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 1843 Congress granted funds for an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore; honor 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).