HENRY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 335 



the deep paths of science ; who with his wires and silk thread winding miles of insu- 

 lated copper in the commencement hall of the academy, patiently toiled his way to the 

 demonstration of the magnetic power of the galvanic battery ; and years before the 

 invention of the telegraph, j)roclaimed to America and to Europe the means of communi- 

 cation by the electric liuid. I was an eye-witness to those experiments and to their 

 eventual demonstration and triumph. In this commemorative festival, let us not for- 

 get to honor the name of Joseph Henry." * 



On the same interesting occasion Dr. Orlatado Meads thus recounted Henry's early 

 triumph: "The older students of the academy in the years 1830, 1831, and 183"^. and 

 others who witnessed his experiments, which at that time excited so much interest in 

 this city, will remember the long coils of wire which ran circuit upon circuit for more 

 than a mile in length around one of the upper rooms iu the academy, for the ]mrpose 

 of illustrating the fact that a galvanic current could be transmitted through its whole 

 length so as to excite a magnet at the farther end of the line, and thus move a steel 

 bar which struck a bell. This in a scientific point of view, was the demonstration and 

 accomplishment of all that As^as required for the magnetic telegraph. The science of 

 the telegraph was hero complete. It needed only the inventive genius of Morse to 

 supjjly the admirable instrument which was to make it available for practical use. 

 . . . All honor to the inventor ; but let us not forget that the click of the telegraph 

 which is heard from every joint of those mystic wires which now link together every 

 city, and village, and post, and camp, and station, all over this continent, is but the 

 echo of that little bell which iirst sounded in that Tipper room of the academy. These 

 facts are a part of the history of the academy; and it is fitting that on an occasion 

 like this, so imiJortant a discovery made by one of her own sons, in her service, and 

 under her own i-oof, should not be passed over in silence."! 



Professor James Hall (in the same year in which he was president of the American 

 Association, at its Albany meeting) addressed a letter to Professor Henry, dated JaU' 

 nary 19, 1856, reciting the following reminiscence : 



"While a student of the Rensselaer School in Troy (New York), in August, 1832, I 

 visited Albany with a friend, having a letter of introduction to you from Professor 

 Eaton. Our principal object was to see your electro-magnetic apparatus, of which we 

 had heard much, and at the same time the library and collections of the Albany In- 

 stitute. You showed us your laboratory in a lower story or basement of the building, 

 and in a larger room in an upper story, some electric and galvanic apparatus, with 

 various philosophical instruments. In this room and extending around the same, was 

 a circuit of wire stretched along the wall, and at one terraiuatiou of this in the recess 

 of a window a bell was fixed, while the other extremity Avas connected with a gal- 

 vanic api^aratus. You showed us the manner iu which the bell could be made to ring 

 by a current of electricity transmitted through this wire ; and you reniarked that this 

 method might be adopted for giving signals by the ringing of a bell at the distance 

 of many miles from the point of its connection with the galvanic apj)aratus. All the 

 circumstances attending this visit to Albany are fresh iu my recollection; and during 

 the past years while so much has been said respecting the iuA^ention of electric tele- 

 graphs, I have often had occasion to mention the exhibition of your electric telegraph 

 in the Albany Academy in 1832."}: 



On the occasion of a visit by Henry to the Albany Institute, about two years later 

 than the date of the above letter. Professor Hall made public reference to the same 

 vivid recollections. At a meeting of th^ Albany Institute, held Januay 13, 1858, in 

 a hall of the Albany Academy building, "Professor Hall called attention to the fact, 

 in connection with the visit of Professor Henry, that in 1832 he had witnessed iu this 



* "Commemorative Address," on the celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary 

 of the Albany Academy, June 23, 1863. Proceedhtf/s, etc. p. 48. 



t" Historical Discourse", at semi-centennial anniversary of Albany Academy, 

 June 23, 1863. Proceedings, etc. pp. 25, 26. 



t Published in the Smithsonian Report for 1857, p. 96. 



