HENRY AND THE TELEGRAPH. 341 



gatiou had uot been commenced or thouoUt of in March, 1837!"* In this pamphlet 

 controversy which occurred between the joint-patentees some fourteen yeai's after the 

 memorable "award," Professor Wheatstoue in his "Answer" (of January, 185(5,) to 

 Mr. Cooke's first pamphlet (of December, 1854,) somewhat more feebly re-echoes: 

 " With this law and its applications no persons in England who had before occupied 

 themselves with experiments relating to electric telegraphs had been acquainted. "t 



The substance of the "award" rendered by the distinguished arbitrators April 27, 

 1841, in the matter of the Cooke and Wheatstone controversy, was that "Mr. Cooke 

 « entitled to stand alone as the gentleman to whom this country is indebted for having 

 liractically introduced and carried out the electric telegraph as a useful undertaking, 

 promising to be a work of national importance: and Professor Wheatstone is ac- 

 knowledged as the scientific man whose profound and successful researches have 

 already pr(^a?'«i! the public to receive it as a project capable of practical applic;ition."t 

 This decision — studiously non-committal as is its language, and even as interpreted 

 by the extra-judicial letter of Professor Daniell, dated March 24, 1843, (two years sub- 

 sequently.) cannot be regarded as sustaining the prominent thc^ory of "Professor 

 Whcatstone's Case," assuming priority of suggestion or of application of the needle 

 telegraph, as compared with Mr. Cooke. 



NOTE G. (From p. 305.) 



THE AUTIIOKSIIIP OF THE " MORSE ALPHABET." 



It appears from various concurring testimonies, that the new recording instrument 

 constructed for Professor Morse by ]\Ir. Vail diu-iug October, November, and Decem- 

 ber, 1837, was entirely of his own design, Avithout any suggestions from Professor 

 Morse; and that its arrangement for discontinuous marking Avas si>eci ally contrived 

 by its maker for an alphabet exclusively devised by himself; which he abstained 

 from publicly claiming, owing to a delicate sense of obligation incurred by his con- 

 tract with Professor Morse, to render him every assistance in perfecting the mechan- 

 ical arrangements of the telegraph. § 



That Professor Morse had no conception on the 3d of October, 1837, of the form of 

 instrument contemplated by Mr. Vail, is clearly shown by his autographic "caveat" 

 of that date. And his letter to Mr. Vail, of October 24th, announcing the completion 

 of the numbered dictionary, (in Avhich he wrote "we can now talk or write anything 

 by numbers,") is equally conclusive evidence that at this later date, he was still 

 unconscious of any alpha^betic improvement. 



An article in the New York Sun, by its editor, Mr. Moses S. Beach, (written in 1858,) 

 under the heading "Honor to whom honor is due," makes the statement, "We will 

 mention a few incidents connected with Professor Morse's own experience, which we 

 have never seen in i^rint, and which lose none of their interest from the unassuming 

 modesty of the parties referred to." And after alluding to the assistance furnished 



* Mr. Cooke's " Reply " to Professor Wheatstone's "Answer." ( The Electric Telegraph, 

 etc. by W. F. Cooke, part i, p. 199.) Dr. John Locke, of Cincinnati, who was in Lon- 

 don in the summer of 1837, on his return to this country, having informed Professor 

 Morse of Wheatstone's telegraphic experiments, Professor Morse in a letter fi-om New 

 York to Alfred Vail, at Speedwell, dated October 24, 1837, thus referred to the matter : 

 "We have just lieard that Professor Wheatstone lias tried an experiment with his 

 method, twenti/ miles, with success. We have therefore nothing to fear." (Pi-ime's 

 Life of Morse, chap, viii, p. 326.) At this date Professor Gale had operated the Morse 

 instrument through only" three miles of wire in the circuit. 



t The Electric Telegraph, etc., by W. F. Cooke, part i, t^. 57. 



t The Electric Telegraph, etc., by W. F. Cooke, i)art i, \^. IG: and part ii, pp. 214 and 

 208. 



<5 V>y the terms of the partnership in the telegraph, Mr. Vail agreed "to devote his 

 personal services and skill in constructing and bringing to perfection, as also in im- 

 proving, the UKfclianical }iarts of said invention, . . . without chai'ge for such 

 personal services to the other xn'oprietors, and for their common benefit." 



