ue his artistic labors for a livelihood. He was
a graduate of Yale College, where his attention had first been attracted
to electrical experiments. He was thus, in a measure, prepared for
carrying forward the important work he had undertaken, and pursued his
labors with great assiduity. Devoting every spare moment to the pursuit
of his object, which was attained but slowly by reason of his lack of
mechanical skill and ingenuity, not until 1837 had he so far succeeded
in his efforts as to be prepared to make application for letters-patent
to enable him to secure and protect his rights of invention in the
electromagnetic telegraph.

In explanation of the slow progress of his experimental work, Professor
Morse, in writing to a friend, said: "Up to the autumn of 1837 my
telegraphic apparatus existed in so rude a form that I felt reluctance
to have it seen. My means were very limited, so limited as to preclude
the possibility of constructing an apparatus of such mechanical finish
as to warrant my success in venturing upon its public exhibition. I had
no wish to expose to ridicule the representative of so many hours of
laborious thought. Prior to the summer of 1837 I depended upon my pencil
for subsistence. Indeed, so straitened were my circumstances that in
order to save time to carry out my invention and to economize my scanty
means I had for months lodged and eaten in my studio, procuring food in
small quantities from some grocery, and preparing it myself. To conceal
from my friends the stinted manner in which I lived, I was in the habit
of bringing food to my room in the evenings; and this was my mode of
life for many years."

After the continuance of this heroic struggle for more than five years,
Morse found himself compelled to seek the aid of more accomplished
mechanical skill than he possessed, to perfect his apparatus, and was
obliged to surrender a quarter interest in his invention in order to
obtain pecuniary aid for this purpose.

Having thus succeeded in obtaining, at such serious sacrifice, the
requisite financial assistance to enable him to perfect the mechanism
necessary to demonstrate his invention, Professor Morse lost no time in
completing his apparatus and presenting it for public inspection. On
January 6, 1838, he first operated his system successfully, over a wire
three miles long, in the presence of a number of personal friends, at
Morristown, New Jersey. In the following month he made a similar
exhi