DEVELOPMENT OF THE TELEGRAPH 



Baltimore to Washington was used for the first time. 

 From that time forward the career of the inventor 

 was a series of triumphs, marred only by one serious 

 incident when Morse's claim to his invention was con- 

 tested, and he was obliged to defend his position in the 

 courts. 



A REGRETTABLE CONTROVERSY 



In this trial it developed among other things that 

 Doctor Jackson, Morse's fellow passenger on his mo- 

 mentous trip from Europe, maintained that he, and not 

 Morse, was the inventor of the electrical telegraph. 

 He claimed that he had explained to Morse, and had 

 illustrated with sketches, a method of constructing a 

 telegraph which was later usurped by Morse in his ex- 

 periments. At the trial these claims were not sustained, 

 but were in fact absolutely refuted by the sworn state- 

 ments of those on board the boat, among these being 

 the captain of the ship, who identified Morse's instru- 

 ment with drawings which Morse had explained to him 

 in detail on the Sully. 



Sabine, who may be taken as an impartial judge of 

 this controversy, summarizes the position of Doctor 

 Jackson as follows: 



"Doctor Jackson who possesses an unenviable 

 reputation in America for setting up claims to other 

 people's inventions in his statements made in 1837 

 and in 1850, is guilty of considerable self-contradiction, 

 and only in the latter does he even allude to the employ- 

 ment of an electromagnet. Apart from this gentleman's 

 equivocal character and conduct, we do not see anything 



