Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals: In Two Volumes, Volume IIMorse, Samuel Finley Breese
History
Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals: In Two Volumes, Volume II
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 1791-1872; Telegraph
"Professor Henry visited me a day or two ago; he knew the principles of
the Telegraph, but had never before seen it. He told a gentleman, who
mentioned it again to me, that without exception it was the most
beautiful and ingenious instrument he had ever seen. He says mine is the
only truly practicable plan. He has been experimenting and making
discoveries on celestial electricity, and he says that Wheatstone's and
Steinheil's telegraphs must be so influenced in a highly electrical state
of the atmosphere as at times to be useless, they using the deflection of
the needle, while mine, from the use of the magnet, is not subject to
this disturbing influence. I believe, if the truth were known, some such
cause is operating to prevent our hearing more of these telegraphs."
In this same letter he tells of the application of a certain Mr. John P.
Manrow for permission to form a company, but, as nothing came of it, it
will not be necessary to particularize. Mr. Manrow, however, was a
successful contractor on the New York and Erie Railroad, and it was a
most encouraging sign to have practical business men begin to take notice
of the invention.
So cheered was the ever-hopeful inventor by the praise of Professor
Henry, that he redoubled his efforts to get the matter properly before
Congress; and in this he worked alone, for, in the letter to Smith just
quoted from, he says: "I have not heard a word from Mr. Coffin at
Washington since I saw you. I presume he has abandoned the idea of doing
anything on the terms we proposed, and so has given it up. Well, so be
it; I am content."
Taking advantage of the fact that he was personally acquainted with many
members of Congress, he wrote to several of them on the subject. In some
of the letters he treats exhaustively of the history and scientific
principles of his telegraph, but I have selected the following, addressed
to the Honorable W.W. Boardman, as containing the most essential facts in
the most concise form:--
August 10, 1842.
My Dear Sir,--I enclose you a copy of the "Tribune" in which you will see
a notice of my Telegraph. I have showed its operation to a few friends
occasionally within a few weeks, among others to Professor Henry, of
Princeton (a copy of whose letter to me on this subject I sent you some
time since). He had never seen it in operation, but had only learned from
description the principle on which it is founded. He is not of an
enthusiastic temperament, but exceedingly cautious in giving an opinion
on scientific inventions, yet in this case he expressed himself in the
warmest terms, and told my friend Dr. Chilton (who informed me of it)
that he had just been witnessing "the operation of the most beautiful and
ingenious instrument he had ever seen."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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