148 BOARD OF REGENTS. 



and it would not have been surprising if inaccuracies had occurred 

 in some parts of his statement ; but all the material points in it are 

 sustained by independent testimony, and that portion which relates 

 directly to Mr. Morse agrees entirely with the statement of his own 

 assistant, Dr. Gale. Had his deposition been objectionable, it ought 

 to have been impeached before the court ; but this was not at- 

 tempted ; and the following tribute to Professor Henry by the judge, 

 in delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, 

 indicates the impression made upon the court itself by all the testi- 

 mony in the case : " It is due to him to say that no one has con- 

 tributed more to enlarge the knowledge of electro-magnetism, and 

 to lay the foundations of the great invention of which we are speak- 

 ing, than the professor himself." 



Professor Henry's answers to the first and second interrogatories 

 present a condensed history of the progress of the science of elec- 

 tro-magnetism, as connected with telegraphic communication, em- 

 bracing an account of the discoveries of Oersted, Arago, Davy, 

 Ampere ; of the investigations by Barlow and Sturgeon ; of his 

 own researches, commenced in 1828, and continued in 1829, 1830, 

 and subsequently. The details of his experiments and their results, 

 though brief, are very precise. There is abundant evidence to show 

 that Professor Henry's experiments and illustrations at Albany, and 

 subsequently at Princeton, proved, and were declared at the time 

 by him to prove, that the electric telegraph was now practicable ; 

 that the electro-magnet might be used to produce mechanical effects 

 at a distance adequate to making signals of various kinds, such as 

 ringing bells, which he practically illustrated. In proof of this, we 

 quote a letter to Professor Henry, from Professor James Hall, of 

 Albany, late president of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. 



January 19, 1856. 



Dear Sir : While a student of the Eensselaer School, in Troy, New York, in 

 August, 1802, I visited Albany with a friend, having a letter of introduction to you 

 from Professor Eaton. Our principal object was to see your electro-magnetic appa- 

 ratus, of which we had heard much, and at the same time the library and collections 

 of the Albany Institute. 



You showed us your laboratory in a lower story or basement of the building, and 

 in a larger room in an upper story some electric and galvanic apparatus, with various 

 philosophical instruments. In this room, and extending around the same, was a cir- 

 cuit of wire stretched along the wall, and at one termination of this, in the recess of 

 a window, a bell was fixed, while the other extremity was connected with a galvanic 

 apparatus. 



You showed us the manner in which the bell could be made to ring by a current of 

 electricity, transmitted through this wire, and you remarked that this method might 

 be adopted for giving signals, by the ringing of a bell at the distance of many miles 

 from the point of its connection with the galvanic apparatus. 



All the circumstances attending this visit to Albany are fresh in my recollection, 

 and during the past years while so much has been said respecting the invention of 



