May 24 is the anniversary of Samuel F.B. Morse’s first coded telegraph message.
The message was sent In 1844 between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC — a distance of 41 miles. While this may not seem very significant in these days of world-wide communications, it was the seed that grew in the minds of forward-thinkers that has eventually brought us to these days of seeing images from around the world being brought to us in mere seconds and, of course, seeing man’s footprints on the moon.
Morse’s middle initials (FB), by the way, are not the source of Ham Radio’s “Fine Business.” It actually stands for Finley Breeze, a strange middle-name set but certainly no more strange than some of today’s name selections.
Also, it is not generally known but Morse was a very well-known artist in his time and many of his paintings are still on display in the Halls of Congress.
Reading Morse’s development of the Telegraph, it is easy to see that he was an experimenter that did not give up. Mistakes were made at first but the end result, one of eventual and great success, has left us a historical figure that deserves honor and respect.