SAMUEL FIN LEY BREESE MORSE. 225 



by the electric current, and that a magnet will 

 induce electricity in a coil of wire. Schweigger 

 of Halle discovered that "the deflection of the 

 needle may be increased by coiling an insulated 

 wire in a series of ovals or flat rings, compactly 

 disposed, in a loop, and conducting the current 

 around the needle from end to end.' 7 Ampere 

 developed the theory of electro-magnetism, and 

 proposed to the French Academy in 1820 a plan 

 for a telegraph, in which there was to be a needle 

 for each letter. 



In 1827 Morse had listened to a course of lectures, 

 given by Prof. James Freeman Dana, upon these 

 matters, so that the subject was still fresh in his 

 mind when he crossed the ocean in the Sully. 

 Prof. Joseph Henry's important discoveries were 

 also well known. 



Says Prof. E. N. Horsford of Cambridge, Mass., 

 in the admirable life of Morse written by Dr. 

 Samuel Irenseus Prime : " He knew generally, 

 when he stepped on board the Sully, in 1832, 

 that a soft-iron horseshoe-shaped bar of iron could 

 be rendered magnetic while a current of galvanic 

 electricity was passing through a wire wound round 

 it; and he knew that electricity had been trans- 

 mitted, apparently instantaneously, through wires 

 of great length, by Franklin and others. ... In 

 the leisure of ship-life the idea of a recording 

 electric telegraph seized Professor Morse's mind, 

 and he gave expression to his conviction that it was 

 possible. As it was possible to dispatch and to^ 



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