Letter of Capt. William W. Pell,
of the packet ship Sully.
New York, Sept. 27th, 1837.
Dear Sir—On my arrival here I received your letter, calling upon my recollection for what was said on the subject of an electric telegraph, during the passage from Havre, on board of the ship Sully, in October, 1832. I am happy to say, I have a distinct remembrance of your suggesting, as a thought newly occurred to you, the possibility of a telegraphic communication being effected by electric wires. As the passage progressed, and your idea developed itself, it became frequently a subject of conversation. Difficulty after difficulty was suggested as obstacles to its operation, which your ingenuity still labored to remove, until your invention, passing from its first crude state through different grades of improvement, was, in seeming, matured to an available instrument, wanting only patronage to perfect it, and call it into reality; and I sincerely trust that circumstances may not deprive you of the reward due to the invention, which, whatever be its source in Europe, is with you at least, I am convinced, original.
When you observed to me a few days before leaving the ship, “well, Captain, when you hear of the telegraph one of these days, as the wonder of the world, remember the discovery was made on board the good ship Sully,” I, then, little thought, I should ever be called upon to throw into the scale, my mite of testimony in support of your claims to priority of invention, for what seemed so startling a novelty.
With my respects and best wishes,
I subscribe myself,
WILLIAM W. PELL.
Samuel F. B. Morse, Esq.
A subsequent letter from Captain Pell, dated February 1st, 1838, after having seen the operation of the telegraph at the University, has the following paragraph:
“When, a few days since, I examined your instrument, I recognized in it the principles and mechanical arrangements, which, on board, I had heard you so frequently explain through all their developments.”
From a letter now in possession of the author, and addressed to him by Prof. Morse, we make the following extract: