Part 8

MY DEAR SIR: In my letter to you in answer to the circular respecting telegraphs, which you did me the honor to send me, I promised to advise you of the result of some experiments about to be tried with my electro magnetic telegraph. I informed you that I had succeeded in marking permanently and intelligibly at the distance of _half a mile_.

Professor Gale, of our university, and Mr. Alfred Vail, of the Speedwell iron-works, near Morristown, New Jersey, are now associated with me in the scientific and mechanical parts of the invention. We have procured several miles of wire, and I am happy to announce to you that our success has thus far, been complete. At a distance of _five miles_, with a common Cruikshank’s battery of 87 plates, (4 by 3½ inches each plate,) the marking was as perfect on the register as in the first instance of half a mile. We have recently added _five miles more_, making in all _ten miles_, with the _same result_; and we have now no doubt of its effecting a _similar result_ at _any distance_.

I also stated to you, sir, that machinery was in progress of making, with which, so soon as it should be completed, I intended to proceed to Washington, to exhibit the powers of the invention before you and other members of the Government. I had hoped to be in Washington before the session of Congress, but I find that the execution of new machinery is so uncertain in its time of completion, that I shall be delayed, probably, until the beginning of the year.

What I wish to learn from you, sir, is, “_How late in the session can I delay my visit, and yet be in season to meet the subject of telegraphs, when it shall be presented by your report to Congress?_”

I am anxious, of course, to show as perfect an instrument as possible, and would wish as much time for the purpose of perfecting it as can be allowed without detriment to my interests as an applicant for the attention of Government to the best plan of a telegraph.

I am, my dear sir, with the greatest respect and personal esteem, Your most obedient servant, SAML. F. B. MORSE.

HON. LEVI WOODBURY, _Secretary of the Treasury_.

No. 4.

[From the New York Journal of Commerce.]

We have received the following note and diagram, with the explanation of the latter, from Mr. Morse:

_To the Editors of the Journal of Commerce:_

GENTLEMEN: You had the kindness to assert, a few days ago, my claim to the invention of the _electro magnetic telegraph_, for which I thank you. As to the priority of my invention, entirely planned and for the most part executed as it was nearly five years ago, I can adduce the amplest proof.

You announced that I was preparing a short _circuit_, to show to my friends the operation of the telegraph. This circuit I have completed, of the length of 1,700 feet, or about one-third of a mile; and on Saturday, the 2d instant, in presence of Professors Gale and Torrey of this city, and Professor Daubeny of the Oxford (English) University, and several other gentlemen, I tried a preliminary experiment with the register. It recorded the intelligence sufficiently perfect to establish the practicability of the plan, and the superior simplicity of my mode of communication, over any of those proposed by the professors in Europe.

It will be observed that no account has reached us that any of the foreign proposed electric telegraphs have as yet succeeded in transmitting intelligible communications; but it is merely asserted of the most advanced experiment, (the one in London,) that “by means of five wires,” &c. intelligence “_may be_ conveyed.” I have the gratification of sending you a specimen of the writing of my telegraph, the actual transmission of a communication made this morning, in a more complete manner than on Saturday, and through the distance of one-third of a mile.

Thinking it may be gratifying to your readers to see the kind of writing which it performs, I have had it engraved for you, accompanied with an explanation. Your obedient servant, SAML. F. B. MORSE.

_N. Y. City University, September 4, 1837._

No. 5.

_Specimen of Telegraphic Writing made by means of electricity at the distance of one-third of a mile._

The _words_ in the diagram were the intelligence transmitted.

The _numbers_ (in this instance arbitrary) are the numbers of the words in a telegraphic dictionary.

The _points_ are the markings of the register, each point being marked every time the electric fluid passes.

The register marks but one kind of mark, to wit, (V.) This can be varied two ways. By intervals, thus, (V VV VVV,) signifying one, two, three, &c., and by reversing, thus, (Λ) Examples of both these varieties are seen in the diagram.

The single numbers are separated by short, and the whole numbers by _long intervals_.

To illustrate by the diagram: the word “successful” is first found in the dictionary, and its telegraphic number, 215, is set up in a species of type prepared for the purpose, and so of the other words. The type then operate upon the machinery, and serve to regulate the times and intervals of the passage of electricity. Each passage of the fluid causes a pencil at the extremity of the wire to mark the points as in the diagram.

To read the marks, count the points at the bottom of each line. It will be perceived that two points come first, separated by a _short_ interval from the next point. Set 2 beneath it. Then comes one point, likewise separated by a _short_ interval. Set 1 beneath it. Then come five points. Set 5 beneath them. But the interval in this case is a _long_ interval: consequently, the three numbers comprise the whole number, 215.

So proceed with the rest, until the numbers are all set down. Then, by referring to the telegraphic dictionary, the words corresponding to the numbers are found, and the communication read. Thus it will be seen that, by means of the changes upon _ten_ characters, all words can be transmitted. But there are _two points_ reversed in the lower line. These are the _eleventh_ character, placed before a number, to signify that it is to be read as a _number_, and not as the representative of a word.

No. 6.

Mr. SMITH, from the Committee on Commerce, made the following Report, April 6th, 1838.

_The Committee on Commerce to whom the subject was referred, have had the same under consideration, and report:_

On the 3d of February, 1837, the House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the Secretary of the Treasury to report to the House, at its present session, upon the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the United States.

In pursuance of this request, the Secretary of the Treasury, at an early day after the passage of said resolution, addressed a circular of inquiry to numerous scientific and practical individuals in different parts of the Union; and, on the 6th of December last, reported the result of this proceeding to the House.

This report of the Secretary imbodies many useful suggestions on the necessity and practicability of a system of telegraphic despatches, both for public and individual purposes; and the committee cannot doubt that the American public is fully prepared, and even desirous, that every requisite effort be made on the part of Congress to consummate an object of so deep interest to the purposes of Government in peace and in war, and to the enterprise of the age.

Amid the suggestions thus elicited from various sources, and imbodied in the before-mentioned report of the Secretary of the Treasury, a plan for an electro magnetic telegraph is communicated by Professor Morse, of the University of the city of New York, pre-eminently interesting, and even wonderful. See Report, No. 2.

This invention consists in the application, by mechanism, of galvanic electricity to telegraphic purposes, and is claimed by Professor Morse and his associates as original with them; and being so, in fact, as the committee believe, letters-patent have been secured, under the authority of the United States, for the invention. It has, moreover, been subjected to the test of experiment, upon a scale of ten miles distance, by a select committee of the Franklin Institute of the city of Philadelphia, and reported upon by that eminently high tribunal in the most favorable and confident terms. An abstract from the report thus made is hereunto annexed. No. 7.

In additional confirmation of the merits of his proposed system of telegraphs, Professor Morse has exhibited it in operation (by a coil of metallic wire measuring about ten miles in length, rendering the action equal to a telegraph of half that distance) to the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives, to the President of the United States, and the several heads of Departments, to members of Congress generally, who have taken interest in the examination, and to a vast number of scientific and practical individuals from various parts of the Union; and all concur, it is believed, and without a dissenting doubt, in admiration of the ingenious and scientific character of the invention, and in the opinion that it is successfully adapted to the purposes of telegraphic despatches, and in a conviction of its great and incalculable practical importance and usefulness to the country, and ultimately to the whole world.

But it would be presumptuous in any one, (and the inventor himself is most sensible of this,) to attempt, at this stage of the invention, to calculate in anticipation, or to hold out promises of what its whole extent of capacity for usefulness may be, in either a political, commercial, or social point of view, if the electrical power upon which it depends for successful action shall prove to be efficient, as is now supposed it will, to carry intelligence through any of the distances of 50, 100, 500, or more miles now contemplated. No such attempt, therefore, will be indulged in this report. It is obvious, however, that the influence of this invention over the political, commercial, and social relations of the people of this widely-extended country, looking to nothing beyond, will, in the event of success, of itself amount to a revolution unsurpassed in moral grandeur by any discovery that has been made in the arts and sciences, from the most distant period to which authentic history extends, to the present day. With the means of almost instantaneous communication of intelligence between the most distant points of the country, and simultaneously between any given number of intermediate points which this invention contemplates, space will be, to all practical purposes of information, completely annihilated between the States of the Union, as also between the individual citizens thereof. The citizen will be invested with, and reduce to daily and familiar use, an approach to the HIGH ATTRIBUTE OF UBIQUITY, in a degree that the human mind until recently, has hardly dared to contemplate seriously as belonging to human agency, from an instinctive feeling of religious reverence and reserve on a power of such awful grandeur.

Referring to the annexed report of the Franklin Institute, already adverted to, and also to the letters of Professor Morse, marked 2, 8 and 9, for other details of the superiority of this system of telegraphs over all other methods heretofore reduced to practice by any individual or Government, the committee agree, unanimously, that it is worthy to engross the attention and means of the Federal Government, to the full extent that may be necessary to put the invention to the most decisive test that can be desirable. The power of the invention, if successful, is so extensive for good and for evil, that the Government alone should possess the right to control and regulate it. The mode of proceeding to test it, as suggested, as also the relations which the inventor and his associates are willing to recognise with the Government on the subject of the future ownership, use, and control of the invention, are succinctly set forth in the annexed letters of Professor Morse, marked 8 and 9.

The probable outlay of an experiment upon a scale equal to fifty miles of telegraph, and equal to a circuit of double that distance, is estimated at $30,000. Two-thirds of this expenditure will be for material, which, whether the experiment shall succeed or fail, will remain uninjured, and of very little diminished value below the price that will be paid for it.

The estimates of Professor Morse, as will be seen by his letter, marked 9, amount to $26,000; but, to meet any contingency not now anticipated, and to guard against any want of requisite funds in an enterprise of such moment to the Government, to the people, and to the scientific world, the committee recommend an appropriation of $30,000, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury; and to this end submit herewith a bill.

It is believed by the committee that the subject is one of such universal interest and importance, that an early action upon it will be deemed desirable by Congress, to enable the inventor to complete his trial of the invention upon the extended scale contemplated, in season to furnish Congress with a full report of the result during its present session, if that shall be practicable.

All which is respectfully submitted.

FRANCIS O. J. SMITH, JAS. M. MASON, S. C. PHILLIPS, JOHN T. H. WORTHINGTON, SAMUEL CUSHMAN, WM. H. HUNTER, JOHN I. DE GRAFF, GEORGE W. TOLAND, EDWARD CURTIS, _Committee on Commerce, U. S. H. R._

No. 7.

HALL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, _Feb. 8, 1838_.

_Report of the Franklin Institute Philadelphia._

The sub-committee, from the committee of science and arts, appointed to examine the electro magnetic telegraph of Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, report:

That this instrument was exhibited to them in the hall of the Institute, and every opportunity given by Mr. Morse and his associate, Mr. Alfred Vail, to examine it carefully, and to judge of its operation; and they now present the following as the result of their observations:

* * * * The operation of the telegraph, as exhibited to us, was very satisfactory. The power given to the magnet at the register, through a length of wire of ten miles, was abundantly sufficient for the movements required to mark the signals. The communication of this was instantaneous. The time required to make the signals was as short at least, as that necessary in the ordinary telegraphs. It appears to this committee, therefore, that the possibility of using telegraphs upon this plan, in actual practice, is not to be doubted; though difficulties may be anticipated, which could not be tested by the trials made with the model.

One of these relates to the insulation and protection of the wires, which are to pass over many miles of distance, to form the circuits between the stations. Mr. Morse has proposed several plans: the last being to cover the wires with cotton thread, then varnish them thickly with gum-elastic, and enclose the whole in leaden tubes. More practical and economical means will probably be devised; but the fact is not to be concealed, that any effectual plan must be very expensive.

Doubts have been raised as to the distance to which the electricity of an ordinary battery can be made efficient; but your committee think that no serious difficulty is anticipated as to this point. The experiment with the wire wound in a coil, may not, indeed, be deemed conclusive; but one of the members of the committee assisted in an experiment in which a magnet was very sensibly affected by a battery of a single pair, through an insulated wire of two and three-quarter miles in length, of which the folds were four inches apart; and when a battery of ten pairs was used, water was freely decomposed. An experiment is said to have been made, with success, on the Birmingham and Manchester rail road, through a circuit of thirty miles in length.

It may be proper to state, that the idea of using electricity for telegraphic purposes has presented itself to several individuals, and that it may be difficult to settle among them the question of originality. The celebrated Gauss has a telegraph of this kind in actual operation, for communicating signals between the University of Göttingen and his magnetic observatory in its vicinity. Mr. Wheatstone, of London, has been for some time also engaged in experiments on an electrical telegraph. But the plan of Professor Morse is, so far as the committee are informed, entirely different from any of those devised by other individuals, all of which act by giving different _directions_ to a magnetic needle; and would, therefore, require several circuits of wire between all the stations.

In conclusion, the committee beg leave to state their high gratification with the exhibition of Professor Morse’s telegraph, and their hope that means may be given to him to subject it to the test of an actual experiment, made between stations at a considerable distance from each other. The advantages which this telegraph would present, if successful, over every kind heretofore used, make it worthy the patronage of the Government. These are, that the stations may be at a distance asunder, far exceeding that to which all other telegraphs are limited; and that the signals may be given at night, and in rains, snows, and fogs, when other telegraphs fail. R. M. PATTERSON, _Chairman_.

No. 8.

_From S. F. B, Morse, to the Hon. F. O. J. Smith._

WASHINGTON, _February 15, 1838_.

DEAR SIR: In consequence of the conversation had with the committee on the subject of my telegraph, I would state, that I think it desirable that an experiment, on a somewhat extended scale, should first be made to test both the practicability and the facility of communicating intelligence for at least one hundred miles. The experiment may proceed, as to cost, with perfect safety to the Government. _First._ The wire for this distance, consisting of four lengths, making a total of four hundred miles of wire, might be obtained, and receive its covering of cotton and other insulation. This length would amply suffice to ascertain the law of the propulsive power of voltaic electricity, and previous to any measures being taken for burying it in the earth. So that, if any unforeseen difficulty should occur fatal to its practicability, the wire is not consumed or lost. If the expected success is realized, then, _Second._ The preparation of the wire might be commenced for burying in the earth, and, being found complete through the whole route, the several portrules, registers, batteries, &c., might be provided to put the telegraph into complete action. This experiment of one hundred miles would furnish the data from which to make the estimates of a more general extension of the system. If no insurmountable obstacles present themselves in a distance of one hundred miles, none may be expected in one thousand or in ten thousand miles; and then will be presented for the consideration of the Government the propriety of completely organizing the new telegraphic system as a part of the Government, attaching it to some department already existing, or creating a new one, which may be called for by the accumulating duties of the present departments.

It is obvious, at the slightest glance, that this mode of instantaneous communication must inevitably become an instrument of immense power, to be wielded for good or for evil, as it shall be properly or improperly directed. In the hands of a company of speculators, who should monopolize it for themselves, it might be the means of enriching the corporation at the expense of the bankruptcy of thousands; and even in the hands of Government alone, it might become a means of working vast mischief to the republic. In considering these prospective evils, I would respectfully suggest a remedy which offers itself to my mind. Let the sole right of using the telegraph belong, in the first place, to the Government, who should grant, for a specified sum or bonus, to any individual or company of individuals who may apply for it, and under such restrictions and regulations as the Government may think proper, the right to lay down a way communication between any two points, for the purpose of transmitting intelligence; and thus would be promoted a general competition. The Government would have a telegraph of its own, and have its modes of communicating with its own officers and agents, independent of private permission, or interference with and interruption to the ordinary transmissions on the private telegraphs. Thus there would be a system of checks and preventives of abuse, operating to restrain the action of this otherwise dangerous power, within those bounds which will permit only the good and neutralize the evil. Should the Government thus take the telegraph solely under its own control, the revenue derived from the bonuses alone, it must be plain, will be of vast amount. From the enterprising character of our countrymen, shown in the manner in which they carry forward any new project which promises private or public advantage, it is not visionary to suppose that it would not be long ere the whole surface of this country would be channelled for those _nerves_ which are to diffuse, with the speed of thought, a knowledge of all that is occurring throughout the land; making, in fact, _one neighborhood_ of the whole country.

If the Government is disposed to test this mode of telegraphic communication by enabling me to give it a fair trial for one hundred miles, I will engage to enter into no arrangements to dispose of my rights as the inventor and patentee for the United States, to any individual or company of individuals, previous to offering it to the Government for such a just and reasonable compensation as shall be mutually agreed upon.[13] I remain, sir, respectfully, your most obedient servant, SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

To the Hon. F. O. J. SMITH, _Chairman of the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives._