384 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



words numbered and adapted to tliis system of telegraph; 6th, 

 modes of laying the conductors to preserve them from injury." 



A new and improved transmitting and recording a])paratus was 

 completed for Professor Morse, by his partner, Mr. Alfred Vail, of 

 the Speedwell Iron-works, near ]\Iorristown, N. J. at the close of 

 the year 1837; and early in January, 1838, Professor Morse first 

 discarded the numeral signs for words, and employed a true alpha- 

 bet of "dots and dashes." The first exhibition of an alphabetic 

 record of words and sentences took place in the New York City 

 University, January 24th, 1838, through ten miles of wire wound 

 on reels. The New York Journal of Commerce, in a notice of this 

 performance, remarked : "Professor Morse has recently improved 

 on his mode of marking, by which he can dispense altogether with 

 the telegraphic dictionary, using letters instead of numbers." * The 

 biographer of Morse designates the dispatch transmitted through 

 the wires on this occasion, "the first sentence that was ever recorded 



by the telegraph." f 



An application for a patent (signed by Professor Morse, April 

 7th, 1838,) was filed in the Patent Office; and in addition to the 

 several parts described in the earlier Caveat, this application included 

 the new system of alphabetic symbols, and the "relay" of successive 

 electro-magnetic circuits. At his own request, the grant of the 

 patent was suspended until he should have made a visit to Europe : 

 and itw^as not issued till June 20th, 1840. On his return from his 

 European tour. Professor Morse, in May, 1839, sought an interview 

 w'itli Henry at Princeton, from w^hieh he received much encourage- 

 ment: having the differences betw'een the "quantity" and "intensity" 

 magnets fully ex])lained to him, and learning from that cautious 

 investigator that he w^as aware of no obstacle to the magnetization 

 of soft iron "at the distance of a hundred miles or more" from the 

 battery. I 



During the long and weary interval in which Professor Morse — 

 with hope deferred — was unavailingly prosecuting his memorial to 

 Congress for assistance, he received from Henry the following 

 frieudlv and inspiriting letter: 



"Princeton College, Feb. 24, 1842. 

 "]My dear Sir: I am pleased to learn that you have again peti- 

 tioned Congress in reference to your telegraph ; and I most sincerely 

 hope you will succeed in convincing our Kepresentatives of the 

 importance of the invention. - - - Science is now fully ripe 



♦New York Journal of Commerce of January 29th, 1838. 

 •• Prime's Life of Morse, 8vo. New York, 1875, p. 331. 

 X Prime's Life of Morse, cliap. x. pp. 421, 422. 



