New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-03
LITERARY CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
A Biography of the Inventor of the Telegraph
Mind and Health-The New Inter
national Encyclopedia.

Of them in developing the telegraph,
notably. perhaps, the extension OF the
system over great distances. Morse
himself would have been foremost to
acknowledge his Indebtedness TO Henry,
but some strange incompatibility OF
Misunderstanding between two great
but shy and sensitive minds led TO
controversy which must always be re-
garded with sadness and regret. AS
for Vail, there has been no question
OF Morse's Indebtedness TO him, par
ticularly for the means for bringing
the invention properly before the pub
lie, and mis- name must always be close
" and conspicuously associated with
Norse's, rs II is in this biography,
The author has throughout these
handsome volumes with admirable DIS
erection and taste kept in the back
ground mis- own personality and even
his own relationship TO lis subject, IL
was a labor Of love for him 70 write the
volumes, but he performed It with a
lust sense Of the obligation Of the
author to the reader In consequence
the work is not a flial eulogy but a
comprehensive, discriminating and Ju-
dicious study of a great career, IN
which the intimate relationship OF
writer and subject is chiefly and most
aereeably apparent in an amplitude OF
information and wealth of dOcumen-
tary data and personalia which could
not have been expected from any other
source. The illustrations, too, are
well chosen, and are of much value
for instruction as well as for embellish-
ment. Note, for example, the legible
facsimiles of Morse's calculations
based upon the quantities OF type oil
the various letters found in printing
Office. 1t reveals, as nothing else could
do, the painstaking practically OF the
man in devising that alphabet which
has for 80 many years been the tele-
graphic code of the world. Did he
adopt those combinations of dots ard
dashes at random? Why, that was the
most strictly scientific part Of all his
work. BY actual examination he ascer-
tanned the numbers of types OF the
different letters in a printing office as
indicative of the frequency OF use OF
the letters. Thus there were 1000 e.s,
5000 IS and so on down to only 200 rs.
Rearranging the letters of the alpha
bet in the order of frequency OF use, ne
gave TO the first, that IS, the most fire.
ouently used, the simplest combinations
of dots and dashes, reserving the longer
and more elaborate for the letters
which were the least often used.
From among the numerous and peril
nent citations which abound in the
book, two may be briefly recalled, a IS
supremely indicative, the one OF
Morse's own modest yet confident estl-
mate Of his own work, and the other
of the worlds estimate. Speaking Of
his workshop in the old New York Uni
versity building, he said:
That room I occupied, whose
walls-had thoughts and mental
struggles, with the alterations of
Joys and sorrows, the power of be-
ing daguerreotyped upon them.
would show a thickly studded gal
lery Of evidence that there the
Briarean infant was born who has
stretched forth his arms with the
intent 70 encircle the world. Yes,
that room of the University was
the birthplace Of the Recording
: Telegraph. Attempts, indeed, have
been made TO assign to it other
parentage, and TO its birthplace
other localities. Personally | have
very little anxiety on this point,
except that the truth should not
suffer; for l have a consciousness,
which neither sophistry nor ig-
norance can shake, that that
room is the place Of its birth, and