15 



the law on wliicli 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. Uarlow and those who preceded him had encountered, that is, the impossi- 

 bility of forcing the galvanic current through a long telegraph lino. 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 Sillimau's Journal. His attention was directed to it by Dr. Gale." 



What changed Mr. I\Iorse's opinion of Professor Henry, not only as a 

 scientific investigator, but as a man of integrity, after the admissions 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 jMr. 

 Morse as the inventor of an admirable invention, denied to him the addi- 

 tional 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-magnet for tele- 

 graphic 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 writings, or the subject of elec- 

 tricity, 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, 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 state- 

 ment of his own assistant, Dr. Gale. Had his deposition been objection- 

 able, it ought to have been impeached before the Court ; but this was not 

 attempted ; and the following tribute to Professor Henry by the Judge 

 in delivering the opinion of the Supremo Cour-t of the United States, 

 indicates the impression made upon the Court itself by all the testimony 

 in the case : " It is due to him to say that no one has contributed more 

 to enlarge the knowledge of electro-magnetism, and to lay the foundations 

 of the great inventions of which we are speaking, than the Professor him- 

 self." 



Professor Henry's answers to the first and second interrogatories pre- 

 sent a condensed history of the progress of the science of electro-magnet- 



