Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting a Report upon the subject of a System of Telegraphs for the United States. December 11, 1837.
Sir: I have the honor to present this report, in compliance with the following resolution, which passed the House of Representatives on the 3d of February last, viz. “Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be requested to report to the House of Representatives, at its next session, upon the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the United States.” Immediately after its passage I prepared a circular, with the view of procuring, from the most intelligent sources, such information as would enable Congress, as well as the Department, to decide upon the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs.
It seemed also important to unite with the inquiry the procurement of such facts as might show the expense attending different systems; the celerity of communication by each; and the useful objects to be accomplished by their adoption.
A copy of the circular is annexed, (1)
The replies have been numerous, and many of them are very full and interesting. Those deemed material are annexed, numbered 2 to 18, inclusive.
From those communications, and such other investigations as the pressure of business has enabled me to make, I am satisfied that the establishment of a system of telegraphs for the United States would be useful to commerce as well as the Government. It might most properly be made appurtenant to the Post Office Department, and, during war, would prove a most essential aid to the military operations of the country.
The expense, attending it is estimated carefully in some of the documents annexed; but it will depend much upon the kind of system adopted: upon the extent and location of the lines first established; and the charges made to individuals for communicating information through it which may not be of a public character.
On these points, as the Department has not been requested to make a report, no opinion is expressed; but information concerning them was deemed useful as a guide in deciding on the propriety of establishing telegraphs, and was, therefore, requested in the circular before mentioned. Many useful suggestions in relation to the subject will be found in the correspondence annexed, and in the books there referred to.
The Department would take this occasion to express, in respect to the numerous gentlemen whose views are now submitted to Congress, its high appreciation and sincere acknowledgments for the valuable contributions they have made on a subject of so much interest.
I remain, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
The Hon. J. K. Polk,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
No. 1.
Circular to certain Collectors of the Customs, Commanders of
Revenue Cutters, and other persons.
With the view of obtaining information in regard to “the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the United States,” in compliance with the request contained in the annexed resolution of the House of Representatives, adopted at its last session, I will thank you to furnish the Department with your opinion upon the subject. If leisure permits, you would oblige me by pointing out the manner, and the various particulars, in which the system may be rendered most useful to the Government of the United States and the public generally. It would be desirable, if in your power, to present a detailed statement as to the proper points for the location, and distance of the stations from each other, with general rules for the regulation of the system, together with your sentiments as to the propriety of connecting it with any existing department of the Government, and some definite idea of the rapidity with which intelligence could ordinarily, and also in urgent cases, be communicated between distant places. I wish you to estimate the probable expense of establishing and supporting telegraphs, upon the most approved system, for any given distance, during any specified period.
It would add to the interest of the subject if you would offer views as to the practicability of uniting with a system of telegraphs for communication in clear weather and in the day time, another for communication in fogs, by cannon, or otherwise; and in the night, by the same mode, or by rockets, fires, &c.
I should be gratified by receiving your reply by the first of October next.
No. 2.
Letter from S. F. B. Morse, to the Secretary of the Treasury.
Dear Sir: In reply to the inquiries which you have done me the honor to make, in asking my opinion “of the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the United States,” I would say, in regard to the general question, that I believe there can scarcely be two opinions, in such a community as ours, in regard to the advantage which would result, both to the Government and the public generally, from the establishment of a system of communication by which the most speedy intercourse may be had between the most distant parts of the country. The mail system, it seems to me, is founded on the universally admitted principle, that the greater the speed with which intelligence can be transmitted from point to point, the greater is the benefit derived to the whole community. The only question that remains, therefore, is, what system is best calculated, from its completeness and cheapness, to effect this desirable end?
With regard to telegraphs constructed on the ordinary principles, however perfected within the limits in which they are necessarily confined, the most perfect of them are liable to one insurmountable objection—they are useless the greater part of the time. In foggy weather, and ordinarily during the night no intelligence can be transmitted. Even when they can transmit, much time is consumed in communicating but little, and that little not always precise.
Having invented an entirely new mode of telegraphic communication, which, so far as experiments have yet been made with it, promises results of almost marvellous character, I beg leave to present to the Department a brief account of its chief characteristics.
About five years ago, on my voyage home from Europe, the electrical experiment of Franklin, upon a wire some four miles in length was casually recalled to my mind in a conversation with one of the passengers, in which experiment it was ascertained that the electricity travelled through the whole circuit in a time not appreciable, but apparently instantaneous. It immediately occurred to me, that if the presence of electricity could be made visible in any desired part of this circuit, it would not be difficult to construct a system of signs by which intelligence could be instantaneously transmitted. The thought, thus conceived, took strong hold of my mind in the leisure which the voyage afforded, and I planned a system of signs and an apparatus to carry it into effect. I cast a species of type, which I had devised for this purpose, the first week after my arrival home; and although the rest of the machinery was planned, yet, from the pressure of unavoidable duties, I was compelled to postpone my experiments, and was not able to test the whole plan until within a few weeks. The result has realized my most sanguine expectations.
As I have contracted with Mr. Alfred Vail to have a complete apparatus made to demonstrate at Washington by the 1st of January, 1838, the practicability and superiority of my mode of telegraphic communication by means of electro magnetism, (an apparatus which I hope to have the pleasure of exhibiting to you,) I will confine myself in this communication to a statement of its peculiar advantages.
First. The fullest and most precise information can be almost instantaneously transmitted between any two or more points, between which a wire conductor is laid: that is to say, no other time is consumed than is necessary to write the intelligence to be conveyed, and to convert the words into the telegraphic numbers. The numbers are then transmitted nearly instantaneously, (or if I have been rightly informed in regard to some recent experiments in the velocity of electricity, two hundred thousand miles in a second,) to any distance, where the numbers are immediately recognised, and reconverted into the words of the intelligence.
Second. The same full intelligence can be communicated at any moment irrespective of the time of day or night, or state of the weather. This single point establishes its superiority to all other modes of telegraphic communication now known.
Third. The whole apparatus will occupy but little space, (scarcely six cubic feet, probably not more than four;)[11] and it may, therefore, be placed without inconvenience, in any house.
Fourth. The record of intelligence is made in a permanent manner and in such a form that it can be at once bound up in volumes convenient for reference, if desired.
Fifth. Communications are secret to all but the persons for whom they are intended.
These are the chief advantages of the Electro Magnetic Telegraph over other kinds of telegraphs, and which must give it the preference, provided the expense and other circumstances are reasonably favorable.
The newness of the whole plan makes it not so easy to estimate the expense, but an approach to a correct estimate can be made.
The principal expense will be the first cost of the wire or metallic conductors, (consisting of four lengths,) and the securing them against injury. The cost of a single copper wire ¹⁄₁₆ of an inch diameter, (and it should not be of less dimensions,) for 400 miles, was recently estimated in Scotland to be about £1,000 sterling, including the solderings of the wire together; that is, about $6 per mile for one wire, or $24 per mile for the four wires. I have recently contracted for twenty miles of copper wire, No. 18, at 40 cents per pound. Each pound, it is estimated, contains 93 feet, which gives a result coinciding with the Scotch estimate, if $1.60 per mile be added for solderings.
The preparation of the wire for being laid, (if in the ground,) comprehends the clothing of the wires with an insulating or non-conducting substance; the encasing them in wood, clay, stone, iron, or other metal; and the trenching of the earth to receive them. In this part of the business I have no experience to guide me, the whole being altogether new. I can, therefore, only make at present a rough estimate. Iron tubes enclosing the wires, and filled in with pitch and resin, would probably be the most eligible mode of securing the conductors from injury, while, at the same time, it would be the most costly. Iron tubes of 1½ inch diameter, I learn, can be obtained at Baltimore, at 28 cents per foot. The trenching will not be more than three cents for 2 feet, or about $75 per mile. This estimate is for a trench 3 feet deep and 1½ wide. There is no grading; the trench may follow the track of any road, over the highest hills or lowest valleys. Across rivers, with bridges, the circuit may easily be carried, enclosed beneath the bridge. Where the stream, is wide, and no bridge, the circuit, enclosed in lead, may be sunk to the bottom.
If the circuit is laid through the air, the first cost would doubtless be much lessened. This plan of making the circuit has some advantages, but there are also some disadvantages; the chief of which latter is, that, being always in sight, the temptation to injure the circuit to mischievously disposed persons, is greater than if it were buried out of sight beneath their feet. As an offset, however, to this, an injury to the circuit is more easily detected. With regard to danger from wantonness, it may be sufficient to say, that the same objection was originally made in the several cases, successively, of water-pipes, gas-pipes, and railroads; and yet we do not hear of wantonness injuring any of these. Stout spars of some thirty feet in height, well planted in the ground, and placed about 350 feet apart, would, in this case, be required, along the tops of which the circuit might be stretched. Fifteen such spars would be wanted to a mile. This mode would be as cheap, probably, as any other, unless the laying of the circuit in water should be found to be most eligible. A series of experiments to ascertain the practicability of this mode, I am about to commence with Professor Gale, of our university, a gentleman of great science, and to whose assistance, in many of my late experiments, I am greatly indebted. We are preparing a circuit of twenty miles. The result of our experiments I will have the honor of reporting to you.
The other machinery, consisting of the apparatus for transmitting and receiving the intelligence, can be made at a very trifling cost. The only parts of the apparatus that waste or consume materials, are the batteries, which consume acid and zinc, and the register, which consumes paper for recording, and pencils or ink for marking.
The cost of printing, in the first instance, of a telegraphic dictionary,[12] should perhaps also be taken into the account, as each officer of the Government, as well as many others, would require a copy, should this mode of telegraphic communication go into effect. This dictionary would contain a vocabulary of all the words in common use in the English language, with the numbers regularly affixed to each word.
The stations in the case of this telegraph may be as numerous as are desired; the only additional expense for that purpose being the adding of the transmitting and receiving apparatus to each station.
The cost of supporting a system of telegraphs on this plan, (when a circuit is once established,) would, in my opinion, be much less than on the common plans; yet, for want of experience in this mode, I would not affirm it positively.
As to “the propriety of connecting the system of telegraphs with any existing department of Government,” it would seem most natural to connect a telegraphic system with the Post Office Department; for, although it does not carry a mail, yet it is another mode of accomplishing the principal object for which the mail is established, to wit: the rapid and regular transmission of intelligence. If my system of telegraphs should be established, it is evident that the telegraph would have but little rest day or night. The advantage of communicating intelligence instantaneously in hundreds of instances of daily occurrence, would warrant such a rate of postage, (if it may be so called,) as would amply defray all expenses of the first cost of establishing the system, and of guarding it, and keeping it in repair.
As every word is numbered, an obvious mode of rating might be, a charge of a certain amount on so many numbers. I presume that five words can certainly be transmitted in a minute; for, with the imperfect machinery I now use, I have recorded at that rate, at the distance of half a mile.
In conclusion, I would say, that if the perfecting of this new system of telegraphs (which may justly be called the American Telegraph, since I can establish my claims to priority in the invention) shall be thought of public utility, and worthy the attention of Government, I shall be ready to make any sacrifice of personal service and of time to aid in its accomplishment.
In the mean time I remain, sir, with sincere respect and high personal esteem,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
SAML. F. B. MORSE.
Hon. Levi Woodbury,
Secretary of the Treasury.
No. 3.
Letter from S. F. B. Morse to the Secretary of the Treasury.
My Dear Sir: In my letter to you in answer to the circular respecting telegraphs, which you did me the honor to send me, I promised to advise you of the result of some experiments about to be tried with my electro magnetic telegraph. I informed you that I had succeeded in marking permanently and intelligibly at the distance of half a mile.
Professor Gale, of our university, and Mr. Alfred Vail, of the Speedwell iron-works, near Morristown, New Jersey, are now associated with me in the scientific and mechanical parts of the invention. We have procured several miles of wire, and I am happy to announce to you that our success has thus far, been complete. At a distance of five miles, with a common Cruikshank’s battery of 87 plates, (4 by 3½ inches each plate,) the marking was as perfect on the register as in the first instance of half a mile. We have recently added five miles more, making in all ten miles, with the same result; and we have now no doubt of its effecting a similar result at any distance.
I also stated to you, sir, that machinery was in progress of making, with which, so soon as it should be completed, I intended to proceed to Washington, to exhibit the powers of the invention before you and other members of the Government. I had hoped to be in Washington before the session of Congress, but I find that the execution of new machinery is so uncertain in its time of completion, that I shall be delayed, probably, until the beginning of the year.
What I wish to learn from you, sir, is, “How late in the session can I delay my visit, and yet be in season to meet the subject of telegraphs, when it shall be presented by your report to Congress?”
I am anxious, of course, to show as perfect an instrument as possible, and would wish as much time for the purpose of perfecting it as can be allowed without detriment to my interests as an applicant for the attention of Government to the best plan of a telegraph.
I am, my dear sir, with the greatest respect and personal esteem,
Hon. Levi Woodbury,
Secretary of the Treasury.
No. 4.
[From the New York Journal of Commerce.]
We have received the following note and diagram, with the explanation of the latter, from Mr. Morse:
To the Editors of the Journal of Commerce:
Gentlemen: You had the kindness to assert, a few days ago, my claim to the invention of the electro magnetic telegraph, for which I thank you. As to the priority of my invention, entirely planned and for the most part executed as it was nearly five years ago, I can adduce the amplest proof.
You announced that I was preparing a short circuit, to show to my friends the operation of the telegraph. This circuit I have completed, of the length of 1,700 feet, or about one-third of a mile; and on Saturday, the 2d instant, in presence of Professors Gale and Torrey of this city, and Professor Daubeny of the Oxford (English) University, and several other gentlemen, I tried a preliminary experiment with the register. It recorded the intelligence sufficiently perfect to establish the practicability of the plan, and the superior simplicity of my mode of communication, over any of those proposed by the professors in Europe.
It will be observed that no account has reached us that any of the foreign proposed electric telegraphs have as yet succeeded in transmitting intelligible communications; but it is merely asserted of the most advanced experiment, (the one in London,) that “by means of five wires,” &c. intelligence “may be conveyed.” I have the gratification of sending you a specimen of the writing of my telegraph, the actual transmission of a communication made this morning, in a more complete manner than on Saturday, and through the distance of one-third of a mile.
Thinking it may be gratifying to your readers to see the kind of writing which it performs, I have had it engraved for you, accompanied with an explanation.
N. Y. City University, September 4, 1837.
No. 5.
Specimen of Telegraphic Writing made by means of electricity at the distance of one-third of a mile.
The words in the diagram were the intelligence transmitted.
The numbers (in this instance arbitrary) are the numbers of the words in a telegraphic dictionary.
The points are the markings of the register, each point being marked every time the electric fluid passes.
The register marks but one kind of mark, to wit, (V.) This can be varied two ways. By intervals, thus, (V VV VVV,) signifying one, two, three, &c., and by reversing, thus, (Λ) Examples of both these varieties are seen in the diagram.
The single numbers are separated by short, and the whole numbers by long intervals.
To illustrate by the diagram: the word “successful” is first found in the dictionary, and its telegraphic number, 215, is set up in a species of type prepared for the purpose, and so of the other words. The type then operate upon the machinery, and serve to regulate the times and intervals of the passage of electricity. Each passage of the fluid causes a pencil at the extremity of the wire to mark the points as in the diagram.
To read the marks, count the points at the bottom of each line. It will be perceived that two points come first, separated by a short interval from the next point. Set 2 beneath it. Then comes one point, likewise separated by a short interval. Set 1 beneath it. Then come five points. Set 5 beneath them. But the interval in this case is a long interval: consequently, the three numbers comprise the whole number, 215.
So proceed with the rest, until the numbers are all set down. Then, by referring to the telegraphic dictionary, the words corresponding to the numbers are found, and the communication read. Thus it will be seen that, by means of the changes upon ten characters, all words can be transmitted. But there are two points reversed in the lower line. These are the eleventh character, placed before a number, to signify that it is to be read as a number, and not as the representative of a word.
No. 6.
Mr. Smith, from the Committee on Commerce,
made the following Report, April 6th, 1838.
The Committee on Commerce to whom the subject was referred, have had the same under consideration, and report:
On the 3d of February, 1837, the House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the Secretary of the Treasury to report to the House, at its present session, upon the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for the United States.
In pursuance of this request, the Secretary of the Treasury, at an early day after the passage of said resolution, addressed a circular of inquiry to numerous scientific and practical individuals in different parts of the Union; and, on the 6th of December last, reported the result of this proceeding to the House.
This report of the Secretary imbodies many useful suggestions on the necessity and practicability of a system of telegraphic despatches, both for public and individual purposes; and the committee cannot doubt that the American public is fully prepared, and even desirous, that every requisite effort be made on the part of Congress to consummate an object of so deep interest to the purposes of Government in peace and in war, and to the enterprise of the age.
Amid the suggestions thus elicited from various sources, and imbodied in the before-mentioned report of the Secretary of the Treasury, a plan for an electro magnetic telegraph is communicated by Professor Morse, of the University of the city of New York, pre-eminently interesting, and even wonderful. See Report, No. 2.
This invention consists in the application, by mechanism, of galvanic electricity to telegraphic purposes, and is claimed by Professor Morse and his associates as original with them; and being so, in fact, as the committee believe, letters-patent have been secured, under the authority of the United States, for the invention. It has, moreover, been subjected to the test of experiment, upon a scale of ten miles distance, by a select committee of the Franklin Institute of the city of Philadelphia, and reported upon by that eminently high tribunal in the most favorable and confident terms. An abstract from the report thus made is hereunto annexed. No. 7.
In additional confirmation of the merits of his proposed system of telegraphs, Professor Morse has exhibited it in operation (by a coil of metallic wire measuring about ten miles in length, rendering the action equal to a telegraph of half that distance) to the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives, to the President of the United States, and the several heads of Departments, to members of Congress generally, who have taken interest in the examination, and to a vast number of scientific and practical individuals from various parts of the Union; and all concur, it is believed, and without a dissenting doubt, in admiration of the ingenious and scientific character of the invention, and in the opinion that it is successfully adapted to the purposes of telegraphic despatches, and in a conviction of its great and incalculable practical importance and usefulness to the country, and ultimately to the whole world.
But it would be presumptuous in any one, (and the inventor himself is most sensible of this,) to attempt, at this stage of the invention, to calculate in anticipation, or to hold out promises of what its whole extent of capacity for usefulness may be, in either a political, commercial, or social point of view, if the electrical power upon which it depends for successful action shall prove to be efficient, as is now supposed it will, to carry intelligence through any of the distances of 50, 100, 500, or more miles now contemplated. No such attempt, therefore, will be indulged in this report. It is obvious, however, that the influence of this invention over the political, commercial, and social relations of the people of this widely-extended country, looking to nothing beyond, will, in the event of success, of itself amount to a revolution unsurpassed in moral grandeur by any discovery that has been made in the arts and sciences, from the most distant period to which authentic history extends, to the present day. With the means of almost instantaneous communication of intelligence between the most distant points of the country, and simultaneously between any given number of intermediate points which this invention contemplates, space will be, to all practical purposes of information, completely annihilated between the States of the Union, as also between the individual citizens thereof. The citizen will be invested with, and reduce to daily and familiar use, an approach to the high attribute of ubiquity, in a degree that the human mind until recently, has hardly dared to contemplate seriously as belonging to human agency, from an instinctive feeling of religious reverence and reserve on a power of such awful grandeur.
Referring to the annexed report of the Franklin Institute, already adverted to, and also to the letters of Professor Morse, marked 2, 8 and 9, for other details of the superiority of this system of telegraphs over all other methods heretofore reduced to practice by any individual or Government, the committee agree, unanimously, that it is worthy to engross the attention and means of the Federal Government, to the full extent that may be necessary to put the invention to the most decisive test that can be desirable. The power of the invention, if successful, is so extensive for good and for evil, that the Government alone should possess the right to control and regulate it. The mode of proceeding to test it, as suggested, as also the relations which the inventor and his associates are willing to recognise with the Government on the subject of the future ownership, use, and control of the invention, are succinctly set forth in the annexed letters of Professor Morse, marked 8 and 9.
The probable outlay of an experiment upon a scale equal to fifty miles of telegraph, and equal to a circuit of double that distance, is estimated at $30,000. Two-thirds of this expenditure will be for material, which, whether the experiment shall succeed or fail, will remain uninjured, and of very little diminished value below the price that will be paid for it.
The estimates of Professor Morse, as will be seen by his letter, marked 9, amount to $26,000; but, to meet any contingency not now anticipated, and to guard against any want of requisite funds in an enterprise of such moment to the Government, to the people, and to the scientific world, the committee recommend an appropriation of $30,000, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury; and to this end submit herewith a bill.
It is believed by the committee that the subject is one of such universal interest and importance, that an early action upon it will be deemed desirable by Congress, to enable the inventor to complete his trial of the invention upon the extended scale contemplated, in season to furnish Congress with a full report of the result during its present session, if that shall be practicable.
All which is respectfully submitted.
| FRANCIS O. J. SMITH, | JAS. M. MASON, |
| S. C. PHILLIPS, | JOHN T. H. WORTHINGTON, |
| SAMUEL CUSHMAN, | WM. H. HUNTER, |
| JOHN I. DE GRAFF, | GEORGE W. TOLAND, |
| EDWARD CURTIS, | |
| Committee on Commerce, U. S. H. R. | |
No. 7.
Hall of the Franklin Institute, Feb. 8, 1838.
Report of the Franklin Institute Philadelphia.
The sub-committee, from the committee of science and arts, appointed to examine the electro magnetic telegraph of Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, report:
That this instrument was exhibited to them in the hall of the Institute, and every opportunity given by Mr. Morse and his associate, Mr. Alfred Vail, to examine it carefully, and to judge of its operation; and they now present the following as the result of their observations:
* * * * The operation of the telegraph, as exhibited to us, was very satisfactory. The power given to the magnet at the register, through a length of wire of ten miles, was abundantly sufficient for the movements required to mark the signals. The communication of this was instantaneous. The time required to make the signals was as short at least, as that necessary in the ordinary telegraphs. It appears to this committee, therefore, that the possibility of using telegraphs upon this plan, in actual practice, is not to be doubted; though difficulties may be anticipated, which could not be tested by the trials made with the model.
One of these relates to the insulation and protection of the wires, which are to pass over many miles of distance, to form the circuits between the stations. Mr. Morse has proposed several plans: the last being to cover the wires with cotton thread, then varnish them thickly with gum-elastic, and enclose the whole in leaden tubes. More practical and economical means will probably be devised; but the fact is not to be concealed, that any effectual plan must be very expensive.
Doubts have been raised as to the distance to which the electricity of an ordinary battery can be made efficient; but your committee think that no serious difficulty is anticipated as to this point. The experiment with the wire wound in a coil, may not, indeed, be deemed conclusive; but one of the members of the committee assisted in an experiment in which a magnet was very sensibly affected by a battery of a single pair, through an insulated wire of two and three-quarter miles in length, of which the folds were four inches apart; and when a battery of ten pairs was used, water was freely decomposed. An experiment is said to have been made, with success, on the Birmingham and Manchester rail road, through a circuit of thirty miles in length.
It may be proper to state, that the idea of using electricity for telegraphic purposes has presented itself to several individuals, and that it may be difficult to settle among them the question of originality. The celebrated Gauss has a telegraph of this kind in actual operation, for communicating signals between the University of Göttingen and his magnetic observatory in its vicinity. Mr. Wheatstone, of London, has been for some time also engaged in experiments on an electrical telegraph. But the plan of Professor Morse is, so far as the committee are informed, entirely different from any of those devised by other individuals, all of which act by giving different directions to a magnetic needle; and would, therefore, require several circuits of wire between all the stations.
In conclusion, the committee beg leave to state their high gratification with the exhibition of Professor Morse’s telegraph, and their hope that means may be given to him to subject it to the test of an actual experiment, made between stations at a considerable distance from each other. The advantages which this telegraph would present, if successful, over every kind heretofore used, make it worthy the patronage of the Government. These are, that the stations may be at a distance asunder, far exceeding that to which all other telegraphs are limited; and that the signals may be given at night, and in rains, snows, and fogs, when other telegraphs fail.
No. 8.
From S. F. B, Morse, to the Hon. F. O. J. Smith.
Dear Sir: In consequence of the conversation had with the committee on the subject of my telegraph, I would state, that I think it desirable that an experiment, on a somewhat extended scale, should first be made to test both the practicability and the facility of communicating intelligence for at least one hundred miles. The experiment may proceed, as to cost, with perfect safety to the Government. First. The wire for this distance, consisting of four lengths, making a total of four hundred miles of wire, might be obtained, and receive its covering of cotton and other insulation. This length would amply suffice to ascertain the law of the propulsive power of voltaic electricity, and previous to any measures being taken for burying it in the earth. So that, if any unforeseen difficulty should occur fatal to its practicability, the wire is not consumed or lost. If the expected success is realized, then, Second. The preparation of the wire might be commenced for burying in the earth, and, being found complete through the whole route, the several portrules, registers, batteries, &c., might be provided to put the telegraph into complete action. This experiment of one hundred miles would furnish the data from which to make the estimates of a more general extension of the system. If no insurmountable obstacles present themselves in a distance of one hundred miles, none may be expected in one thousand or in ten thousand miles; and then will be presented for the consideration of the Government the propriety of completely organizing the new telegraphic system as a part of the Government, attaching it to some department already existing, or creating a new one, which may be called for by the accumulating duties of the present departments.
It is obvious, at the slightest glance, that this mode of instantaneous communication must inevitably become an instrument of immense power, to be wielded for good or for evil, as it shall be properly or improperly directed. In the hands of a company of speculators, who should monopolize it for themselves, it might be the means of enriching the corporation at the expense of the bankruptcy of thousands; and even in the hands of Government alone, it might become a means of working vast mischief to the republic. In considering these prospective evils, I would respectfully suggest a remedy which offers itself to my mind. Let the sole right of using the telegraph belong, in the first place, to the Government, who should grant, for a specified sum or bonus, to any individual or company of individuals who may apply for it, and under such restrictions and regulations as the Government may think proper, the right to lay down a way communication between any two points, for the purpose of transmitting intelligence; and thus would be promoted a general competition. The Government would have a telegraph of its own, and have its modes of communicating with its own officers and agents, independent of private permission, or interference with and interruption to the ordinary transmissions on the private telegraphs. Thus there would be a system of checks and preventives of abuse, operating to restrain the action of this otherwise dangerous power, within those bounds which will permit only the good and neutralize the evil. Should the Government thus take the telegraph solely under its own control, the revenue derived from the bonuses alone, it must be plain, will be of vast amount. From the enterprising character of our countrymen, shown in the manner in which they carry forward any new project which promises private or public advantage, it is not visionary to suppose that it would not be long ere the whole surface of this country would be channelled for those nerves which are to diffuse, with the speed of thought, a knowledge of all that is occurring throughout the land; making, in fact, one neighborhood of the whole country.
If the Government is disposed to test this mode of telegraphic communication by enabling me to give it a fair trial for one hundred miles, I will engage to enter into no arrangements to dispose of my rights as the inventor and patentee for the United States, to any individual or company of individuals, previous to offering it to the Government for such a just and reasonable compensation as shall be mutually agreed upon.[13]
I remain, sir, respectfully, your most obedient servant,
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.
To the Hon. F. O. J. Smith,
Chairman of the Committee on Commerce
of the House of Representatives.
No. 9.
Letter from S. F. B. Morse to Hon. F. O. J. Smith.
Dear Sir: I have endeavoured to approach a proper estimate of the expense attendant on preparing a complete telegraphic communication for some distance; and taking into consideration the possibility that the experiment may be conclusively tried before the close of the present session of Congress, I have thought that an appropriation for fifty miles of distance would test the practicability of the telegraph quite as satisfactorily as one hundred, because the obstacles necessary to be overcome would not be more proportionally in fifty than in one hundred; while, at the same time, the double circuit necessary in the fifty miles would give a single circuit of one hundred for the purpose of testing the effect of distance upon the passage of electricity. Fifty miles would require a less amount of appropriation, and the experiment could also be sooner brought to a result.
Two hundred miles of wire, or wire for two circuits for fifty miles of distance, including the covering of the wire with cotton, at $100 per mile, |
$20,000 |
Other expenses of preparation of the wire, such as caoutchouc, wax, resin, tar, with reels for winding, soldering, &c., say $6 per mile, |
1,200 |
Batteries and registers, with type, &c., for two stations, and materials for experimenting on the best modes of magnets at long distances, |
800 |
Services of Professor Gale in the chemical department; services of Mr. Alfred Vail in the mechanical department; services of assistants in different departments; my own services in superintending and directing the whole—total |
4,000 |
| Total, | [14] $26,000 |
This estimate is exclusive of expense necessary to lay down the wire beneath the ground. This is unnecessary until the previous preparations are found satisfactory.
I cannot say what time will be required for the completion of the circuits for fifty miles. If the order could be immediately given for the wire, I think all the other matter connected with it might be completed so that every thing would be in readiness in three months. Much will depend on the punctuality with which contractors fulfil their engagements in furnishing the wire and other apparatus.
I remain, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE.
To the Hon. F. O. J. Smith,
Chairman of the Committee on Commerce.
of the House of Representatives.
No. 10.
Mr. Ferris, from the Committee on Commerce, made the following Report, December 30, 1842.
That they regard the question, as to the general utility of the telegraphic system, settled by its adoption by the most civilized nations; and experience has fully demonstrated the great advantages which may be derived from its use. Its capability of speedily transmitting intelligence to great distances, for national defence, and for other purposes, where celerity is desirable, is decidedly superior to any of the ordinary modes of communication in use. By it, the first warning of approaching danger, and the appearance of hostile fleets and armies on our coasts and borders, may be announced simultaneously at the most distant points of our widely-extended empire, thus affording time and opportunity for concentrating the military force of the country, for facilitating military and naval movements, and for transmitting orders suitable to the emergency.
In the commercial and social affairs of the community, occasions frequently arise in which the speedy transmission of intelligence may be of the highest importance for the regulation of business transactions, and in relieving the anxious solicitude of friends, as to the health and condition of those in whose fortunes they feel an interest.
The practicability of establishing telegraphs on the electric principle is no longer a question. Wheatstone, of London, and his associates, have been more fortunate than our American inventor, in procuring the means to put his ingenious system into practical use for two or three hundred miles, in Great Britain; and the movements of the cars on the Blackwall rail road are at this time directed with great economy, and perfect safety to life and property, by means of his magnetic needle telegraph. If a system more complicated and less efficient than the American telegraph is operated for great distances in England, with such eminent success and advantage, there can be no reasonable doubt that, if the means be furnished for putting in operation the system of Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, of New York, the original inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph, the same, if not greater success, will be the result. Your committee are of opinion that it is but justice to Professor Morse, who is alike distinguished for his attainments in science and excellence in the arts of design, and who has patiently devoted many years of unremitting study, and freely spent his private fortune, in inventing and bringing to perfection a system of telegraphs which is calculated to advance the scientific reputation of the country, and to be eminently useful, both to the Government and the people, that he should be furnished with the means of competing with his European rivals.
Professor Morse bases his system upon the two following facts in science:
First. That a current of electricity will pass to any distance along a conductor connecting the two poles of a voltaic battery or generator of electricity, and produce visible effects at any desired points on that conductor.
Second. That magnetism is produced in a piece of soft iron (around which the conductor, in its progress, is made to pass) when the electric current is permitted to flow, and that the magnetism ceases when the current of electricity is prevented from flowing. This current of electricity is produced and destroyed by breaking and closing the galvanic circuit at the pleasure of the operator of the telegraph, who in this manner directs and controls the operation of a simple and compact piece of mechanism, styled the register, which, at the will of the operator at the point of communication, is made to record, at the point of reception, legible characters, on a roll of paper put in motion at the same time with the writing instrument. These characters the inventor has arranged into a conventional alphabet, and which is capable of being learned and used with very little practice.
Professor Morse has submitted his telegraphic plan to the severe scrutiny of European criticism; and the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, the highest scientific tribunal in the world, hailed it with enthusiasm and approbation, when its operation was exhibited, and its principles explained by their distinguished perpetual secretary, M. Arago.
It appears, from documents produced by Professor Morse, that the thanks of several learned bodies in France were voted to him for his invention, and the large medal of honor was awarded to him by the Academy of Industry. It further appears, that several other systems of telegraphs on the electric plan (among which were Wheatstone’s, of London, Steinheil’s, of Munich, and Masson’s, of Caen) had been submitted at various times for the consideration of the French Government, who appointed a commission to examine and report on them all, at the head of which commission was placed the administrator-in-chief of the telegraphs of France, (M. Foy,) who, to a note to Professor Morse, thus writes:
“I take a true pleasure in confirming to you in writing that which I have already had the honor to say to you viva voce—that I have prominently presented to Monsieur the Minister of the Interior your electro magnetic telegraph, as being the system which presents the best chance of a practical application; and I have declared to him that, if some trials are to be made with electric telegraphs, I do not hesitate to recommend that they should be made with your apparatus.”
Your committee, in producing further evidence of the approbation by the scientific world of the system of Professor Morse, would cite the letter of Professor Henry, of Princeton College, well known for his eminent attainments in electrical science, (marked 11,) in the appendix of this report.
More recently, a committee, consisting of some of our most distinguished scientific citizens, was appointed by the American Institute of New York, to examine and report upon this telegraph, who made the report (12) in the appendix. In compliance with the recommendation of this report, the Institute awarded to Professor Morse the gold medal.
Besides the evidence these testimonials furnish of the excellence of Professor Morse’s system, your committee, as well as the greater part of the members of both Houses of Congress, have had a practical demonstration of the operation of the electro magnetic telegraph, and have witnessed the perfect facility and extraordinary rapidity with which a message can be sent by means of it from one extremity of the capitol to the other. This rapidity is not confined in its effects to a few hundred feet, but science makes it certain that the same effects can be produced, at any distance on the globe, between any two given points connected by the conductors.
Your committee have alluded to other electric telegraphs; for, as is not uncommon in the birth of great inventions, scientific minds have, at nearly the same period of time, in various parts of Europe, conceived and planned electric telegraphs; but it is a matter of national pride, that the invention of the first electro magnetic telegraph, by Professor Morse, as well as the first conception of using electricity as the means of transmitting intelligence, by Doctor Franklin, is the offspring of American genius.
Your committee beg leave to refer to the letter of Professor Morse, (marked 13,) in the appendix, to C. G. Ferris, one of the committee, giving, at his request a brief history of the telegraph since it was before Congress, in 1838, for some interesting information concerning it, and for Professor Morse’s estimate of the probable expense of establishing his system of telegraphs for thirty or forty miles.
They would also refer to the House document, No. 15, (December 6, 1837,) and to House report, No. 753, (April 6, 1838,) for valuable information on the subject of telegraphs.
Your committee invite special attention to that part of Professor Morse’s letter which details the plan of a revenue which may be derived from his telegraphic system, when established to an extent sufficient for the purposes of commercial and general intelligence. From these calculations, made upon safe data, it is probable that an income would be derived from its use by merchants and citizens more than sufficient to defray the interest of the capital expended in its establishment. So inviting, indeed, are the prospects of profit to individual enterprise, that it is a matter of serious consideration, whether the Government should not, on this account alone, seize the present opportunity of securing to itself the regulation of a system which, if monopolized by a private company, might be used to the serious injury of the Post Office Department, and which could not be prevented without such an interference with the rights of the inventor and of the stockholders as could not be sustained by justice or public opinion.
After the ordeal to which the electro magnetic telegraph system has been subjected, both in Europe and in America, and the voice of the scientific world in its favor, it is scarcely necessary for your committee to say that they have the fullest confidence in Professor Morse’s plan, and they earnestly recommend the adoption of it by the Government of the United States. They deem it most fortunate that no definite system of telegraphs should hitherto have been adopted by the Government, since it enables them to establish this improved system, which, in the opinion of your committee, is decidedly superior to any other now in use, possessing an advantage over telegraphs depending on vision, inasmuch as it may be used both by night and day, in all weathers, and in all seasons of the year, with equal convenience; and, also, possessing an advantage over electric telegraphs heretofore in use, inasmuch as it records, in permanent legible characters on paper, any communication which may be made by it, without the aid of any agent at the place of recording, except the apparatus which is put in motion at the point of communication. Thus, the recording apparatus, called the register, may be left in a closed chamber, where it will give notice of its commencing to write, by a bell, and the communication may be found, on opening the apartment. Possessing these great advantages, and the means of communication not being liable to interruption by the ordinary contingencies which may impede or prevent the successful action of other telegraphs, the advantages to be derived from it will soon be apparent to the community, and it will become the successful rival of the Post Office, when celerity of communication is desired, and create a revenue from which this system of telegraphs may be extended and ramified through all parts of the country, without imposing any burden upon the people or draughts on the treasury, beyond the outlay for its first establishment.
As a first step towards the adoption of this system of telegraphs by the Government, your committee recommend the appropriation of thirty thousand dollars to be expended under the direction of the Postmaster General, in constructing a line of electro magnetic telegraphs, under the superintendence of Professor Sam’l F. B. Morse, of such length and between such points as shall fully test its practicability and utility; and for this purpose they respectfully submit the following bill:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That the sum of thirty thousand dollars be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for testing the capacity and usefulness of the system of electro magnetic telegraphs invented by Samuel F. B. Morse, of New York, for the use of the Government of the United States, by constructing a line of said electro magnetic telegraphs, under the superintendence of Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, of such length and between such points as shall fully test its practicability and utility; and that the same shall be expended under the direction of the Postmaster General, upon the application of said Morse.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Postmaster General be, and he is hereby, authorized to pay, out of the aforesaid thirty thousand dollars, to the said Samuel F. B. Morse, and the persons employed under him, such sums of money as he may deem to be a fair compensation for the services of the said Samuel F. B. Morse and the persons employed under him, in constructing and in superintending the construction of the said line of telegraphs authorized by this bill.