The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-04-12
gEE4Eisfellaneuas.
From the New York Tost of April ID.
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.

Il
0 clan attending Profess or Morse il
4 i that his patient IS "brea,hing heavil!
t and failing tast.'
, 1t is q cu:ioas fscG that, with
!. woI divide reputation, his name a
5 familiar TO American citizens as tina
of Franklin, or Washington, or Lin
) coin, the people even oi this country
know little or nothing Of Professor
s Samuel +. b. Morse's true position il
: the scientific world, or of his rela
tions to the system of communication
) which bears his name. While he j!
, generally regarded here as the found
er, lie was, in reality, the tinisher O
the system; he was tue capital, mo-
the base, of the pillar. This popular
mistake has been the cause OF mucf
injustice done to Professor Morse by
persons who, wishing to deprive hir
of all credit, have had enough truth
on their side, in attack ng his Iopr.
lar reputation, to make all their as.
sertions plausible.
The history Of the electro magnetic
telegraph, extending from 1929,
when it was first discovered that a
"shock'' could be transmitted to a
distance through a conducting me-
dium, to May 1874, when the first
messsge-"What God hath wroughp'
was sent over the line between
Baltimore and Washington, involves
many successive discoveries, much
laborious study ON the part OF scien-
tific men, and hundreds of successful
and unsuccessful experiments. 1t
has been the glory of Professor Morse
that his name was the last of q bril-
liant series of names belonging to
men whose services are duly recog-
nised by sciepce-Franklin. Watson,
Oersted, SchweiggOr, Ampere, Arago,
Sturgeon and Henry. The discov-
cries of these men, which led to the
grand result finally accomplished by
the..genius of Morse, show a curious
succession of steps. From 1929 to
1900 the experiments, though inval-
liable to future inventors, brought
little that was practical in the way of
communication, because the "electri-
cal machine" then in use did not de-
velope a continuous current. Frank
lin settled several scientific questions
useful to future inquirers. DR.. Wat
son, in 1747. madethe verv important
discovery that the earth or water
acted as conductors to complete the
electric current sent over a single |
wire. During the latter quarter of
the eighteenth century n number of
ingenious but AWKWARD plans of elect.
Photographic communication were
tried by Lesage, Lomond, Reizen,
and Saliva, in Switzerland, France and
Spain, but without results of service
to the inventor of our present system.
In 1900, however, came the discovery
of the volta:c pile by which con-
tinuous current was secured. The
next great step, very long one, was
the discovery by William Sturgeon
of London, in 1925. after hints from
the experiments of Oersted, Ampere
and Arago, that pieceof iron could
be made magnet by current OF
electricity passing through a coil OF
wire surrounding it. Only one step
remained. In eOiliDg naked wire
about tie iron it was necessarily
wound loosely, and the magnet was
of little power. In lo2S-3O Profess
or Henry, of Albany, discovered that
successive layers of covered wire
could he wound tightly about the iron
In this manner he produced a magnet
of a power never before known.
With the Dumber of telegraph poles
now In this country, it would be un-
grateful, perhaps, 10 forget the mod
est claims OF Harrison G. Dyar, who
was the first, in 1927, to use wooden
posts and glass insulators for an elec-
trio wire.
Such we're the successive steps
which led to the condition in which
Samuel +. Il. Morse found the science
of electro-magnetism, when in 1882
he first turned his attention to the
subject of telegraphic communication.
In spite Of all these valuable discov-
cries, however, which includes nearly
all the principles involved in the
system now in use, there had been
so little practical benefit from previ.
Gus experiments, and 80 many fail
ures, that neither the public nor ms.
jority of scientific men had any con-
fidence in electro magnetism as a
means of business and popular CON-
The world was waiting
for a man possessing that rare CON-
bination of inventive genius with
persistent energy. without which the
discoveries of science may remain
for years, or forever, valueless-were
bases of unsubstantial theories. So
utterly without practical result were
all previous experiments, that the
people regarded men who devoted
themselves TO the subject, except in
o purely sientilic way, as mere en-
thuisiasts to be pitied or laughed at.
That this was true, witness the de-
bate in Congress, February, 1S43,
when a bill appropriating S3O.O00 to
test Professor Morse's new invention
was before the House. Mr.. Cave
Jehnson-his opposition to the bill
is now his only claim to Immortality
proposed, humorously, that part
of the appropriation be devoted to a
test ct "Mesmerism" Mr.. Houston
that "Millerism" should have
it's share, and another member pro-
posed that Congress provide for a
to the moon. The decision
was in favor of Morse by majority
Of only six in one hundred and sew