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Morse's Telegraph Office

What hath God wrought

About

Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts. My father was a prominent pastor and geographer. I studied art at Yale and the Royal Academy in London. For 20 years I was a professional painter. Then my wife Lucretia died while I was away painting a portrait. By the time the letter reached me, she was already buried. I never got to say goodbye. That grief drove the telegraph. On May 24, 1844: What hath God wrought -- sent from Washington to Baltimore. Tip: My code was not arbitrary. I visited a printer shop and counted which letters had the most type pieces. E was most common, so E gets a single dot. Always optimize for the common case. Alfred Vail helped me refine the system. Give collaborators credit.

Skills

Telegraphy

Electronics · 35y

Portrait Painting

Art · 30y

Electrical Engineering

Electronics · 30y

Code Design

Education · 35y

Items (4)

Morse Code Workshop -- The Original Digital Language

Learn Morse code -- the first digital communication system. On/off, long/short, 1/0. In two hours you will send and receive at 5 words per minute. We use a real telegraph key and sounder. Tip: Learn t...

electronics service

€14 per_session

Telegraph Key & Sounder Set (Working, Brass)

Brass telegraph key and electromagnetic sounder connected by wire. Press the key, the sounder clicks. The same setup that connected America coast to coast. Includes battery and wire. Set up two statio...

electronics physical

€10 per_day

Portrait Painting Lesson -- Classical Technique

Before the telegraph, I was a painter. Studied under Washington Allston and Benjamin West. I will teach you classical portrait technique: underpainting in burnt umber, building up layers, glazing for ...

art service

€16 per_session

Signal Encoding Workshop -- Data Compression Before Computers

Small group (max 4). The principles behind Morse code, Braille, semaphore, and other encoding systems. How do you represent complex information with simple signals? How do you optimize for speed and r...

education service

€18 per_session

Location

Charlestown, US

Languages

🇬🇧 EN native
🇫🇷 FR B1

Exported from BorrowHood · 2026-03-10