Evening star., 1939-02-05

man of many ideas, was also in
terested in the deaf mute. and in
1893 was the author of book en-.
titled THE Mode of Teaching the
Deaf, or Surd, and Consequently
Dumb, to Speak" It was the first
publication of its kind in America.
Bought Kendall Green.
Amos Kendall purchased the
ground known as Kendall Green
in 1841. 1t then consisted Of 81
acres. In the building then oc-
cupied as his home, Morse is said
to have used a room as a tele-
graph station, and to a tree in
front of the house was attached
the wire over which the first tele-
graph message. What hath God
wrought" was sent from the United
States Supreme Court room in the
Capitol to Baltimore on that men,
orable May "a, 1874
The station that was located In
the Capitol for a while was soon
removed to Seventh street between
E and F streets, where is now the
old Post Office Department Building
and here was placed bronze
marker on July 4. 1918.
In 1845 Congress appropriated
$4,000 for operating the line between
here and Baltimore. Morse was
named as superintendent and AL
fred Vail and Henry j. Rogers as
assistant superintendent. Vail,
whose services Morse appreciated as
an early partner, generally looked
after the Washington end and
Rogers the Baltimore station, while
Morse filled in when it became
necessary to do so. Public owner
ship in this case proved poor
business, and the next year the
Government made no appropriation.
The telegraph ceased to be operated
under Government supervision.
The idea of sending messages by
wire was slow in taking root, and
Morse himself thought a hundred
thousand dollars would be as much
as he ever hoped to realize out OF it.
Indeed, it was at this time that he
offered to sell his invention to the
Government for this amount, but
since the Postmaster General did
not think the telegraph could ever
be made profitable he refused to
recommend its purchase even at SO
low a figure.
Now Museum Exhibit.
Under private control wire con.
nections between New York and
Baltimore were early completed by a
company that had been formed by
Amos Kendall, who was made presi-
dent. BY the spring of 1847, the
operation of the line between WASH
ington and Baltimore was also taken
over by the Magnetic Electric Tele-
graph Co., which had been incor-
porated in Maryland and which had
its offices on the second floor of
Towers Printing Office, at the south-
east corner of Sixth street and Louis
lana avenue NV. Both Vail and
Rogers were members of this COM
pany, the president then being B. B..
French. who had served as clerk
of the House and at one time as
commissioner of public buildings.
The price of messages then was so
cents for the first 10 words and S
cents for each additional word. The
original electric magnate recording
instrument made and used by Prof.
Morse in 1887, seven years prior to
his memorable and successful DEM
onstration before Congress, now
forms part of the National Museum
exhibits.
Amos Kendall, the first president
of the company, no doubt had more
to do with securing the appropriation
for the experimental telegraph line
than one might at first suspect.
He was one of Washington's early
newspaper editors and journalists,
coming here from Kentucky when
Jackson became President in 1929.
(See PROCTOR, Page C-ll)