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

  • Kendall, Amos, 1789-1869.
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 Hon. Amos Kendall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    It will be recollected, that the perforation of paper by the elec- tric spark, was one of the modes of telegraphing which Dr. Jack- son says, in his letter of 1837, he described to Prof. Morse on board the Sully. The charitable supposition is, that his mind, in its morbid desire for fame, has confounded that mode of perforation with the mode he afterwards discovered to be used by Prof. Morse; and, as often happens, even to persons not reputed as absolutely insane, he now really believes the conception of mark- ing with a metallic point was his own ! It was but a step further in the same direction, first to imagine, and then to believe, that he had actually affixed such a point to a lever beam, and shown it in action in 1834!! But it seems not to have occurred to him that his imagination had not travelled far enough to make out a perfect or even plau- sible case. The marking with a metallic point is but a part of Morse's system, which contemplated the use of but one wire. That mode of marking was devised for one wire, and if not in- separable from it in practice, is so peculiarly adapted to it as to render it highly improbable that it would ever have been thought of in any other combination. It is in that combination, that Morse conceived it, and in no other has it ever been used. Now, Dr. Jackson admits, that he did not know Morse proposed to use but one wire until after the correspondence of 1837, and he virtually concedes to him that part of the invention. In his letter to House, he says, Perhaps he (Morse) can also maintain his claim for one wire and connection with the soil. The fol- lowing question was put to him in his recent examination, viz: When, if ever, did you first learn that Prof. Morse did in fact design using but one wire and one magnet, with proper connec- tions for telegraphic purposes, and was entitled to the credit of that invention ? He replied: I never learned that he was entitled to such credit at all. I think he mentions the use of one wire in his letter to me. I don't know when I learned he was about- using one wire, &c, with proper connections, as asked. It was after our correspondence had ceased Now, the last letter in that correspondence is dated December 7th, 1837. It follows, from his own showing, that Dr. Jackson knew nothing of Prof. Morse's real mechanical combination until after the 7th December, 1837. The one wire is an essential part of Morse's invention; the metallic point for marking was specially adapted to the one wire; they are parts of the same invention—the one wire first, and the pen point next—and it would be singular, indeed, if Dr. Jackson had in 1834 a distinct conception of the second part without having the least idea of the first!