Morse
Morse names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Morse SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE, an American inventor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE, an American inventor; born in Charlestown, Mass., April 27, 1791. He was educated at Yale College, where he devoted special attention to chemistry and natural philosophy; but in 1811 went to England to study painting under West. In 1813 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Academy. Returning to the United States in 1826 he established the National Academy of Design, of which he was first president. About 1832 he A SAMUEL F. B. MORSE worked on a plan to use electro-magnetism in telegraphy, and in 1835 exhibited a workable instrument. By July, 1837, this instrument was perfected, and ultimately in 1843 Congress granted him means to construct an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore. From that time Morse's instrument came into general use in the United States and Europe. In 1857 the representatives of 10 countries met at Paris, and voted him $80,000. He died in New York City, April 2, 1872.
Morse JOHN TORREY, author
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN TORREY, author; born in 1840. He studied at Harvard, graduating in 1860, and then till 1880 practiced law at Boston. For three years ending 1879 he lectured on history at Harvard, and was associate editor with Henry Cabot Lodge on the "International Review." Since 1880 he has given himself over to literature, particularly in the biographical field. His works include: "Treatise on the Law Relating to Banks and Banking"; "Law of Arbitration and Award"; "Famous Trials"; "Life of Alexander Hamilton" (2 vols.); "Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes" (2 vols.); "John Quincy Adams"; "Thomas Jefferson"; "John Adams"; "Benjamin Franklin"; "Abraham Lincoln"; "Life and Letters of Colonel Henry Lee."
Morse EDWARD SYLVESTER, American naturalist and Orientalist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EDWARD SYLVESTER, American naturalist and Orientalist; born in Portland, Me., in 1838. Graduated from Harvard and taught zoölogy and comparative anatomy at Bowdoin, 1871-1874, and at Imperial University, Tokyo, Japan, 1877-1880. During this latter period he acquired a profound knowledge of Chinese and Japanese ceramics. Now President Boston Society of Natural History. Notable among his works are "First Book in Zoology" (1875); "Early Races of Man in Japan" (1879); "Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes" (1902); and "Mars and Its Mystery" (1906).
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that Samuel Morse's instrument "came into general use in the United States and Europe"; that use has since ended, with Morse code retired from international maritime distress work when the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System took over in 1999, Western Union closing its telegram service in 2006, and the US dropping code proficiency from amateur radio licensing in 2007. The code itself survives as a hobbyist and emergency skill rather than a commercial system. The two living men in the entry have since died — John Torrey Morse in 1937, at 97, and Edward Sylvester Morse in 1925; Morse's shell-mound digging at Omori near Tokyo in 1877 is now credited as the beginning of scientific archaeology in Japan, and his ceramics collection went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His "Mars and Its Mystery" (1906), sympathetic to the idea of Martian canals, was settled against him by the Mariner spacecraft from 1965 onward.
Written for this edition, 2026.