from each other. Wheatstone's is very inferior, not being a recording telegraph, but requiring to be watched by one of the attendants—the alphabet being made by the deflection of the needle. Steinheil's, on the contrary, is a recording telegraph, but from its complicated and delicate machinery, has been found impracticable for extended lines. At a convention held in 1851 by Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, for the purpose of adopting a uniform system of telegraphing for all Germany, by the advice of Steinheil, Professor Morse's was the one selected. From the sultan of Turkey he received the first foreign acknowledgment of his invention in the bestowal of a nishan, or order—the 'order of glory:' a diploma to that effect was transmitted to him with the magnificent decoration of that order in diamonds. The second acknowledgment was from the king of Prussia, being a splendid gold snuff-*box, containing in its lid the Prussian gold medal of scientific merit. The latest acknowledgment is from the king of Wurtemberg, who transmitted to him (after the adoption of the Telegraph treaty by the convention above mentioned) the 'Wurtemberg Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences.' In 1838, he went to England, for the purpose of securing a patent there, but was refused through the influence of Wheatstone and his friends, under the pretense that his invention had already been published there. All that could be adduced in proof of this was the publication in an English scientific periodical of an extract copied from the New York 'Journal of Commerce,' stating the results of his invention, without giving the means by which they were produced. In the following spring, he returned to this country, and in 1840 perfected his patent at Washington, and set about getting his telegraph into practical operation. In 1844, the first electric telegraph was completed in the United States, between Baltimore and Washington; and the first intelligence of a public character which passed over the wires was the announcement of the nomination of James K. Polk, as the democratic candidate for the presidency, by the Baltimore convention. Since then, he has seen its wires extend all over the country, to the length of more than fifteen thousand miles—an extent unknown elsewhere in the civilized world. His success has led to the invasion of his patent rights by others, whom he has finally succeeded in defeating, after an expensive and protracted litigation. Professor Morse still clings to the idea of resuming his early profession of painting, to which he is strongly attached, and in the progress of which he has always taken a deep interest. As an artist, he has always enjoyed a very high reputation. His tastes inclined to historical painting, but circumstances did not often permit him to indulge in it; he was mainly engaged in the painting of portraits. In 1820, he painted a large picture of the interior of the house of representatives, with portraits of the members, which passed into the possession of an English gentleman; and in 1832, while in Paris, he made a beautiful picture of the Louvre gallery, copying in miniature the most valuable paintings. He resides at Locust Grove, two miles south of Poughkeepsie, on the banks of the Hudson river.
M. DAGUERRE.
This far-famed Frenchman, who has given his name to the art which he
first discovered, the Daguerreotype, died not long since, at his residence,
