Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-03-03
MORSE AND HIS TELEGRAPH,

The Little Instrument that Made His
Fortune Preserved at the National NJu-
scum.
The National Museum at Washing
ton has one of the first locomotives in
the country, and | think it has the ons
upon which Peter Cooper acted as en-
gineer. Here is the original Morse
telegraph inst umGnt, and it was on
this Instrument that the first tele-
graph c message in the weld was sent.
THIS line ran from Washington to Bal
timore, and the first words were:
"W hat hath Col wrought" Shortly
after the line was completed there was
a political ION ention held ut Ba tt
more, WHICH nominated a President
and ice ! resident. The Vice Presi-
dental cand date was at Washington,
. and he was s las Wright, then United
: tates Senator. He telegraphed
dcclination of the nomination, but the
convention would not trnst the tele-
graph on such an important matter,
and tnev came by cars to Washington
to pers AIDE him to accept the second
place on the ticket with Polk. lie re-
fused, however, and Dallas was noun
mated.
Morse eventually made a foit tune out
of the telegraph and in 1879 some of
the foreign powers made him a present
of 5. 0,OL0. ! he King of Prussia gave
him gold snuil-box, and he received
present from the Sultan Of Turkey
of decoration belonging to the
court in diamonds. Still, while his
bill was before Congress, he said one
day, that he had enough monty to pay
his board and get out of Washington
/ if the bill did not pass. 1t was passed
| the last day of the Congress of lS4',
and it ga Kim $780, 900 to build an
/ experimental line between Washington
and Baltimore. He first tired to put
the wire in lead pipe in the ground,
but finally adopted the pole system
which is now in use.
10 show how little the people then
knew of the telegraph, 10 less man
/ than the Secretary of the Treasury
asked Morse how large a bundle cou d
/ be sent over the wires, and h" wanted
! to know whether it might not he pcs
/ sib.e for the United States mail to be
I carried by them. A Congressman
brought bundle of d 'rty shirts to
wanted them sent to Baltimore for
washing. Dolly Madison sent a mes
sage to o friend of hers in Baltimore
and the telegraph was the great eX-
element of tho hour. Morse at this
time offered his whole right in the
patent to The Government for $780,
| 900, and was, fortunately fol him,
laughed at and refused.
1t was upon this that the b ltimore
and Ohio Telegraph Company, during
the time it was fighting the Western
Union, based its claim to be the oldest
telegraph company in the world, in
that it held this line between Washing
ton and Baltimore upon which mes
sages were first sent. Now the United
States has ,9pl miles of telegraph
wire instead of 40, and it surpasses the
other countries of the world in its tele-
graph business. The whole world has
more than 100000 miles of telegraph
lines, Or enough to put wire twenty
four times around the whole world and
have some Thousands Of n les 20 spare.
China has only % I miles of wire, and
when you consider shat its population
is perhaps six times that of the United
OtaCcS you can see Wnab immense OPP
portunIty is open to such scheme as
that of Wharton Barker and Nit iie-
wicz. China has just 22-l0O of n mile
of wire 20 every $50 square miles of
territory, or in round numbers. hardly
more than q foot of wire to every square
mile of her territory. Eelg UNI, on the
other hand, which has perhaps the
most telegraph wire in proportion to
its territory, has one-half mile of wire
to each square mile of territory, and
France has onethird of 4 nile of wire
to each square mile of her area. In all
Europe there is not much more than
twice the amount of telegraph lines
that there are in the United States,
and we send about 10000, coo messages
year to half that number by Great
britain. Japan is rapidly increasing
as telegraphic nation, and it sends
more than 80 $1,000 messages year.
1t is its activity in this regard that has
stirred up China, and | am tod by
travellers that the enterprise of the
Japanese is having great influence up
on their Chinese neighbors.