465.
Morse and his partners* then proceeded to the construction of the forty-mile line of wire between Baltimore and Washington.

At this point Ezra Cornell, afterwards a famous builder of telegraphs and founder of Cornell University, first appears in history as a young man of thirty-six.

Cornell invented a machine to lay pipe underground to contain the wires and he was employed to carry out the work of construction.

The work was commenced at Baltimore and was continued until experiment proved that the underground method would not do, and it was decided to string the wires on poles.

Much time had been lost, but once the system of poles was adopted the work progressed rapidly, and by May, 1844, the line was completed.