Details
MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE, Inventor of telegraphy. Autograph letter signed ("S. F. B. Morse") to Interim Secretary of the Treasury McClintock Young, a working draft with numerous deletions, corrections and insertions, Washington, 29 June 1844. 2 pages, folio, integral blank leaf docketed by Morse on verso, very slight marginal foxing, in pencil some corrections in ink).
MORSE PLEADS WITH CONGRESS FOR FUNDS TO MAINTAIN HIS NEW TELEGRAPH LINE
A draft letter of considerable importance in Morse's attempt to prove and improve his invention. In 1843 Congress had appropriated $30,000 for the construction of an experimental telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. Following its successful first test on 24 May 1844, surplus funds remained. In this draft petition to acting Secretary McClintock Young, Morse urges the Treasury Department to release the balance of the appropriation for the continuance of his experiments.
"Understanding that there is some doubt expressed at the Department respecting the power of applying the surplus of the appropriation to the further trial of the experiment, for which the fund was created...I would respectfully suggest a few considerations... The act provides for two specific objects...to wit, 1st to test the practicability and 2d to test the utility of the system. The first comprizes the work on construction of the Telegraph line, and a set of instruments adapted to test the efficiency of that line. This work is done, and the practicability proven, and on the ground of the completion of this work, I asked and have received the conditional addition of $500 to my salary. The 2d object...is of course subsequent to the first and presupposes the work done. Its utility is now in process of being tested, and I had supposed there could not be a doubt that the sum remaining from the expences of construction, was legitimately used if applied merely to the keeping in repair and otherwise maintaining what has been constructed...In the testing of the utility of the Telegraph I had conceived that experiments are included to ascertain the greatest economy of the materials that are consumed in the process of communicating intelligence, such as acid, zinc & paper, the greatest amount of intelligence that can be communicated in a given time, and the actual cost...of maintaining stations, as also the demand likely to be made for the use of the telegraph. These points are yet not ascertained and experience alone...can satisfactorily determine them. With the approbation of the department, I have already made many experiments which have resulted in economical modes, and I am at this moment engaged in one at a total probable cost of only 150 dollars, which, if successful, will be the means of diminishing the cost of maintenance of the Telegraph many thousands of dollars...
"The telegraph has been constructed at a great expense to the Govt. and I would respectfully ask if it ought to be left without having persons provided to keep it in order and to carry out the object of testing its utility especially while a portion of the appropriation still remains....I cannot bring myself to believe that such a construction of the law as will endanger the whole work, will meet with the approval of the Department."
Congress finally designated $8000 for maintenance of the line. Soon after, Morse and his associates proposed to sell their rights to the government, considering that their invention, being "an engine of power, for good or for evil...[should be] subject to the control of the Government, rather than...in the hands of private individuals and associations" (Morse, Letters and Journals, Boston 1914, p. 228). But Postmaster-General Cave Johnson thought Morse's invention and the construction of further telegraph lines to be a poor investment, and Congress adjourned without considering Morse's proposal, leaving him dependent on private support for further development of his invention.
MORSE PLEADS WITH CONGRESS FOR FUNDS TO MAINTAIN HIS NEW TELEGRAPH LINE
A draft letter of considerable importance in Morse's attempt to prove and improve his invention. In 1843 Congress had appropriated $30,000 for the construction of an experimental telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. Following its successful first test on 24 May 1844, surplus funds remained. In this draft petition to acting Secretary McClintock Young, Morse urges the Treasury Department to release the balance of the appropriation for the continuance of his experiments.
"Understanding that there is some doubt expressed at the Department respecting the power of applying the surplus of the appropriation to the further trial of the experiment, for which the fund was created...I would respectfully suggest a few considerations... The act provides for two specific objects...to wit, 1st to test the practicability and 2d to test the utility of the system. The first comprizes the work on construction of the Telegraph line, and a set of instruments adapted to test the efficiency of that line. This work is done, and the practicability proven, and on the ground of the completion of this work, I asked and have received the conditional addition of $500 to my salary. The 2d object...is of course subsequent to the first and presupposes the work done. Its utility is now in process of being tested, and I had supposed there could not be a doubt that the sum remaining from the expences of construction, was legitimately used if applied merely to the keeping in repair and otherwise maintaining what has been constructed...In the testing of the utility of the Telegraph I had conceived that experiments are included to ascertain the greatest economy of the materials that are consumed in the process of communicating intelligence, such as acid, zinc & paper, the greatest amount of intelligence that can be communicated in a given time, and the actual cost...of maintaining stations, as also the demand likely to be made for the use of the telegraph. These points are yet not ascertained and experience alone...can satisfactorily determine them. With the approbation of the department, I have already made many experiments which have resulted in economical modes, and I am at this moment engaged in one at a total probable cost of only 150 dollars, which, if successful, will be the means of diminishing the cost of maintenance of the Telegraph many thousands of dollars...
"The telegraph has been constructed at a great expense to the Govt. and I would respectfully ask if it ought to be left without having persons provided to keep it in order and to carry out the object of testing its utility especially while a portion of the appropriation still remains....I cannot bring myself to believe that such a construction of the law as will endanger the whole work, will meet with the approval of the Department."
Congress finally designated $8000 for maintenance of the line. Soon after, Morse and his associates proposed to sell their rights to the government, considering that their invention, being "an engine of power, for good or for evil...[should be] subject to the control of the Government, rather than...in the hands of private individuals and associations" (Morse, Letters and Journals, Boston 1914, p. 228). But Postmaster-General Cave Johnson thought Morse's invention and the construction of further telegraph lines to be a poor investment, and Congress adjourned without considering Morse's proposal, leaving him dependent on private support for further development of his invention.