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
Catalogue details

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.)

    24/64
    In his letter of November 7th, 1837, to Prof. Morse, Dr. Jackson says : '•You will acknowledge that you were at that time wholly uriacquainted with the history and management oi'elecricity and electro-magnetism, While I was perfectly familiar with the sub- ject, il having been one of my favorite studies from boyhood up to that time, and 1 had enjoyed every possible advantage in ac- quiring a full knowledge of the subject during my studies in the scientific schools of Paris and elsewhere. * * I knew every experiment mentioned from my own frequent practice in making them. It was to me no unwrought problem, but a matter of absolute certainty. I was not making conjectures but reporting the facts of chemical and physical science. * * You will not, I presume, venture to maintain, that you at that time knew anything about electro-magnetism more than what you learned from me. In his letter to Mr. Plouse, dated January 15th, IS 17, Dr. Jack- son says: Those who know Mr. Morse are aware of the fact, that he had no knowledge of electro-magnetism previous to his voyage in company with me in the packet ship Sully, (Oct., 1832.) * * Ignorance of them would be strong presumptive evidence against the patentee who alleges that he discovered and invented the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, on board the packet ship Sully, during her voyage from Havre to New YTork, in October, 1832. In one of his Kentucky depositions, Dr. Jackson says, that when, on board the Sully, he mentioned electro-mgnetism, Prof. Morse exclainjed, Electro-magnetism ! What is it V In his more recent deposition in the Boston case, he says: When I mentioned the subject, electro magnetism, in the presence of Mr. Morse, during this conversation, he asked me the meaning of the. term, saying, 'Electro-magnetism! How does that differ from other magnetism?' I explained it to him, mak- ing drawings of electro-magnets and a galvanic battery for that purpose. He did not appear to be acquainted with the sub- ject. * * Mr. Morse, as an apology for not knowing any thing about electro magnetism,said that he had paid no attention to the subject, being wholly occupied wjth painting and the fine arts. * * * « Aftei. our arriva] jn New Yorkj he (Mo* brought me in New York, a plate of copper and a plate of zinc each about two inches square, connected by a strip of copper more than a foot in length, and about half an inch in breadth and asked me lftLat would do for an elementary battery. 1 told him no; that infold make no battery at all; that the plates must be near each other, and not connected, for an elementary