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"What Hath God Wrought"... This message was sent by Samual Morse from the Supreme Court chambers in Washington DC, to the Railroad depot in Baltimore MD on May 24, 1844. Any history book will tell you that. But history, the text-book kind, sometimes is negligent in many aspects of recorded events. Such is the case in the story of the invention of the telegraph.

The books say that while Morse was returning from France to the United States aboard a boat in 1832, he recorded in his sketchbook a device for sending messages over distances using wires and electro-magnetism. This marks Morse's entry into the world of recorded history, but the tale actually began a few years earlier.

In 1825 an Englishman William Sturgeon devised the first electromagnet, an iron rod bent into horseshoe shape, varnished and bound with bare wire. Details of his work were published in or around 1827.

Then...

"While working with electromagnets at the Albany Academy (New York) in 1829, he made important design improvements (on Sturgeon's work). By insulating the wire instead of the iron core, he was able to wrap a large number of turns of wire around the core and thus greatly increase the power of the magnet. ....In 1831 Henry built and successfully operated, over a distance of one mile (1.6 kilometres), a telegraph of his own design"

Source: Joseph Henry Bellingham Radio Museum

When the Secretary issued a circular requesting any information on the subject, a copy reached Morse, and he saw it as a ticket to income and notoriety, but he had not made any improvments to his device, and it was ineffectual over more than a few feet. He enlisted the help of Professor Leonard Gale, head of chemistry at the Univ. of the City of N.Y., where they both worked.

Gale supplied the technical knowledge to construct the required batteries, and suggested taking advantage of Henry's findings in the construction of a better electro-magnet. Gale provided not only the technical knowledge that Morse lacked, but was also a great and needed source of encouragement to Morse. Gale arranged for Morse to demonstrate his improved telegraph at the University on September 7, 1837.

This was pretty much his last dealings with Morse, but not by his choice. Gale's failing was that he never entered into a formal agreement with Morse, and was later discarded in an economic downsizing, for the year marked the depth of a great economic depression, and money was in short supply.

There was a fellow at the university who was a former student, but was looking for a new field to enter. By chance, he attended the demonstration of this telegraph and was mesmerized by it. Being from a very wealthy family, he was financially prepared to meet Morse. His name was Alfred Vail. Vail was a man of rare intensity, but it was never exhibited externally. He impressed upon Morse the promise of financial aid and support in his future work.

Vail fronted Morse $2,000 to secure a patent and construct a model that could be put before congress, and on Sept 23, 1837 a formal agreement was reached making Vail 25% owner of the telegraph. Vail was to supply not only money, but engineering skill and a place to conduct experiments.

While Morse stayed in NY and prepared a description of the device for the patent, Vail set about making many improvements to the telegraph. (Pencil to pen; size of the magnet; insulated wire; vertical motion, making dots and dashes). It was this improvment that moved the code away from a numeric system to the alphabetic system of dot and dash combinations.

The first public display of this telegraph with Vail's improvements was in January 1838. The townspeople were invited to the mill where a message would be sent through three miles of wire coiled about the floor of the mill. With Morse at one end and Vail in an adjoining room at the other end of the wire, the first Morse Code message was sent.

The message was devised by Vail's father to prevent his son Alfred, or Morse from knowing its contents ahead of time. The message was "A patient waiter is no loser" and was sent by Vail and received by Morse. After this successful test, the two friends went on tour, demonstrating the unit.

Towards the end of February, the two found themselves in Washington DC, meeting with the Hon. Francis O. J. Smith, chairman of the House Committee of Commerce. Morse and Smith had been in correspondence with each other, and Smith was the third most knowledgable person on the telegraph. Smith, who was trained in law, was a very shrewd business man, and very influential in Washington.

He arranged for a demonstration before the House, and assured every members presence. Smith spared no effort in making sure the demonstration was a success, and when it was over, Smith was instructed by his superiors to braft a Bill appropriating $30,000 for an experimental line between DC and Baltimore.

Relationship between Morse and Vail began to deteriorate, what with the money from congress being eminent and the fact that the model had progressed nearly enough to be useful, and the relationship between Morse and Smith began to blossom, with Smith's knowledge of law and business, and his influence in Washington being assets that Morse saw as valuable.

In May 1838 Smith and Morse left for Europe to secure forign patents, while Vail was left to continue making improvements on the equipment. Up to this point, Vail had paid for everything, refined Morse's crude machine to the sophisticated equipment it had become, developed the code that bears the name of Morse and conceived the hand key which would be used on that famous day in 1844.

Smith and Morse returned in 1839 to find that Congress had still not voted on the $30,000. In December 1842 Morse applied for the money again and in March 1843 the money was finally voted on and approved under President John Tyler sometime after midnight on March 3. The news was delivered to Morse early that morning by Miss Annie Ellsworth, the daughter of the Commissioner of Patents.

In gratitude for the news, Morse her that she could dictate the first message which would be sent on the completed wire, and on May 24, 1844 at 8:45am Morse kept his promise and sent Ellsworth's chosen message "What Hath God Wrought" some forty miles to Baltimore where it was received by Vail.

Did Vail ever get the credit he deserved? No. Morse took all the credit, and told Vail he would make it up to him later. But alas... Vail died before the patents lapsed, and Morse never saw the need to give Vail any recognition after that. To bring perspective to this chapter of history, I guess we could say that we have Alfred Vail to thank, or curse, for the telegraph key and the Morse code.

Source: http://www.pagesz.net/~jwittich/articles/friday.txt

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