A visit to Locust Grove
Home of Samuel F. B. Morse
What Hath God Wrought!
First telegraph message sent from Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD
On a recent business trip to Poughkeepsie, NY, I was fortunate enough to visit Locust Grove Estate,
the home of Samuel Morse. The house is located on a beautiful estate overlooking the Hudson River.
Tours are given of the house and there is a room with lots of historic telegraph items on display.
I highly recommend any ham traveling in the area to take the time and visit. Besides the historic
interest to our hobby, it is a beautiful, peaceful place with several miles of hiking trails and
lovely gardens. Additional information about Locust Grove and Morse can be found at the
Morse Historic Web Site.
Home of Samuel F. B. Morse
Beautiful view of Hudson River from the house. The estate gets
it's name from the abundance of Black Locust trees.
First telegraph model, c. 1835
Made from an old artist canvas stretcher, homemade battery and wooden clockworks.
Code was generated by the wooden arm riding across the metal sawtooth dies representing
dots and dashes and printed out on the paper tape moved by the clockworks.
This would make CW contesting really interesting!
Recorder/Register c. 1846
Early production model telegraph device.
Required two people to operate,
one to read the tape, the other to write the message.
Reading Sounder c. 1880
This device was one of the early non-tape,
"sounding" devices
Another recording register with key
Vibroplex Bug c. 1906
Photos by Randy, W5UE
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