Samuel Finley Breese Morse

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901. Excerpt: ... III. The idea of an electro-magnetic telegraph came to Morse in mid-ocean. He was a passenger on the packet ship Sully, Captain Pell, which left Havre October 1, 1832, for New York. Among the passengers was Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, who afterward disputed Morse's claim to the great invention. One day at the dinner-table, conversation turned upon recent investigations in electricity; and Dr. Jackson seems to have been the principal speaker. He laid down the laws of electro-magnetism so far as they were known at the time, and explained the method of increasing the force of a magnet by passing the electric current many times around a bar of soft iron. Questions arose in regard to the velocity of electricity and in regard to the distance the strange influence could be transmitted. The speaker said that electricity was transmitted instantaneously, no appreciable time having been observed by Franklin between the instant of closing the circuit and the appearance of the electric spark at a distance. It is reported that Morse then said, If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not v be transmitted instantaneously by elec-_.' tricity. Dr. Jackson afterward claimed... that he then and there developed a plan for accomplishing this great end which was substantially that which Morse afterward used. Morse persistently refused to give Dr. Jackson any credit whatever for the suggestion. Dr. Jackson was a man of varied information, and his friends firmly believed that his fertile mind was capable of conceiving of the idea of an electro-magnetic telegraph. It does not appear that he had a mechanical turn or that he was endowed with great persistence in carrying his brilliant ideas to a p...