HISTORY. 
89 
electro-magnetism. As the newspaper also announced that 
Morse had his telegraph in his house, he was visited by many 
persons wishful to behold that “ wonder of our time.” 
Amongst these visitors was young Alfred Vail, who, with his 
brother George, had become very useful to Morse by their 
co-operation in his labours. Alfred Vail himself made at the 
Speedwell workshops, Morristown, New Jersey, the apparatus 
which was subsequently exhibited in the Capitol at Washing¬ 
ton. This apparatus worked with more regularity than that 
invented by Morse. On that day, the 2nd September, Morse's 
machine would not work correctly. Great efforts were made 
to put it in order, but it was not until the 4th of September 
that Morse was able to make it mark numbers that represented 
five words, and the date. In order to express these words, 
62 zig-zags and 15 straight lines were required on the paper. 
These signals represented the following numbers:—215, 36, 
2, 58, 112, 04, 01837. By looking into the key or vocabu¬ 
lary, it was seen that these numbers meant:—“ Successful 
experiment with telegraph, September 4, 1837.” A fac-simile 
of the marks obtained on this occasion on the slip of paper is 
given in Silliman’s “ American Journal of Science and Arts,” 
vol. xxiii., p. 168, and in the “ London Mechanics’ Magazine,” 
of the 10th February, 1838. 
At this time (1st of February, 1838) Morse w T rote to the 
captain of the Sully as follows :—“ I claim to have invented 
the electro-magnetic telegraph on the 19th October, 1832, 
on board the steamboat Sully, in my passage from France to 
the United States ; consequently, I am the inventor of the 
first really practical telegraph founded on electrical prin¬ 
ciples. All the practical European telegraphs are founded on 
a different principle, and with one single exception were 
invented after mine.” 
In this strain spoke the painter Morse, after having 
obtained, on the 4th of September, the same result we have 
mentioned with the apparatus Dr. Gale helped him to make. 
He claims priority over all that had been done before him in 
telegraphy. He obtained his results a month after the death 
of Schilling, who, twenty-seven years previously (1810), 
had seen at Soemmering’s in Munich, the earliest known 
galvanic telegraph, and who had himself, twelve years before 
