[No. 13.]
Letter from S. F. B. Morse to the Hon. C. G. Ferris.
New York, December 6, 1842.
Dear Sir: In compliance with your request, I give you a slight history of my electro magnetic telegraph, since it was presented for the consideration of Congress, in the year 1838.
During the session of the 25th Congress, a report was made by the Committee on Commerce of the house, which concluded by unanimously submitting a bill appropriating $30,000 for the purpose of testing my system of electro magnetic telegraphs. The pressure of business at the close of that session prevented any action being taken upon it.
Before the session closed, I visited England and France, for the double purpose of submitting my invention to the test of European criticism, and to secure to myself some remuneration for my large expenditures of time and money in elaborating my invention. In France, after a patent had been secured in that country, my telegraph first attracted the attention of the Academy of Sciences, and its operation was shown, and its principles were explained, by the celebrated philosopher, Arago, in the session of that distinguished body of learned men, on September 10, 1838. Its reception was of the most enthusiastic character. Several other societies, among which were the Academy of Industry and the Philotechnic Society, appointed committees to examine and report upon the invention, from all which I received votes of thanks, and from the former the large medal of honour. The French Government at this time had its attention drawn to the subject of electric telegraphs, several systems having been presented for its consideration, from England, Germany and France. Through the kind offices of our minister at the French Court, General Cass, my telegraph was also submitted; and the Minister of the Interior (M. Montalivet) appointed a commission, at the head of which was placed M. Alphonse Foy, the administrator-in-chief of the telegraphs of France, with directions to examine and report upon all the various systems which had been presented. The result of this examination (in which the ingenious systems of Professor Wheatstone, of London, of Professor Steinheil, of Munich, and Professor Masson, of Caen, passed in review) was a report to the Minister in favor of mine. In a note addressed to me by M. Foy, who had expressed his warmest admiration of my telegraph in my presence, he thus writes:
“I take a true pleasure in confirming to you in writing that which I have already had the honor to say to you viva voce, that I have prominently presented (signalé) to Monsieur the Minister of the Interior your electro magnetic telegraph, as being the system which presents the best chance of a practical application; and I have stated to him that if some trials are to be made with electric telegraphs, I hesitate not to recommend that they should be made with your apparatus.”
In England, my application for a patent for my invention was opposed before the Attorney General by Professor Wheatstone and Mr. Davy, each of whom had systems already patented, essentially like each other, but very different from mine. A patent was denied me by the Attorney General, Sir John Campbell, on a plea which I am confident will not bear a legal examination. But there being no appeal from the Attorney General’s decision, nor remedy, except at enormous expense, I am deprived of all benefit from my invention in England. Other causes than impartial justice evidently operated against me. An interest for my invention, however, sprung up voluntarily, and quite unexpectedly, among the English nobility and gentry in Paris, and, had I possessed the requisite funds to prosecute my rights before the British Parliament, I could scarcely have failed to secure them, so powerfully was I supported by this interest in my favour; and I should be ungrateful did I not take every opportunity to acknowledge the kindness of the several noblemen and gentlemen who volunteered to aid me in obtaining my rights in England, among the foremost of whom were the Earl of Lincoln, the late celebrated Earl of Elgin, and the Hon. Henry Drummond.
I returned to the United States in the spring of 1839, under an engagement entered into in Paris with the Russian Counsellor of State, the Baron Alexandre de Meyendorff, to visit St. Petersburg with a distinguished French savant, M. Amyot, for the purpose of establishing my telegraphic system in that country. The contract, formally entered into, was transmitted to St. Petersburg, for the signature of the Emperor, which I was led to believe would be given without a doubt; and, that no time should be lost in my preparations, the contract, duly signed, was to be transmitted to me in in New York, through the Russian ambassador in the United States, in four or five weeks, at farthest, after my arrival home.
After waiting, in anxious suspense, for as many months, without any intelligence, I learned indirectly that the Emperor, from causes not satisfactorily explained, refused to sign the contract.