HENEY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 311 



Morse's ^^ first conception.^^ — After a three years' sojonm iu Europe, from 

 1829 to 1832, spent priucipally in Italy, devoted exclusively to the study 

 and pursuit of his art as paiuter, Mr. Morse on his homeward voyage 

 from France in the ship Sully, formed the acquaintance of Dr. Charles 

 T. Jackson, of Boston, a fellow- passenger. He first " conceived the idea" 

 of an electric telegraph on the 19th of October, 1832, from a conversa- 

 tion with Dr. Jackson on the subject ; and the suggestion impressed him 

 with the surprise of a truly new conception. His first thought appears 

 to have been the application of electricity or galvanism to a chemically 

 recording telegraph; and this project, laid aside for that of the electro- 

 magnet, was afterward revived and cherished, till in 1819, he procured a 

 patent for it, as already stated. 



Professor Morse in his letter to Dr. C. T. Jackson, dated September 18, 

 1837, controverting the claim of the latter to a share in the invention of 

 the electric telegraph, says : " I lose no time in e^ideavoring to disabuse 

 your mind of an error into which it has fallen in regard to the electro- 

 magnetic telegraph. You speak of it as 'our electric telegraph,' and as 

 a ' mutual discovery.' . . . I have a distinct recollection of the man- 

 ner, the place, and the moment, when the thought of making an electric 

 wire the means of communicating intelligence, first came into my mind. 

 . . . We were conversing on the recent scientific discoveries in elec- 

 tro-magnetism; . . . I then remarked, this being so, if the presence 

 of electricity can be made visible iu any desired part of the circuit, I 

 see no reason why intelligence might not be transmitted instantaneously 

 by electricity. You gave your assent that it was possible. ... I 

 asked you if there was not some mode of decomposition which could be 

 turned to account. You suggested the following experiment, which we 

 agreed should be tried together, if we could meet for that purpose. It 

 was this: to decompose by electricity glauber salts upon the pajier' 

 which was first to be colored with turmeric." The writer then argues 

 that this plan not having been jointly tried, and an entirely diiferent 

 device (the electromagnet) having been adopted by himself, there was no 

 joint invention.* 



In his letter to Dr. C. T. Jackson, dated December 7, 1837, Professor 

 Morse says : " I consulted you to ascertain if there were not some sub- 

 stance easily decomposed by the simple contact of a wire in an electric 

 state. It was then, and not till then, that you suggested turmeric paper 

 dipped in a solution of sulphate of soda. . . . I do not charge you 

 with intentional neglect; I readily allow your excuses for not trying the 

 experiments; but these excuses do not alter the fact that your neglect 

 retarded my invention, and compelled me after five years' delay, to con- 

 sider the result of that experiment as a failure, and consequently to de- 



* Amos Kendall's Full Exposure of Dr. Charles T. Jackson^s Preicnsions, etc. First edi- 

 tion, N. Y. 1850. Second edition, printed in Paris, 18(57: pp. G4, G5. Neither Professor 

 Morse nor Dr. Jaclcson was aware* that the project had been su<:!^gested seventeen years 

 before, by Dr. J. E. Coxe, of Phikidelphia; and that it had been successfully tried 

 four or five years before, by Mr. H. G. Dyar, of New York. 



