HENRY AS AN ELECTRICAL PIONEER 5i3 



casting and for transoceanic telegraph and telephone service, but a 

 consideration of what he himself says about this and of the notes of his 

 student, quoted above, indicates clearly that in his work is the germ of 

 radio transmission. 



Had not a fire in the Smithsonian Institution in 1865 destroyed so 

 many of Henry's original records, there is but little doubt that in these 

 records there would have been preserved many other interesting and 

 suggestive things. which he did and many significant comments on 

 them. But the record as it is now known to us is sufficient to establish 

 Henry's contributions as outstanding, and to more than justify this 

 distinguished gathering tonight for the purpose of reminding us of our 

 obligation to him. 



Before Joseph Henry died in May, 1878, he had seen an extensive 

 commercial application of telegraphy. He had seen the invention of 

 the telephone but not its commercial application. As years have gone 

 by since that date, a greater and greater superstructure of commercial 

 application has been reared upon the foundations laid by Joseph 

 Henry and the other distinguished scientific workers of his time. 

 When writing as early as 1849, he said: "The only reward I ever 

 expected was the consciousness of advancing science, the pleasure of 

 discovering new truths, and the scientific reputation to which these 

 labors would entitle me." ^ This he surely attained. Joseph Henry 

 died with a national and international scientific reputation. Secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, President of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, a friend of Abraham Lincoln and loaded with honors, both at 

 home and abroad. Since then, as time has gone by, it has but added to 

 his greatness, to the esteem in which he is held and to the value of the 

 services which he has rendered to mankind through his work as an 

 electrical pioneer. 



^ Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1857, p. 117. 



