f the circuit were interrupted the
current became visible, and that it occurred to him that these flashes
might be used as a means of communication. The idea of using the
current to carry messages became fixed in his mind, and he pondered,
over it during the remaining weeks of the long, slow voyage.

Doctor Jackson claimed, after Morse had perfected and established his
telegraph, that the idea had been his own, and that Morse had secured
it from him on board the _Sully_. But Doctor Jackson was not a
practical man who either could or did put any ideas he may have had
to practical use. At the most he seems to have simply started Morse's
mind along a new train of thought. The idea of using the current as
a carrier of messages, though it was new to Morse, had occurred to
others earlier, as we have seen. But at the very outset Morse set
himself to find a means by which he might make the current not only
signal the message, but actually record it. Before he landed from the
_Sully_ he had worked out sketches of a printing telegraph. In this
the current actuated an electro-magnet on the end of which was a rod.
This rod was to mark down dots and dashes on a moving tape of paper.

Thus was the idea born. Of course the telegraph was still far from an
accomplished fact. Without the improved electro-magnets and the relay
of Professor Henry, Morse had not yet even the basic ideas upon
which a telegraph to operate over considerable distances could
be constructed. But Morse was possessed of Yankee imagination and
practical ability. He was possessed of a fair technical education
for that day, and he eagerly set himself to attaining the means to
accomplish his end. That he realized just what he sought is shown by
his remark to the captain of the _Sully_ when he landed at New York.
"Well, Captain," he remarked, "should you hear of the telegraph one of
these days as the wonder of the world, remember that the discovery was
made on board the good ship _Sully_."

With the notion of using an electro-magnet as a receiver, an alphabet
consisting of dots and dashes, and a complete faith in the practical
possibilities of the whole, Morse went to work in deadly earnest. But
poverty still beset him and it was necessary for him to devote most of
his time to his paintings, that he might have food, shelter, and the
means to buy materials with which to experiment. From 1832 to 1835 he
was able to make but small progress. In the latter year he secured