144 BOARD OF REGENTS. 



says, " I perceive many things (in the contributions) of great inter- 

 est to me in my telegraphic enterprise." Again, in the same letter, 

 speaking of an intended visit to the Professor, at Princeton, he says : 

 " 1 should come as a learner, and could bring no ' contributions ' to 

 your stock of experiments of any value." And. still further : " I 

 think that you have pursued an original course of experiments, and 

 discovered facts more immediately bearing upon my invention than 

 any that have been published abroad." 



It appears, from Mr. Morse's own statement, that he had at least 

 two interviews with Professor Henry — one in May, 1839, when he 

 passed the afternoon and night with him, at Princeton ; and another 

 in February, 1844 — both of them for the purpose of conferring with 

 him on subjects relating to the telegraph, and evidently with the con- 

 viction, on Mr. Morse's part, that Professor Henry's investigations 

 were of great importance to the success of the telegraph. 



As late as 1846, after Mr. Morse had learned that some dissatis- 

 faction existed in Professor Henry's mind in regard to the manner in 

 which his researches in electricity had been passed over by Mr. Vail, 

 an assistant of Mr. Morse, and the author of a history of the Ameri- 

 can magnetic telegraph, Mr. Morse, in an interview with Professor 

 Henry, at Washington, said, according to his own account, " Well, 

 Professor Henry, I will take the earliest opportunity that is afforded 

 me in anything I may publish to have justice done to your labors ; 

 for I do not think that justice has been done you, either in Europe 

 or this country." 



Again, in 1848, when Professor Walker, of the Coast Survey, 

 made his report on the theory of Morse's electro-magnetic telegraph, 

 in which the expression occurred, " the helix of a soft iron magnet, 

 prepared after the manner first pointed, out by Professor Henry," 

 Mr. Morse, to whom the report was submitted, said : " I have now 

 the long wished for opportunity to do justice publicly to Henry's 

 discovery bearing on the telegraph." And in a note prepared by 

 him, and intended to be printed with Professor Walker's report, he 

 says: "The allusion you make to the helix of a soft iron magnet, 

 prepared after the manner first pointed out by Professor Henry, gives 

 me an opportunity, of which I gladly avail myself, to say that I think 

 that justice has not yet been done to Professor Henry, either in Europe 

 or in this country, for the discovery of a scientific fact, which, in its 

 bearing on telegraphs, whether of the magnetic needle or electro- 

 magnet order, is of the greatest importance." 



He then proceeds to givfe a historical synopsis, showing that, 

 although suggestions had been made and plans devised by Soem- 



