St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-16

was the nrSt TO inform him of the reali-
cation of his fondest hope. The profess
sor was overcome by the intelligence, SO
joyful and unexpected, and to the young
lady who had borne the glad tidings he
gave the promise that she should indite
the first message sent over the line.
Prof. Morse then went about perfect
Ing his arrangements for constructing a
line between Washington and Balti-
more, selecting these Two cities for the
reason that he desired to be as near as
possible to the seat of government. He
submitted to Secretary of the Treasury
Spencer an estimate of the exact
amount which would be required to
complete the proposed line, the total
amount OF which was S25. APO. This es-
Innate was approved by Mr.. Spencer,
and in March of 1S43 active operations
of laying wires were begun. Conduits,
or lead pipes. were used as means of
conducting the wires, and a line of
these was laid as far as Relay station
on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. 1t
was then discovered that this system
was impracticable and system of poles
was substituted.
The line was completed OH the 23d
day of May. 1874, and on the following
day Prof. Morse was prepared to put to
the test the great experiment on which
his mind had been laboring for twelve
anxious, weary years. At the Mount
Clare depot in Baltimore one terminus
of the line had been located, and the
other was located in the United States
supreme court chamber. At the Wash
ingtOn end Mr.. Morse sat at the instru-
! ment. and in Baltimore his assistant,
Mr.. Vail, occupied like position. Prof.
Morse had extended an invitation to his
friends to be present at the test, and
the chambers were crowded with an in-
terested throng of unbelievers, who had
gathered there to witness what they
fully expected would result in failure.
THE FIRST MESSAGE.
To Miss Ellsworth had been given the
promise that she should indite the first
message, and accordingly she was sent
for. Her message, What hath God
wrought" was transmitted to Balti-
more, and received correctly by Mr..
Vail, who repeated it. The triumph of
the inventor was sublime. The effect
on the crowd was wonderful. They had
gathered there to scott, and they went
away convinced and impressed.
Those who had not witnessed the
test. however, refused to believe in the
invention, claiming that the whole
affair was hoax and gigantic swIn-
ding scheme. Notwithstanding this,
the papers, which had so long ignored
the invention, teemed with accounts of
the wonderful telegraph. and people
tiocked to the capitol daily to see the
instrument and if possible be con-
WINGED. Numbers who were unable to
gain entrance to the capitol cOntented
themselves with standing on the out
side and staring at the wires. During
the first few days of the tele-
graphs existence many amusing
lnpidapfc Ooonrrpd n0nnantiOn
with it. Numbers believed that mes
sages were conveyed in the same form
As letters through the mails. A pretty
little maiden tripped into the capitol
one day and told Mr.. Morse that she
had just had quarrel with her lover in
Baltimore, and asked that she be IN
stantly transmitted to that city, in order
that she might tell him that she still
loved him. Trains. she SAID, were too
slow for her. She desired to be trans
ported there in an instant. She was
shown the impracticahiIity of such
a proceeding, and went away
highly indignant at not be-
ing allowed to go to Baltimore by
telegraph. Men Of prominence would
come to the capitol and send silly mes
sages to friends in Baltimore, and when
they would receive answers thereto
they would evince the greatest surprise,
and go Off gazing at the slip of paper as
child at new toy.
The message sent by Miss Ellsworth,
the first ever sent over wire. is now
preserved in the archives OF Hartford
museum, Hartford, Conn.,, Miss Els
Worth'S native home.
PROFFERED TO THE GOVERNMENT.
1t was a favorite idea with Prof.
| Morse from the inception of his enter
| prise that the telegraph should belong
| to the general government. In pursu-
ance of this intention, on the day that
| the line was completed he sent conf
munication to congress making for
NAL overture of the telegraph to the
| government. The sum named as the
| price for which the Morse Telegraph
| Company would dispose of the tele-
graph to the government was 100000.
| To accept this proposition was cOnSid-
| cred to be the limit of official blindness,
| and the offer was declined. An appro-
| priation of $4,000 was made for the pur-
pose of supporting the line between
| Washington and Baltimore, but further
| than that rhe government refused to go.
| The postmaster general ridiculed the
| idea as one unworthy the notice of SEN
| Sible men.
In order that the government might
be reimbursed for the amount appro-
priated by it. toll of one cent for every
four characters was charged, and then
it was that its commercial value was
illustrated. The merchants in both
Washington and Baltimore began using
the line for business purposes, and the
success of the enterprise was fairly
tablished.
A quarter of a century after the re-
fusal of the government to accept the
offer to control the telegraph project
was started to establish lines of tele-
graph to be used by the government as
part of its mail postal system. or to take
possession of the lines already estab-
lished. The matter was referred to the
postmaster general. Mr. Creswell, who
stated in his report that the entire cost
of all the lines in the country, including
patents, was less than S10,000,000, and
| that the cost of new system, equal in
extent to that then in operation. would
| be ST., $780, 900. At the time this estimate
was made the property of the existing
| telegraph companies was worth III the
market S50,000,000.
Prof. Morse in his early days was
painter of some renOwn. and had he adj
hered to his early determination to be-
| come an artist would, in all probability,
have been equally as we'll known in art
circles as he is today in those of science.
| He possessed quite talent for inven-
ton, and invented an improved suction
pump and machine for cutting mar
Bile. Neither of them ever amounted to
much. Prof. Morse got his first ideas
of electricity as applied to the telegraph
on board the packet ship Sully, from
Havre. on Oct. L, 1882, for New York.
In the early part of the voyage CONVEX
sation at the dinner table turned on the
subject of electromagnetic, and the
experiments Of Amphere with the
electromagnetic. Prof. Morse gave to
this discussion serious attention, and
by the time the vessel had landed in
New York he had SO far perfected his
plans as to be able to make draft of
them. He was enthusiastic over the
idea, and. Notwithstanding that he had
gone to Europe for the avowed purpose
of perfecting himself in the different
| af ba hot