114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 



electro-magnetism, and what information yon or others commu- 

 nicated to him relating to the telegraph. State, also, all you know 

 of the attempts of himself^ and others associated with him, to construct 

 an electro-magnetic telegraph, either from your own observation or 

 from statements made by himself or by others in your presence. 

 State particularly any conversation, if any, you may have had with 

 him in reference to your own discoveries applied to the telegraph. 



Ansiver. — Shortly after my return from Europe, in the autumn of 

 1837, I learned that Mr. Morse was about to petition Congress for 

 assistance in constructing the electro-magnetic telegraph. Some of 

 my friends in Princeton, knowing what I had done in developing the 

 principles of the telegraph, urged me to make the representations to 

 Congress, which I expressed some thought of doing, namely : that 

 the principles of the electro-magnetic telegraph belonged to the 

 science of the world, and that any appropriation which might be 

 made by Congress should be a premium for the best plan, and the 

 means of testing the same, which the ingenuity of the country might 

 offer. Shortly after this I visited New York, and there accidentally 

 made the personal acquaintance of Mr. Morse ;* he appeared to be an 

 unassuming and prepossessing gentleman, with very little knowledge 

 of the general jjrinciples of electricity, magnetism, or electro-magnet- 

 ism. He made no claims, in conversation with me to any scientific 

 discovery, or to anything l3eyond his particular machine and process 

 of applying known principles to telegraphic purposes. He explained 

 to me his plan of a telegraph with which he had recently made a 

 successful experiment ; I thought this plan better than any with 

 which I had been made acquainted in Europe ; I became interested 

 in him, and instead of interfering in his application to Congress, I 

 [subsequentlyt] gave him a certificate, in the form of a letter, stating 

 my confidence in the practicability of the electro-magnetic telegraph 

 and my belief that the form proposed by himself was the best which 

 had been published. 



Mr. Morse subsequently visited Princeton several times to confer 

 with me on the principles of electricity and magnetism which might 

 be applicable to the telegraph. I freely gave him any information I 

 possessed. 



I learned in 1837, or thereabouts, that Professor Gale and Dr. 

 Fisher were the scientific assistants of Mr. Morse in preparing the 

 telegraph.- Mr. Vail was also employed, but I know not in what 

 capacity, and I am not personally acquainted with him. With Pro- 

 fessor Gale I have been intimately acquainted for several years ; he 

 had been a pupil in chemistry of my friend Dr. Torrey, and had 

 studied my papers on electro-magnetism, and, as he informed me, 

 had a[)plied them in the arrangement of the apparatus for the con- 

 struction of Morse's telegraph. 



My researches had been given to the world several years before the 

 attempt was made to reduce the magnetic telegraph to practice. Mr. 



* This meeting took place in the chemical store of Mr. Cliilton, Broadway, New York, 

 and the place and time are both indelibly impressed upon my mind. 



t The word subsequently was accidentally omitted in giving my testimony. The omission, 

 however, is of little importance. 



