HENRY AND THE TELEGEAPH. 351 



During the long and weary interval in wlucli Professor Morse — with hope deferred — 

 was unavniliugly prosecuting his memorial to Congress for assistance, Henry wrote to 

 him the following encouraging and friendly letter : 



"Princeton College, Fehruary 24, 1842. 

 " My Dear Sir : I am pleased to learn that you have again jietitioned Congress in 

 reference to your telegraph, and I most sincerely hope you will succeed in convincing 

 our representatives of the importance of the invention. In this you may perhaps 

 find some difficulty; since in the minds of many, the electro-magnetic telegraj>h is 

 associated with the various chimerical projects constantly itresented to the public, 

 and particularly with the schemes so i>opular a year or two ago, for the application of 

 electricity as a moving power in the arts. The case is however entirely different in 

 regard to the electro-magnetic telegraph. Science is now fully ripe for this applica- 

 tion, and I have not the least doubt, if ijroper means be aflorded, of the perfect suc- 

 cess of the invention. The idea of transmitting intelligence to a distance by means 

 of electrical action has been suggested by various jiersous from the time of Franklin 

 to the present ; but until within the last few years, or since the imncipal discoveries 

 in electro-magnetism, all attempts to reduce it to ^iractice were necessarily unsuccess- 

 ful. The mere suggestion however of a scheme of this kind, is a matter for which 

 little credit can be claimed, since it is one which would naturally arise in the mind 

 of almost any person familiar with the phenomena of electricity ; but the bringing 

 it forward at the jiroper moment, when the developments of science are able to furnish 

 the means of certain success, and the devising a plan for carrying it into practical 

 operation, are the grounds of a just claim to scientific reputation as well as to public 

 patronage. About the same time with yourself. Professor Wheatstone, of London, 

 and Dr. Stcinheil, of Germany, prox)osed jilans of the electro-magnetic telegraph ; but 

 these ditter as much from yours as the nature of the common principle would well 

 permit: and unless some essential improvements have lately been made in these 

 European plans, I should jirefer the one invented by yourself. 



" With my best wishes for your success, I remain, with much esteem, 



' ' Yours truly, 



" Joseph Henry." 



Professor Morse's biogra^jher, in reproducing this letter, makes the comment : "This 

 was the most encouraging communication Professor Morse received diu-ing the dark 

 ages between 1839, and 1843." And he again notices it on a subsequent page: " In 

 the summer of 1842, Professor Morse communicated to the Hon. W. W. Boardman, 

 member of the House of Representatives in Congress, the encouraging letter from Pro- 

 fessor Henry, of February 24, 1842."* And when on December 30, of 1842, the Hon. 

 Charles G. Ferris, of New York, reported in the House of Rei^resentatives the bill au- 

 thorizing the construction of the telegraiih, this justly valued testimonial of Henry, 

 accompanied Professor Morse's memorial. The Hon. Fernando Wood, of New York (a 

 colleague of Mr. Ferris), in reviewing the history of that enactment some thirty years 

 later, (on the occasion of the memorial proceedings at the Capitol in honor of Professor 

 Morse,) did not forget to remark: "With this letter [from Professor Morse] was an- 

 other to him from Prof. Joseph Henry, now of the Smithsonian Institution, and then 

 of Princeton College, indorsing and sustaining the application. Professor Henry was 

 deemed high authority on all scientific subjects generally, and especially upon this, to 

 which he had devoted much attention, being himself a successful investigator in elec- 

 tro-magnetic science."+ The bill of Mr. Ferris passed the House of Representatives, 



kinds of magnets, would have unfolded the utility of the "quantity" magnet as a 

 terminal re-enforcement of a long "intensity" lin(% seems highly probalde, — if not 

 almost inevitable. If Professor Morse did not profit by it, or failed rightly to apj)re- 

 hend it, this may be explained by his possible preoccupation with the' project of 

 dividing a long lino into a succession of "relays." 



*Prime's Life of Morse, chap, x, pp. 423 and 433. 



\ Memorial of F. S. B. Morse, April 16, 1872, Washington, 1875, p. 79. 



