JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 147 



Morse was the inventor of a machine, the object of which was to 

 record characters at a distance, to convey intelligence, in other 

 words, to carry into execution the idea of an electric telegraph. 

 But there were obstacles in the way which he could not overcome 

 until he learned of the discoveries of Professor Henry, and applied 

 them to his machine. These facts are undeniable. They constitute 

 a part of the history of science and invention. They were true in 

 1848, they were equally true in 1855, when Professor Morse's article 

 was published. We give a passage here from the deposition of 

 Sears C. Walker, in the case of French vs. liogers, respondent's 

 evidence, page 199, bearing upon this whole subject : 



" In consequence of some statements made by me in my official reports relative to 

 the invention of the receiving magnet, a question arose between Mr. Morse and my- 

 self as to the origin of this invention. It was amicably discussed by Mr. Morse, Pro- 

 fessor Henry, Dr. Gale, and myself, with Professor Henry's article, alluded to in 

 answer to the second question before us. The result of the interview was conclusive 

 to my mind that Professor Henry was the sole discoverer of the law on which the 

 intensity magnet depends for its power of sending the galvanic current through a long 

 circuit. I was also led to conclude that Mr. Morse, in the course of his own researches 

 and experiments before he had read Professor Henry's article, before alluded to, had 

 encountered the same difficulty Mr. Barlow and those who preceded him had encoun- 

 tered, that is, the impossibility of forcing the galvanic current through a long tele- 

 graph line. His own personal researches had not overcome this obstacle. They were 

 made in the laboratory of the New York University. I also learned at the same time, 

 by the conversations above stated, that he only overcame this obstacle by constructing 

 a magnet on the principle invented by Professor Henry, and described in his article in 

 Silliman's Journal. His attention was directed to it by Dr. Gale." 



What changed Mr. Morse's opinion of Professor Henry, not only 

 as a scientific investigator, but as a man of integrity, after the ad- 

 missions of his indebtedness to his researches, and the oft repeated 

 expressions of warm personal regard ? It appears that Mr. Morse 

 was involved in a number of lawsuits, growing out of contested 

 claims to the right of using electricity for telegraphic purposes. 

 The circumstances under which Professor Henry, as a well known 

 investigator in this department of physics, was summoned by one 

 of the parties to testify have already been stated. The testimony of 

 Mr. Henry, while supporting the claims of Mr. Morse as the inven- 

 tor of an admirable invention, denied to him the additional merit 

 of being a discoverer of new facts or laws of nature, and to this 

 extent, perhaps, was considered unfavorable to some part of the 

 claim of Mr. Morse to an exclusive right to employ the electro-mag- 

 net for telegraphic purposes. Professor Henry's deposition consists 

 of a series of answers to verbal, as well as written, interrogatories 

 propounded to him, which were not limited to his published writ- 

 ings, or the subject of electricity, but extended to investigations and 

 discoveries in general having a bearing upon the electric telegraph. 

 He gave his testimony at a distance from his notes and manuscripts, 



