Details
MORSE, SAMUEL F.B., inventor of the telegraph. Autograph telegram signed ("S.F.B. Morse"), [probably New York], n.d. [1850's], 1 page, oblong 4to, in pencil on printed telegraph form of the "New York, Albany & Buffalo Telegraph Co."; MORSE. Autograph testimonial letter signed ("Sam. F.B. Morse"), New York, 14 June 1871, 1 page, 4to, integral blank, Morse introduces Mrs. Alfred Vail, "widow of my excellent friend and colleague in the elaboration of the Telegraph...who with her family visits Europe for pleasure and information. Mr. Vail is the author of the early history of the Telegraph, a work translated in the French language, and to him belongs the credit of the first attempt to collate the facts bearing on the invention...," elegantly written and boldly signed.
THE INVENTOR OF TELEGRAPHY TELEGRAPHS FOR HIS COACHMAN
In the first manuscript, Morse puts his invention to practical use, telegraphing his office in Poughkeepsie, up the Hudson, to request he be met at the train station: "Say to my coachman, I come in 5 o'clock train to night..." This is an unusually early telegram, datable only by the printed blank space for the date ("185-"). Morse had conceived the telegraph apparatus as early as 1832, but constructed and demonstrated it for the first time in 1844, transmitting from Washington to Baltimore the famous message "What hath God wrought?" Alfred Vail, recommended in the second manuscript above, was Morse's partner in 1837; he was the operator who received the famous message in Baltimore. In the early 1850s, the telegraph was still in relatively limited use on a few lines, but by the 1860s its use had become widespread. (2)
THE INVENTOR OF TELEGRAPHY TELEGRAPHS FOR HIS COACHMAN
In the first manuscript, Morse puts his invention to practical use, telegraphing his office in Poughkeepsie, up the Hudson, to request he be met at the train station: "Say to my coachman, I come in 5 o'clock train to night..." This is an unusually early telegram, datable only by the printed blank space for the date ("185-"). Morse had conceived the telegraph apparatus as early as 1832, but constructed and demonstrated it for the first time in 1844, transmitting from Washington to Baltimore the famous message "What hath God wrought?" Alfred Vail, recommended in the second manuscript above, was Morse's partner in 1837; he was the operator who received the famous message in Baltimore. In the early 1850s, the telegraph was still in relatively limited use on a few lines, but by the 1860s its use had become widespread. (2)
