HEXRY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 305 



6th of January, 1838, was differently organized, the recording-lever being 

 for the first time arranged horizontally, and having an np and down 

 movement, with an upright magnet under one end, and the moving fillet 

 of paper above the other."* 



On the 24:th of January, 1838, an exhibition of the new apparatus and 

 of its improved operation, was given at the New York City University, 

 in the long room of the geological cabinet, through ten miles of wire 5 

 one of the five -mile reels being placed in the outgoing portion of the cir- 

 cuit, and the other five-mile reel on the returning line. On this occasion 

 for the first time the words transmitted were entered, and recorded, in 

 the new alphabet without the aid of the numbered dictionary.! The 

 Kew York Journal of Commerce in noticing this performance remarked: 

 " Professor Morse has recently improved on his mode of marking, by 

 which he can dispense altogether with the telegraphic dictionary, using 

 letters instead of numbers ; and he can transmit ten words per minute, 

 which is more than double the number which can be transmitted by 

 means of the dictionary."! 



The instrument thus brought to a satisfactory working condition, was 

 designed to be sent to Washington for exhibition to officers of the Na- 

 tional Government, with a view of obtaining a grant from Congress for 

 the construction of an actual line of telegraph between two cities. Ou 

 the way from Xew York, the apparatus with its reels of wire was ex- 

 hibited at Philadelphia, before a committee of the Franklin Institute 

 (at its hall), on the 8th of February, 1838. The committee (whose chair- 

 man was Prof. Eobert M. Patterson, then Director of the United States 

 Mint at Philadelphia), after a careful examination, reported : 



"The operation of the telegraph as exhibited to us was very satis- 

 factory. The power given to the magnet at the register through a length 

 of wire of ten miles, was abundantly sufficient for the movements re- 

 quired to mark the signals. The communication of this power was in- 

 stantaneous." Referring then to the probable difficulties of efficient in- 

 sulation, the committee proceeded: "Mr. Morse has proposed several 

 plans; the last being to cover the mres with cotton thread, then varnish 

 them thickly with gum-elastic, and inclose the whole in leaden tubes. 

 More practical and economical means will probably be devised ; but the 

 fact is not to be concealed that any effectual plan must be very exj)en- 

 sive.§ Doubts have been raised as to the distance to which the electri- 



*0u the question of the origin and invention of the " Morse- Alphabet," see "Sup- 

 plement," Note G. 



tThe message sent through the av ire on this occasion (Wednesday, January 24, 

 1833,) is spoken of as "the tirst sentcticethnt was ever recm-ded by the tek'graph." 

 (Prime's Life of Momc, 8vo. N. Y. 1875, !>. 331.) It was the tirst employment of the 

 rectilinear dot and dash symbols. 



I New York Journal of Commerce of January 29, 1838. 



§[It is to be remembered that (iauss and Weber, as also Rteiuhoil, at this date had 

 in actual and successful operation telegraph lines severiil miles in length, wliose naked 

 wires through the air were insniated only at their ])oints of sui)port. Although this 

 important discovery of Weber had been in practical and public operation lor about tive 

 years, no particular account of it seems to have been at thct time published in this 

 country. ] 



S. Mis. 59 20 



