The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1872-03-20
A Disputed Point-The Telegraph.
W. c. Jones, for plai
cCully, for defendant.
From the Washington star

Prom the Washington Star.
A recent editorial in the Star in regard to the
question to whom is due the credit of giving the
magnetic telegraph to mankind has drawn forth
several communications, some Of which have ap-
peared in the Star, and we arc also in receipt Of
a mass Of documentary evidence in the matter.
The facts developed by an examination of this
testimony are to the following effect Some dis
eoveres, rendering the electromagnetic telegraph
possible, we're made by Oersted, of Copenhagen,
in the year 1919; Others were made by Arago,
and Davy, and Ampere 10 1920, and by Sturgeon
IN 1925. but none Of them reached the point Of
discovering a means Of making the wire practi-
cally seryiceable over any considerable distance.
The difficulty was deemed insuperable, and Mr.
Barlow, of the Royal Military Academy, Of Wool
wich, England, in bis Investigations published in
1925, declared adversely upon the possibility Of
telegraph. Nothing feasible in the way Of dis
cOvery was made for two or three years after,
though it seems to be established that Harrison
Gray Dyar, an American, put short working
line Of telegraph in operation on Long Island in
1927 or 1928. He used common electricity, and
not electro-magnetism, and but one wire, which
operated with O spark that left red marks upon
paper chemically prepared. The devise Of work
ing it by an alphabet by spaces Of time between
the sparks was very nearly in principle TO that
used by Prof Morse and it is noted as a rather
curious coincidence that Morse was the brother
in-law Of Charles Walker, who was the legal
counsel of Dyar at the time Of his experiments
on the electric telegraph. Dyar asserts that
Morse, who was not man Of auy scientific at
tainments, got his ideas of operating wire tele-
graph from his tMorse's) brother in-law, the
latter having derived them from him while acting
as his counsel years before. However, this ques-
tiOn only affects the validity Of Morses claim 10
tho invention Of the mode Of working the teIe-
graph. The great difficulty in :he way Of operat-
ing the wire i. any distance had not been met
until Professor hsHry, in 1928, made the dis
covery Of the fact that = gaIvanic current could
be transmitted 10 great distance with 90 small
4 dminution Of force as to pro6Scs mechanical
effects adequate to the desired object, by means
Of galVanic intensity battery. Prof Sorse
subsequently availed himself Of this discovery By
Prot Henry to make teIegraphy practicable. and
profitable to himself Prof Henry, who took out
no patent for his discovery. seems in this, as in
his other valuable scientific labors TO have sought
or no other reward than the consciousness OF
advancing science, the pleasure Of discovering
lew truths, and the scientific reputation 10 which
hese works would entiiIe him Up to Is4s.
Morse seems to have fDlly conceded that he was
Indebted to the discovery Of Prof Henry TO en-
be him to make the magnetic telegraph success
a. At that time Morse got into litigation with
'ther parties over bis claim TO the monopoly OF
elegraphic rights, and he appears 10 have deemed
necessary to his interest to depreciats the i'm
'ortance Of the discoveries Of Henry. The con
urrent testimony. however, Of leading telegraph
and Of the very men who were assoc;-