He had ordered to be made in New York forty miles of a five wire cable enclosed in lead, and Mr. Cornell invented a plow to make the trench for its reception.
This cable was laid from Baltimore to the Relay House, seven miles away, but on testing it the escape was found so great that the necessity of abandoning it became evident. More than half the appropriation had been expended. After much anxious thought, it was decided to place the wires on poles, and the line was finished in this way with two copper wires of size number 14, covered with cotton saturated with gum shellac.
The first insulation of the government line shows how crude and rudimentary was the conception held at that period. It was simply two plates of glass, between which the wire, after wrapping well with cloth saturated with gum shellac, was placed and over which a wooden cover to protect from rain and press the glass upon the wire and keep it in place was nailed.
These were afterwards removed and the Bureau Knob pattern substituted.
In about one year after the appropriation had been made, the line was completed.
The first telegraph office in Washington was in a small room on the east front of the Capitol, and afterwards in a room over the city post-office. The relays were of number 16 cotton covered copper wire saturated in gum shellac, each weighing about 510 pounds, and so coarsely constructed that Mr. Vail kept the ones in use in a back room where the operator had to run when it needed adjustment.
The battery consisted of 100 cells of Grove, which was renewed three times a week. The circuits were left open when the line was not in use, and the instruments were so connected that each operator started and stopped the instrument at the distant station by the dropping of a break upon the fly wheel when the manipulations of the keys were suspended.
The magnets were soon after greatly improved, reduced in size, and increased in power.
True to the promise he had made to his friend, Miss Ellsworth, Prof. Morse now sent for her and to which she at once responded.
She was invited to indicate a message for transmission. It was promptly done in language now historic and in consonance with the inventor’s own often expressed thoughts respecting the origin of his invention, indeed, he may have suggested the words “What hath God wrought.” This message was passed over the wires, and the strip of paper on which it was imprinted was given to Governor Seymour of Connecticut, as a souvenir in honor of the young woman who was a native of his State, and of the inventor who received therein his collegiate training.