Morse's patent : full exposure of Dr. Chas. T. Jackson's pretensions to the invention of the American electro-magnetic telegraph / by Amos Kendall.

  • Amos Kendall
Date:
1852
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Morse's patent : full exposure of Dr. Chas. T. Jackson's pretensions to the invention of the American electro-magnetic telegraph / by Amos Kendall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    18/64
    Fisher, of Philadelphia, one of the passengers on board the Sully, asserting his claim to the invention of the Telegraph, and en- closing a list of interrogatories as to what passed on board that ship, to which he requested a general answer. The interrogato- ries were prefaced with some remarks, of which the following is an extract, viz: He [Dr. Jackson] also wishes me to say to you, that a state- ment of the substance of your recollection, separate from any remarks as to what you do not recollect, would be desirable to him, &c. This is surely a shrewd way to examine a witness. If you can say yes, do so—if not, say nothing. I can than draw inferences which ivould otherwise be palpably inadmissible ! This is the plain English of this modest proposition. Mr. Fisher returned an an- swer, however, not at all to Jackson's taste, from which we shall hereafter take extracts. Next we find him in correspondence with Royal E. House, an infringer of Morse's first patent. House writes to him from New York, January 14, 1848, and Jackson answers with almost telegraphic despatch from Boston, January 10,1848. This is surely a swift witness. He heads his letter private and says, near its close, You will please regard this letter as strictly con- fidential. * * * If you can get the evidence you need from others, I should prefer to keep out of the dispute. Id est, if you can overthrow Morse's Patent without my assistance 1 should prefer it; if not, 1 am at your service ! And now, in his depositions of 1849 and 1850, we have him swearing that Morse's invention,pen-point and all, was conceived and minutely described by him on board the packet ship Sully, in October, 1832 ! Thus far, we have been content to array Dr. Jackson against himself. Let us now see how far his claims are disproved by his own witnesses. In his genuine letter to Prof. Morse, dated November 7th, 1837, Dr. Jackson said it was '■'cither Mr. Rives or Mr. Fisher who first suggested the idea of sending news by electricity. In the Post article, of January, 1839, Dr. Jackson says it was he, himself, who first conceived the idea of such an instrument during his return voyage from Europe, in the packet ship Sully, in October, 1832, and adds, The origin of the idea of the new Tele- graph, as above slated, can be proved by a number of passengers on board the Sully; and Mr. Rives, the American ambassador to France, Mr. Fisher, of Philadelphia, and Capt. Pell, of the Sully, having listened to the conversation, will recollect that Mr. Morse acknowledged himself wholly unacquainted with electro-mag- netism, and that Dr. J. freely informed him of every particular discovery applicable to the case.