专八人文知识需知美国名人--电报之父——塞缪尔.莫尔斯

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--电报之父——塞缪尔.莫尔斯

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　塞缪尔•莫尔斯是一名享有盛誉的美国画家。1791年4月27日出生在美国马萨诸塞州的查尔斯顿，Morse最初的职业是位油漆工。1839年他发布了他的第一项发明“莫尔斯”码。他的同行发明的电报就是运用“莫尔斯”码来传递信号的，1844年莫尔斯从华盛顿到巴尔的摩拍发人类历史上的第一份电报。 在座无虚席的国会大厦里，莫尔斯用激动得有些颤抖的双手，操纵着他倾十余年心血研制成功的电报机。1872年于纽约逝世。

　　Samuel Finley Breese Morse (27 April 1791 – 2 April 1872) wasan American contributor to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on Europeantelegraphs, co-inventor of the Morse code, and a painter of historic scenes.

　　Telegraph

　　In 1825, the city of New York commissioned Morse for $1,000 to paint a portrait of Gilbert duMotier, marquis de Lafayette, in Washington. In the midst of painting, a horse messenger delivereda letter from his father that read one line, "Your dear wife is convalescent". Morse immediately leftWashington for his home at New Haven, leaving the portrait of Lafayette unfinished. By the timehe arrived she had already been buried. Heartbroken in the knowledge that for days he wasunaware of his wife's failing health and her lonely death, he moved on from painting to pursue ameans of rapid long distance communication.

　　On the sea voyage home in 1832, Morse encountered Charles Thomas Jackson of Boston whowas well schooled in electromagnetism. Witnessing various experiments with Jackson'selectromagnet, Morse developed the concept of a single-wire telegraph, and The Gallery of theLouvre was set aside. The original Morse telegraph, submitted with his patent application, is part ofthe collections of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. In timethe Morse code would become the primary language of telegraphy in the world, and is still thestandard for rhythmic transmission of data.

　　William Cooke and Professor Charles Wheatstone learned of the Wilhelm Weber and Carl Gau?electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, and reached the stage of launching a commercial telegraphprior to Morse, despite starting later. In England, Cooke became fascinated by electrical telegraph in1836, four years after Morse, but with greater financial resources. Cooke abandoned his primarysubject of anatomy and built a small electrical telegraph within three weeks. Wheatstone also wasexperimenting with telegraphy and (most importantly) understood that a single large batterywould not carry a telegraphic signal over long distances, and that numerous small batteries werefar more successful and efficient in this task (Wheatstone was building on the primary research ofJoseph Henry, an American physicist). Cooke and Wheatstone formed a partnership and patentedthe electrical telegraph in May 1837, and within a short time had provided the Great WesternRailway with a 13-mile (21 km) stretch of telegraph. However, Cooke and Wheatstone's multiplewire signaling method would be overtaken by Morse's superior method within a few years.

　　In a letter to a friend, Morse describes how vigorously he fought for being called the sole inventorof the electromagnetic telegraph despite the previous inventions. (1848).

　　I have been so constantly under the necessity of watching the movements of the mostunprincipled set of pirates I have ever known, that all my time has been occupied in defense, inputting evidence into something like legal shape that I am the inventor of the Electro-MagneticTelegraph!! Would you have believed it ten years ago that a question could be raised on thatsubject?

　　Morse encountered the problem of getting a telegraphic signal to carry over more than a fewhundred yards of wire. His breakthrough came from the insights of Professor Leonard Gale, whotaught chemistry at New York University (a personal friend of Joseph Henry). With Gale's help,Morse soon was able to send a message through ten miles (16 km) of wire. This was the greatbreakthrough Morse had been seeking. Morse and Gale were soon joined by a young enthusiasticman, Alfred Vail, who had excellent skills, insights and money. Morse's telegraph now began to bedeveloped very rapidly.

　　In 1838 a trip to Washington, D.C., failed to attract federal sponsorship for a telegraph line. Morsethen traveled to Europe seeking both sponsorship and patents, but in London discovered Cookeand Wheatstone had already established priority. Morse would need the financial backing of Mainecongressman Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith.

　　Morse made one last trip to Washington, D.C., in December 1842, stringing "wires between twocommittee rooms in the Capitol, and sent messages back and forth" to demonstrate his telegraphsystem.3 Congress appropriated $30,000 in 1843 for construction of an experimental 38-mile (61km) telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, along the right-of-way ofthe Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.[9] An impressive demonstration occurred on May 1, 1844, whennews of the Whig Party's nomination of Henry Clay for U.S. President was telegraphed from theparty's convention in Baltimore to the Capitol Building in Washington.[9]. On May 24, 1844, theline was officially opened as Morse sent the famous words "What hath God wrought" from theB&O's Mount Clare Station in Baltimore to the Capitol Building along the wire.[9] Annie Ellsworthchose these words from the Bible (Numbers 23:23); her father, U.S. Patent Commissioner HenryLeavitt Ellsworth, had championed Morse's invention and secured early funding for it.

　　In May 1845 the Magnetic Telegraph Company was formed in order to radiate telegraph lines fromNew York City towards Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, New York and the Mississippi.4

　　Morse also at one time adopted Wheatstone and Carl August von Steinheil's idea of broadcastingan electrical telegraph signal through a body of water or down steel railroad tracks or anythingconductive. He went to great lengths to win a lawsuit for the right to be called "inventor of thetelegraph", and promoted himself as being an inventor, but Alfred Vail played an important role inthe invention of the Morse Code, which was based on earlier codes for the electromagnetictelegraph.

　　Samuel Morse received a patent for the telegraph in 1847, at the old Beylerbeyi Palace (the presentBeylerbeyi Palace was built in 1861–1865 on the same location) in Istanbul, which was issued bySultan Abdülmecid who personally tested the new invention.[10] 5

　　In the 1850s, Morse went to Copenhagen and visited the Thorvaldsens Museum, where thesculptor's grave is in the inner courtyard. He was received by King Frederick VII, who decoratedhim with the Order of the Dannebrog. Morse expressed his wish to donate his portrait from 1830to the king. The Thorvaldsen portrait today belongs to Margaret II of Denmark.

　　The Morse telegraphic apparatus was officially adopted as the standard for European telegraphy in1851. Only the United Kingdom (with its extensive overseas British Empire) kept the needletelegraph of Cooke and Wheatstone.

　　There is an argument amongst historians that Morse may have received the idea of a plausibletelegraph from Harrison Gray Dyar some eighteen years earlier than his patent.

　　According to his The New York Times obituary published on April 3, 1872, Morse receivedrespectively the decoration of the Atiq Nishan-i-Iftikhar (English: Order of Glory) [first medal onwearer's right depicted in photo of Morse with medals], set in diamonds, from the Sultan Ahmad Iibn Mustafa of Turkey (c.1847), a golden snuff box containing the Prussian gold medal for scientificmerit from the King of Prussia (1851); the Great Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences from the King ofWürttemberg (1852); and the Great Golden Medal of Science and Arts from Emperor of Austria(1855); a cross of Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur from the Emperor of France; the Cross of aKnight of the Order of the Dannebrog from the King of Denmark (1856); the Cross of KnightCommander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, from the Queen of Spain, besides being electedmember of innumerable scientific and art societies in this [United States] and other countries. Otherawards include Order of the Tower and Sword from the kingdom of Portugal (1860); and Italyconferred on him the insignia of chevalier of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in 1864.

　　Anti-Catholic and anti-immigration efforts

　　Morse was a leader in the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration movement of the mid-19th century. In1836, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York under the anti-immigrant Nativist Party'sbanner, receiving only 1496 votes. When Morse visited Rome, he refused to take his hat off in thepresence of the Pope. Upon seeing this, an offended Swiss Guardsman rushed over and hit the hatoff of his head. Morse worked to unite Protestants against Catholic institutions (including schools),wanted to forbid Catholics from holding public office, and promoted changing immigration laws tolimit immigration from Catholic countries. On this topic, he wrote, “We must first stop the leak inthe ship through which muddy waters from without threaten to sink us.”

　　Morse was the author of a number of letters to the New York Observer (his brother Sidney was theeditor at the time) urging people to fight the perceived Catholic menace. These articles were widelyreprinted in other newspapers. Among other claims, he believed that the Austrian government andCatholic aid organizations were subsidizing Catholic immigration to the United States in order togain control of the country.

　　In his Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States, Morse wrote: “Surely AmericanProtestants, freemen, have discernment enough to discover beneath them the cloven foot of thissubtle foreign heresy. They will see that Popery is now, what it has ever been, a system of thedarkest political intrigue and despotism, cloaking itself to avoid attack under the sacred name ofreligion. They will be deeply impressed with the truth, that Popery is a political as well as a religioussystem; that in this respect it differs totally from all other sects, from all other forms of religion inthe country.”

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