Inventor, born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, graduated at Yale in 1810 and adopted art as a profession; he gained some distinction as a sculptor, and in 1835 was appointed professor of Design in New York; electrical studies were his hobby; between 1832 and 1837 he worked out the idea of an electric telegraph—simultaneously conceived by Wheatstone in England—and in 1843Congress granted funds for an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore; honour and fortune crowded on him, his invention was adopted all over the world, and he received an international grant of £16,000; he died in New York (1791-1872).