150 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



in which a large amount of power might, by means of a relay 

 magnet, be called into operation at the distance of many miles. 



I also made several modifications in the electro-magnetic machine 

 before mentioned, and just previous to my leaving for England, in 

 1837, again turned my attention to the telegraph. I think the 

 first actual line of telegraph using the earth as a conductor was 

 made in the beginning of 1836. A wire was extended across the 

 front campus of the college grounds, from the upper story of the 

 library building to the philosophical hall on the opposite side, the 

 ends terminating in two wells. Through this wire, signals were 

 sent, from time to time, from my house to my laboratory. The 

 electro-magnetic telegraph was first invented by me, in Albany, in 

 1830. Professor MORSE, according to his statements, conceived the 

 idea of an electro-magnetic telegraph in his voyage across the ocean 

 in 1832, but did not until several years afterward 1837 attempt 

 to carry his ideas into practice ; and when he did so, he found him- 

 self so little acquainted with the subject of electricity that he could 

 not make his simple machine operate through the distance of a few 

 yards. In this dilemma he called in the aid of Dr. LEONARD D. 

 GALE, who was well acquainted with what I had done in Albany 

 and Princeton, having visited me at the latter place. He informed 

 Professor MORSE that he had not the right kind of a battery nor 

 the right kind of magnets, whereupon the professor turned the 

 matter over to him, and, with the knowledge he had obtained from 

 my researches, he was enabled to make the instrument work through 

 a distance of several miles. For this service Professor MORSE 

 gave him a share of his patent, which he afterward purchased from 

 him for $15,000. At the time of making my original experiments 

 on electro-magnetism in Albany, I was urged by a friend to take 

 out a patent, both for its application to machinery and to the tele- 

 graph, but this I declined^ on the ground that I did not then 

 consider it compatible with the dignity of science to confine the 

 benefits which might be derived from it to the exclusive use of any 

 individual. In this perhaps I was too fastidious. In briefly 

 stating my claims to the invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph, 

 I may say I was the first to bring the electro-magnet into the con- 

 dition necessary to its use in telegraphy, and also to point out its 



