Morse, like Fulton, started out to be an artist. At college, he painted miniatures for a number of his classmates. Though he had had no lessons in either drawing or painting, his classmates liked their pictures and paid him a good price for them.

After his graduation from college, Morse decided to study art. Like Fulton, he went to London to work with Benjamin West, where he remained for four years, not returning home until 1815.

He was then twenty-four years old, and up to that time had been supported by his father. He now opened a studio in Boston. Hundreds of people came to see his "Judgment of Jupiter," one of the pictures he had painted in London and which had attracted much attention there. All who came admired it, but no one offered to buy it or order a picture. After waiting a year without receiving a single order, he took again to painting miniatures.

As a wandering artist in Vermont and New Hampshire, he did well. He was even more successful at Charleston, South Carolina, where he went in the winter of 1818. There he had requests for all the portraits he could paint. In a single week one hundred and fifty were ordered, at sixty dollars apiece. He was so successful that in the fall of the first year, he returned to New England, taking his bride back to Charlestown with him. There they lived for three years, saving in that time several thousand dollars. But Morse was not content to remain a portrait painter. He decided to leave Charlestown, and take up what he felt was his true work, the painting of historical pictures. So he moved his family to New Haven, Connecticut.

For eighteen months, he worked early and late on a picture of the House of Representatives. The picture was eleven feet long and seven and a half feet high, with the Representatives on one side, and the Senators on the other. In all, it contained eighty portraits. The picture when finished was exhibited at Boston, but few people took the trouble to see it. No one wanted to buy it, and the whole venture turned out a failure.

Morse soon afterwards removed to New York, and again took to portrait painting. His progress at first was slow. "My cash is almost gone," he wrote to his wife. "I have advertised, and visited, and hinted, and pleaded, and even asked one man to sit, but all to no avail."

Morse was so discouraged that he even thought of going to the city of Mexico. But better days were at hand. General Lafayette was visiting this country, and New York gave Morse an order for a life-size portrait of the Frenchman. For this he received a thousand dollars.

In the midst of his good fortune, Morse was called upon to bear the loss of his wife. Though heartbroken, he went on with his work. He soon had all the portraits he could paint, and came in time to be looked upon as the greatest artist in America. He not only painted portraits, but he gave talks on art, and was the leader in organizing the National Academy of Design.

Still, Morse was not satisfied with his success. To prepare himself to paint the great pictures of which he dreamed,—pictures which he believed would bring fame to himself and honor to his country, he decided to spend three more years in Europe. During these three years, he visited great art galleries and studied the paintings of the great masters.

In October, 1832, Morse sailed for home on the packet Sully. There was considerable talk among the passengers about electricity. The discoveries of Oersted, Faraday, and Sturgeon were attracting wide attention. Morse was led one day to say: "I see no reason why intelligence may not be sent by electricity." This was a new thought to him. So far as he then knew, no one had ever before thought of sending messages by electricity. The new idea filled his mind. It not only haunted him in the day-time, but it kept him from sleep at night. On leaving the boat he said, "Well, captain, 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."

Morse was scarcely off the ship, before he was telling his brothers about his new idea. Instead of telling his artist friends about what he saw in the great art galleries of Europe, and about the pictures he had painted, he talked to them, to their disgust, about his electric telegraph. Many people wanted Morse to paint portraits for them, for he was easily the best prepared and the most successful artist in America. But he wanted all the time he could get to work on his invention, and therefore he painted only enough to earn a scanty living. But work as he would, five years passed by before he was even able to complete a working model.

During most of these years he lived in a single room, which served alike for studio, parlor, bedroom, kitchen, and workshop. "In order to save time to carry out my invention," said Morse afterwards, "and to save my scanty means, I had for many months lodged and eaten in my studio, getting my food in small quantities from some grocery, and preparing it myself. To conceal from my friends the stinted way in which I lived, I was in the habit of bringing my food to my room in the evenings, and this was my mode of life for many years."

Morse was not ready to show his electric telegraph to the public until September, 1837. His telegraphic code was simple. One dot "*" stood for "1". Two dots "**" stood for "2". One dot "*" and a dash "-" stood for "6", and so on for each of the numerals and zero. For each number of the telegraphic code, there was a metal type. There was also a telegraphic dictionary in which given numbers stood for given words. For example, 215 stood for successful.

Morse's first instrument was very crude, and the method of sending and recording messages was slow and clumsy. But to those who for the first time saw messages sent by electric telegraph, the invention seemed wonderful. Besides, Morse had thought of something of which none of the great scientists of Europe had dreamed. In Steinheil's electric telegraph, the signals were recorded by the movement of a magnetic needle. Wheatstone also made use of the magnetic needle. But Morse employed the electromagnet of Sturgeon and of Henry to record the signals in his system, and it was this use of the electromagnet which made the Morse system the most successful of all.