THK INVENTOKS Ol' THK TEl.KCiKAI'H AM» I iJ-KIMloNE. <!!!' 



later, patented 1)\ the l)n»thers Jbl. and 1^. Ili.nhloii. iiieliidiii.i; an inter 

 estinj^- form in wldeli the cnri'ent was i)assed through a strip ol' j^old 

 leaf i)laeed in front of th<> ])ole of a niajiuet. I*'aeli time t]ie enrreut 

 passed the jiohl leaf was detU'cted. and tlins s«'rved in pbiee of a>i 

 index needU'. 



A patent Avas liianted to Wheatstone and Cooke in 1S4(I for improve- 

 merits in givinji si.unals and sonndin>i ahuins at distant places by 

 means of electric enrrents. In this ])atent the first form of the letter- 

 showing, dial, or A, B, C teleiiraph. as it has been variously called, is 

 described. Tm])ro\'ements were subsecpiently made in this api)aratns 

 liy Wheatstone, and se\"eral modifications have been made by other in 

 ventors, of which tlie best known are l!i"e({net's, Froment's, Siemens', 

 Chester's, Kramer's, Siemens and Halske's. and llamblet's. The first 

 ai)paratns devised by Wheatstone was actuated by voltaic electricity., 

 l)ut in the later forms ma.iiiieto-electricity was ai)plied. One or other 

 of these methods has been used in the other forms of apparatus for 

 the same jinrpose. Wheatstone also worked on a type-printin.u' tele- 

 ura})!), which Avas a modification of his A, !>, (' instrnment, but it 

 ne\er came into practical us(\ Probably the .iixeatest achievement of 

 Wheatstone, judjicd at least by its practical results, was his antomatic 

 recording- telegraph, which is so largely used for press and other long 

 dispatches in England, and which has attained to marvellons speeds, 

 for a mechanical recorder. 



Morse's telegraph first came before the Patent Oflice in the form of a 

 caveat tiled by him on the 3d of October, 1837. The following' iiiAen 

 tions were specified: First, a system of signs by which numbers, and 

 consequently words and sentences, are signified; second, a set of type,, 

 adai)ted to regulate and communicate the signs, with rules in which 

 to set up the tyi)e; third, an apparatus called the [)ort rule, for regu 

 lating the mo\ement of the ty])e lules, which rules, b\' means of the 

 type, regulate the times and the inter\als of the passage of electricity ;: 

 fourth, a register, which lecords the signs i)ermanently ; fifth, a die 

 ticMiary, or vocabulary of words, nund)ered and ada]>ted to this .sys- 

 tem of telegrai)h; sixth, modes of laying (ronduclois to preseive them; 

 from injury. 



This caveat gi\es a good idea of the invention by JNIorse (»f there- 

 cording telegraph pievious to his }>artnershii> with Vail. The partner- 

 ship was agreed upon in September, 1837, and accoiding to it Mr. \'ail 

 undertook to construct at his own exi)ense and exhibit before a com 

 mittee of ('ongress one of the telegraphs ''of the i)lan and invention of 

 Morse;" that he should give his time and personal ser\ ices to tin- 

 work, and as.sume the expense of exhibiting the api»aratus and of ])ro 

 curing patents in the United States, In consideration. Vail was to re- 

 ceive om'-fourth of all the rights in the invention in the United States.. 

 Provision was also made for securing to Vail an interest in any foreign 

 patents which he might furiush the means to obtain.* A large amount 



*!See]'. L. I'lipt; in tin; ('ciilniy Mmjnzinc, \o . xx.W. {; !t21 tl m-ti 



