Morse attended these lectures and formed with Dana an intimate acquaintance.

Dana was in the habit of going to Morse's studio, where the two men would talk earnestly for long hours.

But Morse was still devoted to his art; besides, he had himself and three children to support, and painting was his only source of income.
Back to Europe went Morse in 1829 to pursue his profession and perfect himself in it by three years' further study.

Then came the crisis.
Homeward bound on the ship Sully in the autumn of 1832, Morse fell into conversation with some scientific men who were on board.

One of the passengers asked this question: "Is the velocity of electricity reduced by the length of its conducting wire ?" To which his neighbor replied that electricity passes instantly over any known length of wire and referred to Franklin's experiments with several miles of wire, in which no appreciable time elapsed between a touch at one end and a spark at the other.
Here was a fact already well known.