing his last paintings in December, Morse withdraws from painting to devote his attention to the telegraph. The Englishmen William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patent their own five-needle telegraph system. The system was inspired by a Russian design of an experimental galvanometer telegraph.
