JOSEPH HENRY 125 



such a way that, when the current was sent through the circuit, 

 a bell was rung. In this way he demonstrated that it was pos- 

 sible to send signals to a distance of many miles by means of 

 an electric current. Acting on his avowed principle that when 

 the scientific investigator had shown a practical result to be pos- 

 sible, there would be plenty of inventors to put the discovery to 

 practical uses, he himself never attempted to do more than to 

 show how the telegraph could be put into operation. It was three 

 years after this, in 1835, when Professor Morse continued these 

 experiments with the view of devising a practical telegraph. 

 Three years later he had perfected his alphabet of dots and 

 dashes but did not succeed in securing the necessary public 

 support for the telegraph until 1842. Professor Henry's gener- 

 osity and public spirit is strikingly shown in a letter which he 

 addressed to Professor Morse at this time. The following are 

 the most important passages: 



DEAR SIR: 



"I am pleased to learn that you have again petitioned Congress 

 in reference to your telegraph ; and I most sincerely hope you will 

 succeed in convincing our representatives of the importance of 

 the invention. . . . Science is now fully ripe for this application, 

 and I have not the least doubt, if proper means be afforded, of the 

 perfect success of the invention. The idea of transmitting in- 

 telligence to a distance by means of the electrical action has been 

 suggested by various persons, from the time of Franklin to the 

 present but until within the last few years, or since the principal 

 discoveries in electro-magnetism, all attempts to reduce it to prac- 

 tice were necessarily unsuccessful. The mere suggestion however 

 of a scheme of this kind, is a matter for which little credit can be 

 claimed, since it is one which would naturally arise in the mind of 

 almost any person familiar with the phenomena of electricity: 

 but the bringing it forward at the proper moment when the de- 

 velopments of science are able to furnish the means of certain 

 success, and the devising a plan for carrying it into practical op- 

 eration, are the grounds of a just claim to scientific reputation as 

 well as to public patronage. About the same time with yourself, 

 Professor Wheatstone of London, and Dr. Steinheil of Germany, 

 proposed plans of the electro-magnetic telegraph; but these differ 

 as much from yours as the nature of the common principle would 



