Model of Morse Telegraph Instrument
date: label: date made
content: ca 1885
name: label: maker
content: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A model of Samuel Morse's telegraph instrument, made about forty years after the Baltimore-Washington transmission. Mahogany frame, brass components, key, relay, register, and extra disks for register.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Original inscription removed by curator George Maynard in 1897 reads: "Model of the original Morse Telegraph Instrument in the Patent Office at Washington, said instrument being that by which the first Telegraphic message was sent 'What hath God wrought'."
label: Description (Brief)
content: The model was made according to drawings and memories of remaining witnesses of the May 1844 transmission. A 23 November 1896 letter from Charles Selden, Superintendent of Telegraph, B&O Railroad states in part: "The models ... were gotten up under the supervision of Major J. G. Pangborn to be shown at, I think, the first New Orleans Exposition sometime between 1884 and 1886, .... The model of the Morse telegraph instrument Major Pangborn got from the Telegraph Company. ... They are probably as near correct as could be gotten under the circumstances."
label: Description (Brief)
content: Pieces of the original Morse apparatus are cataloged as EM.251265.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from the B&O Railroad, thru John Randolph
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.180037
label: catalog number
content: 180037
label: accession number
content: 20822
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Telegraph Instrument
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 36 in x 12 in; 30.48 cm x 91.44 cm x 30.48 cm