682 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
ing how to communicate at great distances. In this discourse he asserts the 
possibility of conveying intelHgence from one place to another at a distance of 
1 20 miles as rapidly as a man can write what he would have sent. He takes to 
his aid the then recent invention of the telescope, and explains how characters 
exposed at one station on the top of one hill may be made visible to the next 
station on the top of the next hill. He invented twenty-four simple characters, 
each formed of a combination of three deal boards, each character representing 
a letter by the use of cords ; these characters were pushed from behind a screen 
and exposed, and then withdrawn behind the screen again. It was not, however, 
until the French revolution that the telegraph was applied to practical purposes, 
but about the end of 1793 telegraphic communication was established between 
Paris and the frontiers, and shortly afterwards telegraphs were introduced into 
England. 
The history of the invention and introduction of the electric telegraph by 
Prof Morse is one of inexhaustible interest and every incident relating to it is 
worthy of preservation. The incidents described below will be found of special 
interest. The article is from the pen of the late Judge Neilson Poe, and was the 
last paper written by him. He prepared it during his recent illness, the letter 
embodied in it from Mr. I.atrobe being of course obtained at the time of its date. 
It is as follows : 
On the 5th of April, 1843, when the monthly meeting of the Directors of 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company was about to adjourn, the President, the 
Hon. Louis McLane, rose with a paper in his hand which he said he had almost 
overlooked, and which the Secretary would read. It proved to be an applica- 
tion from Prof. Morse for the privilege of laying the wires of his electric telegraph 
along the line of the railroad between Baltimore and Washington, and was ac- 
companied by a communication from B. H. Latrobe, Esq., Chief Engineer, re- 
commending the project as worthy of encouragement. 
On motion of John Spear Nicholas, seconded by the Hon. John P. Kennedy, 
the following resolution was then considered : 
Resolved, "That the President be authorized to afford Mr. Morse such facil- 
ities as may be requisite to give his invention a proper trial upon the Washing- 
ton Road, provided in his opinion and in that of the engineer it can be done 
without injury to the road and w:ithout embarrassment to the operations of the 
company, and provided Mr. Morse will concede to the company the use of the 
telegraph upon the road without expense, and reserving to the company the right 
of discontinuing the use if, upon experiment, it should prove in any manner in- 
jurious T 
"Whatever," said Mr. McLane, "maybe our individual opinions as to the 
feasibility of Mr. Morse's invention, it seems to me that it is our duty to concede 
to him the privilege he asks, and to lend him all the aid in our power, especially 
as the resolution carefully protects the company against all present or future 
injury to its works, and secures us the right of requiring its removal at any 
time." 
