Litchfield enquirer., 1858-08-26


 CLAIMS OF PROF. MORSE AS THE
 INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRIC
 TELEGRAPH.
 To Ike Editor of the Nep York Times
 SIR <: In your issue of Saturday, the 7th inst, notice that Professor Samuel F. B. Morse is apparently in the back ground in re. ference to the first practical working of the Magnetic Telegraph. Your object as public journalists is, of course, to present, as near as possible, the trath, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" You say that Pro- lessor Joseph Henry demonstrated the pos. slbil!ty of transmitting current over long dis. tances." Did Professor Henry publish ths fact to the world, make any practical use cf it., or bury it in his own bosom have good authority for saying that the " first acquaint. ance of Professor Morse with Professor Hen- ry commenced in May, l839."
 l notice also that Dr. Charles T. Jackson is also introduced as giving the invention to Prof Morse while crossing the Atlantic in 1887. beg to know why Dr- Jackson, if he considered the invention as an important one, did not either give it to the public by patent, or reduce it to practice? I have the satisfac- tlon, however, to know, and can prove by live ing witnesses, that three years previous to Dr. JackSen's conversation in 1887 with Prof. Morse, that Prof. Morse was dcvoting all his energies to effect the completion of this npor. talIt invention. 1 well remember the answer he gave to Henry A. Munson, Esq, the falnil- far friend of Prof. M., when he consulted me as to transmitting the current long distance. It was this. Suppose y0ur arm wers loag cnongh to ,eaeh as&0 S9uth America and gvusp "m etectrsc eel, sooSld yoa not .fecI the shotka and added the stretch of inswh.ted acire aoiN 6e C substitute for your arm. This happened in June, 1884. My impression obtained from Mr. Munson at the time was that Prof. Morse has already spent much time on this subject, 50 that it had become the great purpose of his life. The Cyclopedia of Useful Arts Mechau. ical and Chemical, edited by Charles Tomln- son, and published in London in 1854, accords the invention of the first practical electric tel egraph to Prof. Morse, of America, in 1882. This record indeed find to be correct, viz 1. that Prof Morse on his return from Italy in 1882, invented the Magnetic Telegraph "es. sentialLy as ss moae ecists." In 1885 Prof. Morse exhibited the practical operation of the Magnetic Telegraph to numerous pupils and others ill his room and in 1887 through ten miles of wire before an audience of thousand or more persons at New York University-to thousands of visitors in Paris in 1888. having previously submitted it to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, :he United States Congress, the Cabinet at Washington, Committee of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, tie members of the Royal Society, the lords of the admiralty, and both Houses of Parlia- ment Tn London
 t.
 All this happened before Professor Morse became acquainted with Professor Henry per. sonally or by correspondence. In the mean ]. time, in the absence of Professor Henry bo.. rowed of Dr. Gale, (colleague of Dr. Morse, and who had charge of his apparatus rcel containing five miles of telegraphic wire, upon which he experimented upon at Princeton, and read the results by him in paper before the American Philosophical Society, Nov. 3, 1888. Before Professor Morse had obtained knowl. edge of these experiments of Professor Heniy. he had entered into contract with the Rus. sian Government agent, to establish his mag. netic telegraph ill that empire If am in er- TOT, Messrs. Editors, in reference to the above statements, beg to be corrected, and also 10 be informed if you know what Dr. Jackso. during the years referred to, effected in cleo, trotelegraphic operations.
 Very respectfully your obediept servant.
 E0RRE EST SHEpuFnn