TODAY’S PATENT – IMPROVED SINGLE WIRE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM

Today’s patent was invented by Timothy Samuel Morse and was granted patent on January 15, 1849, bearing patent no. USRE79E.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor of several improvements to the telegraph, was born in Charlestown, Mass. on April 27, 1791. As a student at Yale College, Morse became interested in both painting and in the developing subject of electricity.

Morse applied for a printed telegraph patent in 1844, and it was eventually approved in 1849. The Federal monies that he secured allowed him to string a wire from Baltimore to Washington after he had already demonstrated that his gadget functioned over short distances. Morse sent the first inter-city telegram on May 11, 1844. Soon after, he performed the first public demonstration by sending a message from the Supreme Court’s chambers to Baltimore’s Mount Clair train station. What hath God wrought? was the message, which the daughter of the commissioner of patents took directly from the Bible. Private businesses were advancing telegraph lines from Washington to Boston and Buffalo by 1846 utilising Morse’s patent.