Part 18

A patent must now be had and the telegraph must be so improved that they could show it to a committee of Congress. It was arranged that Vail and a mechanic by the name of Baxter should do the work behind locked doors. For, if some one should happen to see the instruments, and obtain a patent first, then Morse and Vail would be ruined.

[Sidenote: =The dot and dash alphabet=]

In the locked shop the two men worked steadily day after day. Vail made many improvements. Among these was the new "dot and dash" alphabet. At last, one day in January, 1838, everything was in complete working order. Baxter, hatless and coatless, ran for Mr. Vail's father to come at once and see the telegraph work.

[Sidenote: =The final test=]

[Sidenote: =Patented in Morse's name=]

At one end of the wire stood young Vail, and at the other stood Morse. This wire was stretched around the room so that it was three miles in length. The elder Vail wrote: "A patient waiter is no loser." He said to his son: "If you can send this message, and Mr. Morse can read it at the other end, I shall be convinced." It was done, and there was great rejoicing. The invention was hurried to Washington, and young Vail took out a patent in the name of Morse.

[Sidenote: =Congressmen watch the instruments=]

Morse obtained permission to set up his telegraphic instruments in rooms in the capitol. These rooms were filled with congressmen watching the strange business. Members in one room would carry on witty conversations with persons in the other room. This was great fun for those looking on. But it was slow work talking with members of Congress and winning their help.

[Sidenote: =Congress makes fun of the idea=]

=134. The Government Aids.= Finally Morse asked for thirty thousand dollars to build a line from Washington to Baltimore. The bill met opposition, one member moving that a part of the money be used in building a railroad to the moon, another that it be used in making experiments in mesmerism.

[Sidenote: =Morse ruined if bill does not pass=]

Morse stood leaning against the railing which separated the outsiders from the members. He was greatly excited, and turning to a friend, said: "I have spent seven years and all that I have in making this instrument perfect. If it succeeds, I am a made man; if it fails, I am ruined. I have a large family, and not money enough to pay my board bill when I leave the city."

[Sidenote: =Telegraph line to Baltimore built=]

[Sidenote: =The first message=]

It was ten o'clock, March 3, 1843, the last night of that Congress. Morse gave up and went to his hotel. In the morning a friend met and congratulated him on the action of Congress in granting thirty thousand dollars for his telegraph line--the last thing Congress did that night. Morse was surprised. The telegraph line to Baltimore was built and the first dispatch was ready to send. Morse called the young woman who had been the first to congratulate him, to send this first message: "What hath God wrought."

[Sidenote: =Honors heaped on the inventor=]

The success of Morse was slow at first, but he lived to see the day when his instrument was used in Europe. He visited Europe again, was given gold medals, and received other rewards and honors from many of the rulers of the different European countries.

[Sidenote: =Morse dies, 1872=]

He died in 1872 at the good old age of eighty-one. Congress and state legislatures paid tribute to his memory.

[Sidenote: =The telephone=]

=135. A Wider Use for Electricity.= Samuel Morse was hardly in his grave before a wonderful invention was made which called electricity into far wider use in carrying news. This new invention was the telephone, and two men, Bell and Gray, applied for patents on it at almost the same time.

The instruments are wonderful conductors of sound, carrying, as they do, the actual words and tones of the voice.

[Sidenote: =Marconi beats them all=]

But Marconi has gone beyond them all in his invention. He sends the electric wave forth without the aid of a wire, thus giving rise to wireless telegraphy.

CYRUS WEST FIELD, WHO LAID THE ATLANTIC CABLE BETWEEN AMERICA AND EUROPE

[Sidenote: =Cyrus W. Field, 1819=]

[Sidenote: =In business for himself=]

=136. The Atlantic Cable.= Cyrus W. Field was born in Massachusetts in 1819. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. Cyrus went to school in his native town of Stockbridge, and at fifteen was given a place in a New York store at fifty dollars a year. Before he was twenty-one he went into business for himself. At the end of a dozen years he was the head of a prosperous firm. In 1853 he retired from active business.

[Sidenote: =Why not span the Atlantic?=]

Field became interested in a man who was joining Newfoundland with the mainland by means of a telegraph line. "Why not make a telegraph line to span the Atlantic?" thought Field. He went to work, and put his schemes before Peter Cooper and other generous men. They believed in them.

[Sidenote: =Englishmen also approve the plan=]

Field next went abroad and laid his plan before a number of Englishmen. He pleaded so eloquently that they, too, were convinced. He returned to America to lay the matter before Congress and ask that body to vote him a sum of money.

[Sidenote: =President Pierce signs the bill=]

Congress was very slow about it, and the bill did not pass until the last days of that session. President Pierce signed it the last day of his term as president.

[Sidenote: =Half a million dollars gone=]

Field returned to England and watched over the making of his "cable." In August, 1857, everything was ready. The cable lay coiled on shipboard, ready to be let out in the Atlantic. The great ship started, and everything went well till three hundred thirty-five miles of the cable had been let out, when it broke in two. It was the same as losing half a million dollars.

[Sidenote: =A second trial=]

[Sidenote: =Breaks again=]

Field went back to England and began promptly to prepare for a second trial. He then came to America and made arrangements to use the _Niagara_, a large vessel. The British ship, _Agamemnon_, was also taken to help in this second trial. The ships started in mid-ocean, one going one way and one going the other way. This time only one hundred eleven miles were laid, when the cable again parted.

[Sidenote: =A council of war=]

Field hastened to London to meet the men who had backed him in his undertaking with their money. It was a council of war after a terrible defeat! But Mr. Field did not believe in surrender, even to the sea.

[Sidenote: =Success=]

On the seventeenth of July, 1858, the ships again set sail for mid-ocean. They "spliced" the cable, and the _Niagara_ with Mr. Field on board sailed away for Newfoundland. The British ship went the other way. This time they were successful. Both countries were excited. Queen Victoria flashed a message under the sea to President Buchanan.

[Sidenote: =A great day in New York=]

Great was the rejoicing in New York, the home of Mr. Field. A religious service, expressive of the deep interest of the people in the success of his work, was held in Trinity Church, at which two hundred clergymen in gowns appeared; national salutes were fired, a great procession was formed, an address was made by the mayor of the city and, at a very late hour, a grand banquet was held. While the banquet was going on, the cable gave its last throb, and parted.

[Sidenote: =The cable parts the third time=]

The very day that a whole city rose up to do honor to the Atlantic telegraph and its author, it gave its last flash and then went to sleep forever in its ocean grave.

[Sidenote: =After a wait of five years=]

After five years of slow and toilsome work, caused by the fact that the Civil War was raging in the United States, Cyrus W. Field was again ready. When the vessel, bearing the cable, was within six hundred miles of land, the cable broke again.

[Sidenote: =The money subscribed=]

=137. The Final Success.= An Anglo-American Telegraph Company was now formed. Mr. Field subscribed $50,000, Daniel Gooch $100,000, and another person promised to bear a part of the expense. On a Friday they set out and on another Friday they reached America with the cable safely laid. Mr. Field sent this message to England:

[Sidenote: ="Hearts Content"=]

"Hearts Content, July 27, 1866. We arrived here at nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and is in perfect working order."

[Sidenote: =Effect on the civilized world=]

[Sidenote: =Great honor for Mr. Field=]

The success of this undertaking, after so many years of failure, produced a great effect throughout the civilized world. Mr. Field was the center of all rejoicing. Congress voted him a gold medal. England did honor to his name. The Paris Exposition of 1867 gave him the highest medal it had to bestow. From Italy he received a decoration. States and chambers of commerce in all parts of the nation passed resolutions in praise of his great work.

Finally he took a trip around the world and received honors from many nations. Mr. Field lived at Tarrytown, New York. He died in New York City in 1892, at the age of seventy-three.

CYRUS H. MᶜCORMICK, INVENTOR OF THE REAPER

=138. Making Bread More Plentiful for Millions.= It was only natural that Cyrus H. McCormick should be interested in inventions. His father, Robert McCormick, had fitted up many labor-saving devices for use on his farm. He tried to make a reaper, but it was a failure.

One hundred years ago the common method of harvesting in this country was by "cradling" the grain. For this, a scythe with prongs on its handle was used. The prongs caught the grain and laid it in rows, ready to tie.

Cyrus Hall McCormick was born at Walnut Grove, West Virginia, in 1809. The boy was always interested in inventing. When fifteen, he invented a better grain cradle. At twenty-one he made a hillside plow that surpassed his father's. His great invention, the reaper, was made the following year. His friends all laughed at his machine, but he went on perfecting it. All his life Cyrus McCormick had to meet ridicule or bitter competition. But he came of Scotch-Irish fighting stock. He had the determination which battles its way to success.

In 1834 the reaper was patented. It was shown at the World's Fair in London in 1851. It won a prize as the most valuable thing in the whole fair.

Cyrus H. McCormick started to manufacture his machine at Chicago in 1847. The demand for reapers grew rapidly. When the Civil War called out one man in three from the North, there were enough reapers in use to equal the labor of one million slaves. The North not only fed itself but sent great quantities of grain to England. Cyrus McCormick's great invention did much to help the North abolish slavery.

=139. Reapers for the West.= The invention of the reaper made it possible for the West to be quickly settled. Before, farmers raised only the few acres they could be sure of harvesting. Grain is lost, if not cut a few days after it is ripe. The wide prairies of the West could not be harvested by the old methods. Now on these great plains huge reapers drawn by engines sometimes cut forty-eight feet of grain in a single swathe.

Because of the labor it saves, McCormick's invention has made the cost of bread low for millions of people. With hand-reaping half the people of the country would be busy producing nothing but bread. In the past most nations were never free from the danger of starvation. Now the world produces enough for all.

A noted French society, when it elected McCormick a member, said that he had "done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man."

ELIAS HOWE, INVENTOR OF THE SEWING MACHINE

=140. A Time-Saving Invention.= Elias Howe was a poor boy who won great riches through his invention, but spent most of his years in a long, dreary struggle with poverty.

Elias was born in Massachusetts in 1819. His father was a poor man. He worked in his father's mill and then in the cotton mills of New England until he came to have a thorough knowledge of machinery. When he was twenty-four he began his great invention, the sewing machine.

Sewing machines using a chain stitch had already been invented in England and France, but a chain stitch ravels easily. Howe invented a lock stitch machine. Like earlier machines, it had a needle with an eye in its point to bring a loop of thread through the cloth. In chain stitching the needle at the next stitch passes through this loop. Howe instead passed a shuttle carrying a second thread through the loop. This made a firm lock stitch.

Howe tried to get tailors to buy his machine. He proved that it would sew seven times as fast as the best needleworkers. But they were afraid it would take work away from their men, and would have nothing to do with it.

After patenting his machine, Howe took it to England, but there he remained as poor and unknown as before.

Returning to New York he heard that unscrupulous men had stolen or "pirated" his ideas, and that the sale of sewing machines was now a thriving business. But Howe was determined to uphold his rights. In 1859, after a battle of many years in the law courts, he secured the full and complete title to his invention.

=141. A Turn in Fortune.= The man who had faced poverty and rebuffs all his days now came into great wealth. His income each year would be equal to-day to at least a million dollars.

Sewing machines have now become almost a necessity in all American homes. It is hard to realize the amount of close, slow, exacting work from which Howe's machine has released women everywhere. The work of the most skillful needlewomen is not to be compared in speed and evenness with machine stitching. Garments now can be produced in vastly greater quantities than by hand work, and machine stitching is much more durable.

When the Civil War came, Howe's sewing machine made tents, shoes, and uniforms for the great Union army which would not have had them in time otherwise. Howe himself enlisted as a private and served while his health lasted. He died in 1867 when only forty-eight years old.

SUGGESTIONS INTENDED TO HELP THE PUPIL

=The Leading Facts.= _1._ Fulton's invention greatly increased commerce before the coming of railroads. _2._ Congress granted Morse money to build a telegraph line, after many delays. _3._ Bell and Gray invented the telephone. _4._ Marconi invented wireless telegraphy. _5._ Cyrus Field after many failures laid a permanent cable across the Atlantic in 1866. _6._ McCormick's reaper hastened the settlement of the West. _7._ Howe became rich through the invention of the sewing machine.

=Study Questions.= _1._ Tell of early attempts to build steamboats. _2._ Give the story of the _Clermont_. _3._ Give an account of the steps by which Morse won success. _4._ How many attempts did Field make before a permanent cable was laid? _5._ What was the great importance of McCormick's reaper? _6._ Describe Howe's first sewing machine.

=Suggested Readings.= ROBERT FULTON: Glascock, _Stories of Columbia_, 186-188; Wright, _Children's Stories of American Progress_, 104-120; Thurston, _Robert Fulton_.

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE: Trowbridge, _Samuel Finley Breeze Morse_; Mowry, _American Inventions and Inventors_, 270-277; Holland, _Historic Inventions_, 168-188.

BELL AND GRAY: Holland, _Historic Inventions_, 215-232.

CYRUS WEST FIELD: Judson, _Cyrus W. Field_; Doubleday, _Stories of Inventors_, 3-16; Mowry, _American Inventions and Inventors_, 278-285.

CYRUS H. MCCORMICK: Brooks, _The Story of Corn_, 218-220; Forman, _Stories of Useful Inventions_, 91-96; Sanford, _The Story of Agriculture in the United States_, 144-149.

ELIAS HOWE: Hubert, _Inventors_, 99-110.

THE MEN WHO WON TEXAS, THE OREGON COUNTRY, AND CALIFORNIA

SAM HOUSTON, HERO OF SAN JACINTO

[Sidenote: =Houston among the Cherokees=]

=142. Sam Houston.= Young Houston was born of Scotch-Irish parents, in Virginia (1793). His father had fought under General Morgan in the Revolution. Sam Houston did not have much schooling, and when but thirteen his family moved to east Tennessee. Made angry by his older brother, he left home and went to live with the Cherokee Indians. He liked the wild life of the Indians and took part with the Indian boys in their pastimes of hunting, fishing, and playing at games.

[Sidenote: =Returns home=]

[Sidenote: =Wounded in battle=]

He was now eighteen. He returned home and went to school a term at Marysville Academy. In the war of 1812 General Jackson called the men of Tennessee to arms. Young Houston responded to the call, and fought against the Indians in the great "Battle of Horseshoe Bend." After doing heroic deeds, he was dangerously wounded. Houston was a long time in getting well.

[Sidenote: =Elected to Congress=]

At twenty-five he began to study law in Nashville and in six months--just a third of the time said to be necessary--he was ready to practice. Houston's rise in the law and in the favor of the people was rapid. He went from one position to another until the people elected him to Congress.

[Sidenote: =Governor of Tennessee=]

[Sidenote: =Forsakes his home=]

He was in Congress four years. He won many friends by his gracious behavior. The people of Tennessee made him their governor. But suddenly, without warning, Houston resigned as governor, and forsook his home and friends. He sailed down the Mississippi River to the Arkansas, and up this river several hundred miles to the land of his early friends, the Cherokees, whom the United States government had sent to that far-away country.

[Sidenote: =Returns to the Cherokees=]

[Sidenote: =The old chief's welcome=]

Here Houston found the old chief--now the head of his tribe--who had adopted him as a son years before on the banks of the Tennessee. The chief threw his arms around him in great affection and said: "My son, eleven winters have passed since we met. My heart has wondered often where you were; and I heard you were a great chief among your people.... I have heard that a dark cloud had fallen on the white path you were walking, and when it fell ... you turned your thoughts to my wigwam. I am glad of it,--it was done by the Great Spirit.... My wigwam is yours, my home is yours, my people are yours,--rest with us."

[Sidenote: =Visits Washington=]

When Andrew Jackson became President of the United States Houston went, in his Indian dress, on a visit to Washington. He was warmly received by his old friend from Tennessee.

[Sidenote: =Visits Tennessee=]

Once more he turned his face toward the wilderness. He stopped in Tennessee and was warmly greeted by old friends. He did not stay long in Tennessee.

[Sidenote: =Hastens to Texas=]

Neither did he stay long with the Cherokees, but hastened to Texas, where the people were already murmuring against the treatment they were receiving from Mexico.

[Sidenote: =Texas declares independence=]

The people of Texas finally issued a declaration of independence. Thereupon the Mexicans resolved to send a large army into Texas and force the revolutionists into submission to the government.

A most important event of this war was the capture, by a large Mexican force, of an old mission building used as a fortress, called the Alamo. It was defended by one hundred forty men, among them the famous "Davy" Crockett, Colonel Travis, and Colonel Bowie--the inventor of the bowie knife. Only six Texans were alive after the capture of the fortress. These heroic men died, fighting the Mexicans to the last.

[Sidenote: ="Remember the Alamo!"=]

"Remember the Alamo!" became the war cry of every Texan. The Mexicans were approaching, five thousand strong, under General Santa Ana. General Houston commanded the Texans, about seven hundred in all.

[Sidenote: =Massacre of Goliad=]

Suddenly the news came that General Fannin and his men, five hundred in number, had been massacred by the Mexicans at Goliad. The cause of Texan independence looked dark indeed.

[Sidenote: =Houston's retreat=]

Houston began a retreat of two hundred fifty miles to the eastward. Santa Ana followed closely after him, but scattered his men, just as Houston wanted him to do, until he had with him only eighteen hundred men. They were now on the banks of the San Jacinto.

[Sidenote: =Battle of San Jacinto=]

Houston waited till the Mexicans were a bit careless, then seven hundred Texans charged the breastworks of the Mexicans. After the first fire they clubbed their guns and went at it, pioneer fashion, with the cry, "Remember the Alamo!" The right and the left wings of the Mexicans gave way first, and then the center.

[Sidenote: =Retreat of the Mexicans=]

They retreated, expecting to cross a deep, narrow bayou or stream on a log bridge, but Houston had had the bridge destroyed. The slaughter was terrific. The stream was choked with Mexicans and their horses.

[Sidenote: =Santa Ana captured and sent to visit Washington=]

Santa Ana was captured and was turned over to the Texan government. Many thought he ought to die because of the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad, but Houston, generous toward the beaten man, sent him on to visit Washington.

[Sidenote: =Houston elected president of Texas=]

Houston had been badly wounded, and sailed to New Orleans for medical care. He returned to be elected first president of the "Lone Star Republic," as Texas was called. He was reëlected for a second term and served his country well.

[Sidenote: =Annexation of Texas=]

Houston wanted Texas made a part of the United States. This was afterwards done, and war followed with Mexico.

In 1845 Texas sent Houston to the United States Senate, where he served his state for fourteen years. He was devoted to our national Union. He died in 1863.

DAVID CROCKETT, GREAT HUNTER AND HERO OF THE ALAMO

[Sidenote: =Crockett found his schooling in the woods=]

=143. A Brave Backwoodsman.= At the close of the Revolution, Tennessee was still largely a wilderness. Here David Crockett was born in 1786. In those days schools on the frontier were few and poor, and young "Davy" found most of his schooling in the backwoods. He learned to know the woods and streams and the animals that lived in them. As a boy he spent most of his time hunting and trapping. As a young man he was one of the most famous rifle shots in the United States.

When the Creek War broke out, he enlisted under Andrew Jackson to march against the Indians. The young rifleman fought so well under "Old Hickory" that Tennessee made him a colonel.

[Sidenote: =Elected to Congress=]