Evening journal., 1913-08-26
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Real Inventor Of the
Morse TelegraphiC Symbols
By Holland.


Recently discovered letters. mem
oranda. records. and documents
are in possession Of members of the
family OF the late Alfred Vail, who
was associated with Professor Morse
in the invention and the commercial
utilization Of the Morse electric tele-
graph system. contain some very ro-
mantle and interesting stories assc-
ciated with the long and patient work
which was inevitable before the Morse
instrument was perfected and made
available for commercial use.
For instance some of these docu-
ments tell the story of the associa-
ton Of Alfred Vail with Professor
Morse although some features of that
history have already been made pub
lie. II has been published that young
Vail was by chance. when a student
at the University OF New York. per
mitted to see certain experiments in
the university lecture room. which
showed some portion of the work that
was then being carried on by Pro
lessor Morse. whose laboratory was
building on Washington Square. New
York city.
Young Vail became fascinated
with this utilization of electricity.
He made the acquaintance OF Pro-
fessor Morse.
Professor Morse has no money, but
he has a wonderful idea" young Vail
is reported 10 have said TO a friend.
1 L.
to advance to Professor Morse enough
money to enable him to secure his
patents to carry on his experiments. "
The records show that the young
man did succeed in interesting his
father, Judge Vail, and was him
self taken into the association with
Professor Morse.
When these letters are published
they will serve TO establish the credit
which is due TO Alfred Vail for the
discovery OF the dot-and-dash system
OF symbols which, according to all the
expert testimony. was the chief in
strumentality in making the Morse
telegraphic system of commercial
utility
Professor Morse had worked out a
plan by which the telegraphic sym
bols were TO be in the form of num-
bers. But this made necessary con-
slant reference to a chart or to a
code book so that the numbers could
he translated into ordinary English.
Judge Vail did not like that idea
at all, nor did his son. Not far from
Judge Wallis house at Morristown,
n. j., there we're some iron works.
Let us take a little room in these
iron works." said young Vail to his
friend in whom he had confidence,
"and see whether we cannot discover
something better in the way of SYM
bols than that which President Morse
has adopted"
The two young men worked for
monts in that room. Young Vail
and the mechanic who was associated
with him. devised a lever and point
which would make certain impress
sions upon a paper page. IL was a
part Of young Wallis duty to find out
what was the best symbol for each
letter in the alphabet, so he went
into the Office of a printer in Morris
town and discovered that the letter
"e' was the most frequently used
in setting up type He said to his
friend. IF that is so, then the letter
e can be represented by a dot, and
then by combination of dots and
dashes we shall have all the other
letters"
Upon experiment the idea worked
perfectly and Vail and his mechanic
friend we're so excited when their
final demonstration was made that
they ran hatless from their work
shop TO Judge Wallis house shouting
We've got III The instrument
works perfectly"
. And il was because OF the demon
stration that the Vail system was
adequate that Judge Vail was per-
suaded to give financial support SO
that Professor Morse was enabled to
patent the apparatus.
The records recently discovered
will show undoubtedly that what are
called the Morse symbols should
more properly be called the "Vai
symbols" But Alfred Vail was tn,
last man to seek to gain credit fol
himself at the expense of any one
else. He was so loyal man o.
science that il was sufficient for hin
that Professor Morse, with whom III
was associated. had given to thu
world an apparatus which woul'
make the instant communication o
Intelligence over long distances com
mercially practicable.
Copyright. 1913, by f. j. Edwards
All rights reserved).