354 HENRY AND THE TELEGRAPH 



At liis next interview with Henry on the 13tli of February, 1844, (on his waj from 

 New York,) he was advised to suspend his wires through the air on poles, at a suffi- 

 cient elevation to avoid injury from the recklessness of mischievous boys : as Henry 

 feared that the risk of "cross-cut" on long lines, even with good insulation, was 

 scarcely avoidable.* Henry also informed him that this plan had been successfully 

 adopted by Gauss and Weber ten years previously. 



Professor Morse, who had thought of this method before, btit with much distrust, at 

 once determined to carry it out, and early in the following month, March, made prej^a- 

 rations for its execution. Two methods of suspension were suggested, the tirst plan 

 (that of Mr. Vail), the gathering of the four wrapped or insulated wires together at 

 their supports, requiring but a single insulator on each pole, to which Professor Morse 

 was himself inclined as involving least cost ; the second plan (that of Mr. Ezra Cor- 

 nell), the scattering of the wires, and the supi>orting of them apart on independent 

 insulators. The following is Professor Morse's account to Mr. Cornell of a second in- 

 terview and consultation with Henry on this subject, on the Ist of March, 1844, (on 

 his way back to New York,) which he inadvertently confounds with his preceding 

 interview two or three weeks earlier : 



"On my way to New York, where I went to order the fixtures, I stopped at Prince, 

 ton, and called on my old friend Professor Henry, who inquired how I was getting 

 along with my telegraph.t I explained to him the failure of the insulation in the 

 pipes, and stated that I had decided to place the wires on poles in the air. He then 

 inquired how I proposed to insulate the wires where they were attached to the poles. 

 I showed him the model I had of Mr. Vail's plan ; and he said : ' It will not do; you 

 will meet the same difficulty you had in the pipes.' I then explained to him your 

 plan, which he said would answer." t And this is the method since universally 

 adopted in this country. On the 24th of May following, the first message was sent 

 over the completed telegraph line by Professor Morse from Washington to Baltimore, 

 and immediately repeated by Mr. Vail from Baltimore back to Washington. 



The success of this new enterprise (foreseen, encouraged, and promoted, by Henry) 

 having been assured, various competitors sprang up as usual, (with similar and with 

 dissimilar systems,) to share in its benefits and profits ; and in a few years numerous 

 litigations arose in resistance of real or supposed infringements. Notwithstanding 

 the zeal and bitterness infused into these controversies by interested partisans, Henry 

 never lost his interest in the success of Professor Morse's plan of telegraphing ; but 

 while desirous that meritorious rival schemes (such as that of the printing telegraph, 

 — tirst invented by Alfred Vail, in September, 1837, and developed by Royal E. House 

 in 1846, to a practical operation) should have a fair trial, he steadily refused to he 

 made a party to any such discussions; until at last ho was summoned by suhprnna to 

 attend a trial at Boston, to testify to the pre-existing st^te of the art.$ In occupying 



* "Mr. Morse visited me at Princeton to consult me on the arrangement of his con- 

 ductors. During this visit we conversed freely on the subject of insulation and con- 

 duction of wires. I urged him to put his wires on poles." (Smithsonian Report for 

 1857, pp. 112, 113. 



t [Such an inquiry would appear superfluous in view of Professor Morse's recent 

 letter dated February 7. The whole coloring of the interview is inaccurate.] 



\ Prime's Life of Morse, chap. xi. pp. 479, 480. A treatise on the "Telegraph," just 

 published, gives the following account of the plan adopted: "An arm thirty inches 

 long, with a pin at each end, bearing a glass bureau-knob, — an insulation proposed by 

 Mr. Cornell and approved by Professor Henry, was secured to the upper end of each 

 pole. Around the bureau-knobs the conducting wires were wrapped." ( The Telegraph 

 in America. By James D. Reid. 8vo. New York, 1879, chap, xi, p. IKi.) 



^ "A series of controversies and la-w-suits having arisen between rival claimants 

 for telegraphic patents, I was repeatedly appealed to to act as expert and witness in 

 such cases. This I uniforndy declined to do, not wishing to be in any manner in- 

 volved in these litigations, but was finally compelled under legal process to return to 

 Boston from Maine, (whither I had gone on a visit,) and to give evidence on the sub- 

 ject." (Smithsonian lieport for 1857, p. 87.) 



