Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals / In Two Volumes, Volume II

by Samuel Finley Breese Morse

"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."

Indeed, since I last wrote you, I have been wholly occupied in perfecting its details and making myself familiar with the whole system. There is not a shadow of a doubt as to its performing all that I have promised in regard to it, and, indeed, all that has been conceived of it. Few can understand the obstacles arising from want of pecuniary means that I have had to encounter the past winter. To avoid debt (which I will never incur) I have been compelled to make with my own hands a great part of my machinery, but at an expense of time of very serious consideration to me. I have executed in six months what a good machinist, if I had the means to employ him, would have performed in as many weeks, and performed much better.

I had hoped to be able to show my perfected instrument in Washington long before this, and was (until this morning) contemplating its transportation thither next week. The news, just arrived, of the proposed adjournment of Congress has stopped my preparations, and interposes, I fear, another year of anxious suspense.

Now, my dear sir, as your time is precious, I will state in few words what I desire. The Government will eventually, without doubt, become possessed of this invention, for it will be necessary from many considerations; not merely as a direct advantage to the Government and public at large if regulated by the Government, but as a preventive of the evil effects which must result if it be a monopoly of a company. To this latter mode of remunerating myself I shall be compelled to resort if the Government should not eventually act upon it.

You were so good as to call the attention of the House to the subject by a resolution of inquiry early in the session. I wrote you some time after requesting a stay of action on the part of the committee, in the hope that, long before this, I could show them the Telegraph in Washington; but, just as I am ready, I find that Congress will adjourn before I can reach Washington and put the instrument in order for their inspection.