Editing Samuel Morse (section)

==Telegraph==
[[File:Morse telegraph.jpg|thumb|Original Samuel Morse telegraph]]

While returning by ship from Europe in 1832, Morse encountered [[Charles Thomas Jackson]] of Boston, a man who was well schooled in [[electromagnetism]]. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson's [[electromagnet]], Morse developed the concept of a [[Electrical telegraph#Morse system|single-wire telegraph]]. He set aside the painting he had been working on, ''The Gallery of the Louvre''.{{sfn|Standage|1998|pp=28–29}} The original Morse telegraph, submitted with his [[patent application]], is part of the collections of the [[National Museum of American History]] at the [[Smithsonian Institution]].<ref name="NMAH">{{cite news|url=http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=306|title=Morse's Original Telegraph|publisher=National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution|access-date=June 4, 2008|archive-date=January 22, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122131647/http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=306|url-status=live}}</ref> In time, the [[Morse code]] that he developed would become the primary language of telegraphy in the world. It is still the standard for rhythmic transmission of data.

Meanwhile, [[William Fothergill Cooke|William Cooke]] and Professor [[Charles Wheatstone]] had learned of the [[Wilhelm Eduard Weber|Wilhelm Weber]] and [[Carl Gauss]] electromagnetic telegraph in 1833. They had reached the stage of launching a commercial telegraph prior to Morse, despite starting later. In England, Cooke became fascinated by electrical telegraphy in 1836, four years after Morse. Aided by his greater financial resources, Cooke abandoned his primary subject of anatomy and built a small electrical telegraph within three weeks. Wheatstone also was experimenting with telegraphy and (most importantly) understood that a single large [[electric battery|battery]] would not carry a telegraphic signal over long distances. He theorized that numerous small batteries were far more successful and efficient in this task. (Wheatstone was building on the primary research of [[Joseph Henry]], an American physicist.) Cooke and Wheatstone formed a partnership and patented the electrical telegraph in May 1837, and within a short time had provided the [[Great Western Railway]] with a {{convert|13|mi|km|0|adj=on}} stretch of telegraph. However, within a few years, Cooke and Wheatstone's multiple-wire signaling method would be overtaken by Morse's cheaper method.

In an 1848 letter to a friend, Morse describes how vigorously he fought to be called the sole inventor of the electromagnetic telegraph despite the previous inventions.{{sfn|McEwen|1997}}

{{blockquote|I have been so constantly under the necessity of watching the movements of the most unprincipled set of [[Patent infringement#"Piracy"|pirates]] I have ever known, that all my time has been occupied in defense, in putting evidence into something like legal shape that I am the inventor of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph! Would you have believed it ten years ago that a question could be raised on that subject?|S. Morse.{{sfn|Morse|2013}} }}