APRIL 15, 1839--SEPTEMBER 30, 1840
Arrival in New York.--Disappointment at finding nothing done by Congress
or his associates.--Letter to Professor Henry.--Henry's reply.--
Correspondence with Daguerre.--Experiments with Daguerreotypes.-Professor
Draper.--First group photograph of a college class.--Failure of Russian
contract.--Mr. Chamberlain.--Discouragement through lack of funds.--No
help from his associates.--Improvements in telegraph made by Morse.--
Humorous letter.
Morse sailed from Europe on the Great Western on the 23d of March, 1889,
and reached New York, after a Stormy passage, on the 15th of April.
Discouraged by his lack of success in establishing a line of telegraph in
Europe on a paying basis, and yet encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by
the scientists of the Old World, he hoped much from what he considered
the superior enterprise of his own countrymen. However, on this point he
was doomed to bitter disappointment, and the next few years were destined
to be the darkest through which he was to pass.
On the day after his arrival in New York he wrote to Mr. F.O.J. Smith:--
"I take the first moment of rest from the fatigues of my boisterous
voyage to apprise you of my arrival yesterday in the Great Western.... I
am quite disappointed in finding nothing done by Congress, and nothing
accomplished in the way of company. I had hoped to find on my return some
funds ready for prosecuting with vigor the enterprise, which I fear will
suffer for the want.
"Think a moment of my situation. I left New York for Europe to be gone
three months, but have been gone eleven months. My only means of support
are in my profession, which I have been compelled to abandon entirely for
the present, giving my undivided time and efforts to this enterprise. I
return with not a farthing in my pocket, and have to borrow even for my
meals, and even worse than this, I have incurred a debt of rent by my
absence which I should have avoided if I had been at home, or rather if I
had been aware that I should have been obliged to stay so long abroad. I
do not mention this in the way of complaint, but merely to show that I
also have been compelled to make great sacrifices for the common good,
and am willing to make more yet if necessary. If the enterprise is to be
pursued, we must all in our various ways put the shoulder to the wheel.
"I wish much to see you and talk over all matters, for it seems to me
that the present state of the enterprise in regard to Russia affects
vitally the whole concern."
Thus gently did he chide one of his partners, who should have been
exerting himself to forward their joint interests in America while he
himself was doing what he could in Europe. The other partners, Alfred
Vail and Dr. Leonard Gale, were equally lax and seem to have lost
interest in the enterprise, as we learn from the following letter to Mr.
Smith, of May 24, 1839:--
"You will think it strange, perhaps, that I have not answered yours of
the 28th ult. sooner, but various causes have prevented an earlier
attention to it. My affairs, in consequence of my protracted absence and
the stagnant state of the Telegraph here at home, have caused me great
embarrassment, and my whole energies have been called upon to extricate
myself from the confusion in which I have been unhappily placed. You may
judge a little of this when I tell you that my absence has deprived me of
my usual source of income by my profession; that the state of the
University is such that I shall probably leave, and shall have to move
into new quarters; that my family is dispersed, requiring my care and
anxieties under every disadvantage; that my engagements were such with
Russia that every moment of my time was necessary to complete my
arrangements to fulfill the contract in season; and, instead of finding
my associates ready to sustain me with counsel and means, I find them all
dispersed, leaving me without either the opportunity to consult or a cent
of means, and consequently bringing everything in relation to the
Telegraph to a dead stand.
"In the midst of this I am called on by the state of public opinion to
defend myself against the outrageous attempt of Dr. Jackson to pirate
from me my invention. The words would be harsh that are properly
applicable to this man's conduct....
"You see, therefore, in what a condition I found myself when I returned.
I was delayed several days beyond the computed time of my arrival by the
long passage of the steamer. Instead of finding any funds by a vote of
Congress, or by a company, and my associates ready to back me, I find not
a cent for the purpose, and my associates scattered to the four winds.
"You can easily conceive that I gave up all as it regarded Russia, and
considered the whole enterprise as seriously injured if not completely
destroyed. In this state of things I was hourly dreading to hear from the
Russian Minister, and devising how I should save myself and the
enterprise without implicating my associates in a charge of neglect; and
as it has most fortunately happened for us all, the 10th of May has
passed without the receipt of the promised advices, and I took advantage
of this, and by the Liverpool steamer of the 18th wrote to the Baron
Meyendorff, and to M. Amyot, that it was impossible to fulfill the
engagement this season, since I had not received the promised advices in
time to prepare."
This was, of course, before he had heard of the Czar's refusal to sign
the contract, and he goes on to make plans for carrying out the Russian
enterprise the next year, and concludes by saying:--
"Do think of this matter and see if means cannot be raised to keep ahead
with the American Telegraph. I sometimes am astonished when I reflect how
I have been able to take the stand with my Telegraph in competition with
my European rivals, backed as they are with the purses of the kings and
wealthy of their countries, while our own Government leaves me to fight
their battles for the honor of this invention fettered hand and foot.
Thanks will be due to you, not to them, if I am able to maintain the
ground occupied by the American Telegraph."
Shortly after his return from abroad, on April 24, Morse wrote the
following letter to Professor Henry at Princeton:--
My Dear Sir,--On my return a few days since from Europe, I found directed
to me, through your politeness, a copy of your valuable "Contributions,"
for which I beg you to accept my warmest thanks. The various cares
consequent upon so long an absence from home, and which have demanded my
more immediate attention, have prevented me from more than a cursory
perusal of its interesting contents, yet I perceive many things of great
interest to me in my telegraphic enterprise.
I was glad to learn, by a letter received in Paris from Dr. Gale, that a
spool of five miles of my wire was loaned to you, and I perceive that you
have already made some interesting experiments with it.
In the absence of Dr. Gale, who has gone South, I feel a great desire to
consult some scientific gentleman on points of importance bearing upon my
Telegraph, which I am about to establish in Russia, being under an
engagement with the Russian Government agent in Paris to return to Europe
for that purpose in a few weeks. I should be exceedingly happy to see you
and am tempted to break away from my absorbing engagements here to find
you at Princeton. In case I should be able to visit Princeton for a few
days a week or two hence, how should I find you engaged? I should come as
a learner and could bring no "contributions" to your stock of experiments
of any value, nor any means of furthering your experiments except,
perhaps, the loan of an additional five miles of wire which it may be
desirable for you to have.
I have many questions to ask, but should be happy, in your reply to this
letter, of an answer to this general one: Have you met with any facts in
your experiments thus far that would lead you to think that my mode of
telegraphic communication will prove impracticable? So far as I have
consulted the savants of Paris, they have suggested no insurmountable
difficulties; I have, however, quite as much confidence in your judgment,
from your valuable experience, as in that of any one I have met abroad. I
think that you have pursued an original course of experiments, and
discovered facts of more value to me than any that have been published
abroad.
Morse was too modest in saying that he could bring nothing of value to
Henry in his experiments, for, as we shall see from Henry's reply, the
latter had no knowledge at that time of the "relay," for bringing into
use a secondary battery when the line was to stretch over long distances.
This important discovery Morse had made several years before.
PRINCETON; May 6, 1889.
DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 24th ult. came to Princeton during my
absence, which will account for the long delay of my answer. I am pleased
to learn that you fully sanction the loan which I obtained from Dr. Gale
of your wire, and I shall be happy if any of the results are found to
have a practical bearing on the electrical telegraph.
It will give me much pleasure to see you in Princeton after this week. My
engagements will not then interfere with our communications on the
subject of electricity. During this week I shall be almost constantly
engaged with a friend in some scientific labors which we are prosecuting
together.
I am acquainted with no fact which would lead me to suppose that the
project of the electro-magnetic telegraph is unpractical; on the
contrary, I believe that science is now ripe for the application, and
that there are no difficulties in the way but such as ingenuity and
enterprise may obviate. But what form of the apparatus, or what
application of the power will prove best, can, I believe, be only
determined by careful experiment. I can say, however, that, so far as I
am acquainted with the minutiae of your plan, I see no practical
difficulty in the way of its application for comparatively short
distances; but, if the length of the wire between the stations is great,
I think that some other modification will be found necessary in order to
develop a sufficient power at the farther end of the line.
I shall, however, be happy to converse freely with you on these points
when we meet. In the meantime I remain, with much respect
Yours, etc.,
JOSEPH HENRY.
I consider this letter alone a sufficient answer to those who claim that
Henry was the real inventor of the telegraph. He makes no such claim
himself.
In spite of the cares of various kinds which overwhelmed him during the
whole of his eventful life, Morse always found time to stretch out a
helping hand to others, or to do a courteous act. So now we find him
writing to Daguerre on May 20, 1839:--
My dear sir,--I have the honor to enclose you the note of the Secretary
of our Academy informing you of your election, at our last annual
meeting, into the board of Honorary Members of our National Academy of
Design. When I proposed your name it was received with enthusiasm, and
the vote was _unanimous_. I hope, my dear sir, you will receive this as a
testimonial, not merely of my personal esteem and deep sympathy in your
late losses, but also as a proof that your genius is, in some degree,
estimated on this side of the water.
Notwithstanding the efforts made in England to give to another the credit
which is your due, I think I may with confidence assure you that
throughout the United States your name alone will be associated with the
brilliant discovery which justly bears your name. The letter I wrote from
Paris, the day after your sad loss, has been published throughout this
whole country in hundreds of journals, and has excited great interest.
Should any attempts be made here to give to any other than yourself the
honor of this discovery, my pen is ever ready for your defense.
I hope, before this reaches you, that the French Government, long and
deservedly celebrated for its generosity to men of genius, will have
amply supplied all your losses by a liberal sum. If, when the proper
remuneration shall be secured to you in France, you should think it may
be for your advantage to make an arrangement with the government to hold
back the secret for six months or a year, and would consent to an
exhibition of your _results_ in this country for a short time, the
exhibition might be managed, I think, to your pecuniary advantage. If you
should think favorably of the plan, I offer you my services
_gratuitously_.
To this letter Daguerre replied on July 26:--
MY DEAR SIR,--I have received with great pleasure your kind letter by
which you announce to me my election as an honorary member of the
National Academy of Design. I beg you will be so good as to express my
thanks to the Academy, and to say that I am very proud of the honor which
has been conferred upon me. I shall seize all opportunities of proving my
gratitude for it. I am particularly indebted to you in this circumstance,
and I feel very thankful for this and all other marks of interest you
bestowed upon me.
The transaction with the French Government being nearly at an end, my
discovery shall soon be made public. This cause, added to the immense
distance between us, hinders me from taking the advantage of your good
offer to get up at New York an exhibition of my results.
Believe me, my dear sir, your very devoted servant,
DAGUERRE.
A prophecy, shrewd in some particulars but rather faulty in others, of
the influence of this new art upon painting, is contained in the
following extracts from a letter of Morse's to his friend and master
Washington Allston:--
"I had hoped to have seen you long ere this, but my many avocations have
kept me constantly employed from morning till night. When I say morning I
mean _half past four_ in the morning! I am afraid you will think me a
Goth, but really the hours from that time till twelve at noon are the
richest I ever enjoy.
"You have heard of the Daguerreotype. I have the instruments on the point
of completion, and if it be possible I will yet bring them with me to
Boston, and show you the beautiful results of this brilliant discovery.
Art is to be wonderfully enriched by this discovery. How narrow and
foolish the idea which some express that it will be the ruin of art, or
rather artists, for every one will be his own painter. One effect, I
think, will undoubtedly be to banish the sketchy, slovenly daubs that
pass for spirited and learned; those works which possess mere general
effect without detail, because, forsooth, detail destroys general effect.
Nature, in the results of Daguerre's process, has taken the pencil into
her own hands, and she shows that the minutest detail disturbs not the
general repose. Artists will learn how to paint, and amateurs, or rather
connoisseurs, how to criticise, how to look at Nature, and, therefore,
how to estimate the value of true art. Our studies will now be enriched
with sketches from nature which we can store up during the summer, as the
bee gathers her sweets for winter, and we shall thus have rich materials
for composition and an exhaustless store for the imagination to feed
upon."
An interesting account of his experiences with this wonderful new
discovery is contained in a letter written many years later, on the 10th
of February, 1855:--
"As soon as the necessary apparatus was made I commenced experimenting
with it. The greatest obstacle I had to encounter was in the quality of
the plates. I obtained the common, plated copper in coils at the hardware
shops, which, of course, was very thinly coated with silver, and that
impure. Still I was able to verify the truth of Daguerre's revelations.
The first experiment crowned with any success was a view of the Unitarian
Church from the window on the staircase from the third story of the New
York City University. This, of course, was before the building of the New
York Hotel. It was in September, 1839. The time, if I recollect, in which
the plate was exposed to the action of light in the camera was about
fifteen minutes. The instruments, chemicals, etc., were strictly in
accordance with the directions in Daguerre's first book.
"An English gentleman, whose name at present escapes me, obtained a copy
of Daguerre's book about the same time with myself. He commenced
experimenting also. But an American of the name of Walcott was very
successful with a modification of Daguerre's apparatus, substituting a
metallic reflector for the lens. Previous, however, to Walcott's
experiments, or rather results, my friend and colleague, Professor John
W. Draper, of the New York City University, was very successful in his
investigations, and with him I was engaged for a time in attempting
portraits.
"In my intercourse with Daguerre I specially conversed with him in regard
to the practicability of taking portraits of living persons. He expressed
himself somewhat skeptical as to its practicability, only in consequence
of the time necessary for the person to remain immovable. The time for
taking an outdoor view was from fifteen to twenty minutes, and this he
considered too long a time for any one to remain sufficiently still for a
successful result. No sooner, however, had I mastered the process of
Daguerre than I commenced to experiment with a view to accomplish this
desirable result. I have now the results of these experiments taken in
September, or beginning of October, 1889. They are full-length portraits
of my daughter, single, and also in group with some of her young friends.
They were taken out of doors, on the roof of a building, in the full
sunlight and with the eyes closed. The time was from ten to twenty
minutes.
"About the same time Professor Draper was successful in taking portraits,
though whether he or myself took the first portrait successfully, I
cannot say."
It was afterwards established that to Professor Draper must be accorded
this honor, but I understand that it was a question of hours only between
the two enthusiasts.
"Soon after we commenced together to take portraits, causing a glass
building to be constructed for that purpose on the roof of the
University. As our experiments had caused us considerable expense, we
made a charge to those who sat for us to defray this expense. Professor
Draper's other duties calling him away from the experiments, except as to
their bearing on some philosophical investigations which he pursued with
great ingenuity and success, I was left to pursue the artistic results of
the process, as more in accordance with my profession. My expenses had
been great, and for some time, five or six months, I pursued the taking
of portraits by the Daguerreotype as a means of reimbursing these
expenses. After this object had been attained, I abandoned the practice
to give my exclusive attention to the Telegraph, which required all my
time."
Before leaving the subject of the Daguerreotype, in which, as I have
shown, Morse was a pioneer in this country, it will be interesting to
note that he took the first group photograph of a college class. This was
of the surviving members of his own class of 1810, who returned to New
Haven for their thirtieth reunion in 1840.
It was not until August of the year 1839 that definite news of the
failure of the Russian agreement was received, and Morse, in a letter to
Smith, of August 12, comments on this and on another serious blow to his
hopes:--
"I received yours of the 2d inst., and the paper accompanying it
containing the notice of Mr. Chamberlain. I had previously been apprised
that my forebodings were true in regard to his fate.... Our enterprise
abroad is destined to give us anxiety, if not to end in disappointment.
"I have just received a letter from M. Amyot, who was to have been my
companion to Russia, and learn from him the unwelcome news that the
Emperor has decided against the Telegraph.... The Emperor's objections
are, it seems, that 'malevolence can easily interrupt the communication.'
M. Amyot scouts the idea, and writes that he refuted the objection to the
satisfaction of the Baron, who, indeed, did not need the refutation for
himself, for the whole matter was fully discussed between us when in
Paris. The Baron, I should judge from the tone of M. Amyot's letter, was
much disappointed, yet, as a faithful and obedient subject of one whose
nay is nay, he will be cautious in so expressing himself as to be
self-committed.
"Thus, my dear sir, prospects abroad look dark. I turn with some faint
hope to my own country again. Will Congress do anything, or is my time
and your generous zeal and pecuniary sacrifice to end only in
disappointment? If so, I can bear it for myself, but I feel it most
keenly for those who have been engaged with me; for you, for the Messrs.
Vail and Dr. Gale. But I will yet hope. I don't know that our enterprise
looks darker than Fulton's once appeared. There is no intrinsic
difficulty; the depressing causes are extrinsic. I hope to see you soon
and talk over all our affairs."
Mr. Smith, in sending a copy of the above letter to Mr. Prime, thus
explains the reference to Mr. Chamberlain:--
"The allusion made in the letter just given to the fate of Mr.
Chamberlain, was another depressing disappointment which occurred to the
Professor contemporaneously with those of the Russian contract. Before I
left Paris we had closed a contract with Mr. Chamberlain to carry the
telegraph to Austria, Prussia, the principal cities of Greece and of
Egypt, and put it upon exhibition with a view to its utilization there.
He was an American gentleman (from Vermont, I think) of large wealth, of
eminent business capacities, of pleasing personal address and sustaining
a character for strict integrity. He parted with Professor Morse in Paris
to enter upon his expedition, with high expectations of both pleasure and
profit, shortly after my own departure from Paris in October, 1838. He
had subsequently apprised Professor Morse of very interesting exhibitions
of the telegraph which he had made, and under date of Athens, January 5,
1839, wrote as follows: 'We exhibited your telegraph to the learned of
Florence, much to their gratification. Yesterday evening the King and
Queen of Greece were highly delighted with its performance. We have shown
it also to the principal inhabitants of Athens, by all of whom it was
much admired. Fame is all you will get for it in these poor countries. We
think of starting in a few days for Alexandria, and hope to get something
worth having from Mehemet Ali. It is, however, doubtful. Nations appear
as poor as individuals, and as unwilling to risk their money upon such
matters. I hope the French will avail themselves of the benefits you
offer them. It is truly strange that it is not grasped at with more
avidity. If I can do anything in Egypt, I will try Turkey and St.
Petersburg.'"
Morse himself writes: "In another letter from Mr. Chamberlain to Mr.
Levering, dated Syra, January 9, he says: 'The pretty little Queen of
Greece was delighted with Morse's telegraph. The string which carried the
cannon-ball used for a weight broke, and came near falling on Her
Majesty's toes, but happily missed, and we, perhaps, escaped a prison. My
best respects to Mr. Morse, and say I shall ask Mehemet Ali for a purse,
a beauty from his seraglio, and something else.'" And Morse concludes: "I
will add that, if he will bring me the purse just now, I can dispense
with the beauty and the something else."
Tragedy too often treads on the heels of comedy, and it is sad to have to
relate that Mr. Chamberlain and six other gentlemen were drowned while on
an excursion of pleasure on the Danube in July of 1839.
That all these disappointments, added to the necessity for making money
in some way for his bare subsistence, should have weighed on the
inventor's spirits, is hardly to be wondered at; the wonder is rather
that he did not sink under his manifold trials. Far from this, however,
he only touches on his needs in the following letter to Alfred Vail,
written on November 14, 1839:--
"As to the Telegraph, I have been compelled from necessity to apply
myself to those duties which yield immediate pecuniary relief. I feel the
pressure as well as others, and, having several pupils at the University,
I must attend to them. Nevertheless, I shall hold myself ready in case of
need to go to Washington during the next session with it. The one I was
constructing is completed except the rotary batteries and the pen-and-ink
apparatus, which I shall soon find time to add if required.
"Mr. Smith expects me in Portland, but I have not the means to visit him.
The telegraph of Wheatstone is going ahead in England, even with all its
complications; so, I presume, is the one of Steinheil in Bavaria. Whether
ours is to be adopted depends on the Government or on a company, and the
times are not favorable for the formation of a company. Perhaps it is the
part of wisdom to let the matter rest and watch for an opportunity when
times look better, and which I hope will be soon."
He gives freer vent to his disappointment in a letter to Mr. Smith, of
November 20, 1839:--
"I feel the want of that sum which Congress ought to have appropriated
two years ago to enable me to compete with my European rivals. Wheatstone
and Steinheil have money for their projects; the former by a company, and
the latter by the King of Bavaria. Is there any national feeling with us
on the subject? I will not say there is not until after the next session
of Congress. But, if there is any cause for national exultation in being
not merely _first_ in the invention as to time, but _best_ too, as
decided by a foreign tribunal, ought the inventor to be suffered to work
with his hands tied? Is it honorable to the nation to boast of its
inventors, to contend for the credit of their inventions as national
property, and not lift a finger to assist them to perfect that of which
they boast?
"But I will not complain for myself. I can bear it, because I made up my
mind from the very first for this issue, the common fate of all
inventors. But I do not feel so agreeable in seeing those who have
interested themselves in it, especially yourself, suffer also. Perhaps I
look too much on the unfavorable side. I often thus look, not to
discourage others or myself, but to check those too sanguine expectations
which, with me, would rise to an inordinate height unless thus reined in
and disciplined.
"Shall you not be in New York soon? I wish much to see you and to concoct
plans for future operations. I am at present much straitened in means, or
I should yet endeavor to see you in Portland; but I must yield to
necessity and hope another season to be in different and more prosperous
circumstances."
Thus the inventor, who had hoped so much from the energy and business
acumen of his own countrymen, found that the conditions at home differed
not much from those which he had found so exasperating abroad. Praise in
plenty for the beauty and simplicity of his invention, but no money,
either public or private, to enable him to put it to a practical test.
His associates had left him to battle alone for his interests and theirs.
F.O.J. Smith was in Portland, Maine, attending to his own affairs;
Professor Gale was in the South filling a professorship; and Alfred Vail
was in Philadelphia. No one of them, as far as I can ascertain, was doing
anything to help in this critical period of the enterprise which was to
benefit them all.
When credit is to be awarded to those who have accomplished something
great, many factors must be taken into consideration. Not only must the
aspirant for undying fame in the field of invention, for instance, have
discovered something new, which, when properly applied, will benefit
mankind, but he must prove its practical value to a world
constitutionally skeptical, and he must persevere through trials and
discouragements of every kind, with a sublime faith in the ultimate
success of his efforts, until the fight be won. Otherwise, if he retires
beaten from the field of battle, another will snatch up his sword and hew
his way to victory.
It must never be forgotten that Morse won his place in the Hall of Fame,
not only because of his invention of the simplest and best method of
conveying intelligence by electricity, but because he, alone and unaided,
carried forward the enterprise when, but for him, it would have been
allowed to fail. With no thought of disparaging the others, who can
hardly be blamed for their loss of faith, and who were of great
assistance to him later on when the battle was nearly won, I feel that it
is only just to lay emphasis on this factor in the claim of Morse to
greatness.
It will not be necessary to record in detail the events of the year 1840.
The inventor, always confident that success would eventually crown his
efforts, lived a life of privation and constant labor in the two fields
of art and science. He was still President of the National Academy of
Design, and in September he was elected an honorary member of the
Mercantile Library Association. He strove to keep the wolf from the door
by giving lessons in painting and by practising the new art of
daguerreotypy, and, in the mean time, he employed every spare moment in
improving and still further simplifying his invention.
He heard occasionally from his associates. The following sentences are
from a letter of Alfred Vail's, dated Philadelphia, January 13, 1840:--
Friend S.F.B. Morse,
Dear Sir, It is many a day since I last had the pleasure of seeing and
conversing with you, and, if I am not mistaken, it is as long since any
communications have been exchanged. However I trust it will not long be
so. When I last had the pleasure of seeing you it was when on my way to
Philadelphia, at which time you had the kindness to show me specimens of
the greatest discovery ever made, with the exception of the
Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. By the by, I have been thinking that it is
time money in some way was made out of the Telegraph, and I am almost
ready to order an instrument made, and to make the proposition to you to
exhibit it here. What do you think of the plan? If Mr. Prosch will make
me a first-rate, most perfect machine, and as speedily as possible, and
will wait six or nine months for his pay, you may order one for me.
Morse's reply to this letter has not been preserved, but he probably
agreed to Vail's proposition,--anything honorable to keep the telegraph
in the public eye,--for, as we shall see, in a later letter he refers to
the machines which Prosch was to make. Before quoting from that letter,
however, I shall give the following sentences from one to Baron
Meyendorff, of March 18, 1840:
"I have, since I returned to the United States, made several important
improvements, which I regret my limited time will not permit me to
describe or send you.... I have so changed the _form_ of the apparatus,
and condensed it into so small a compass, that you would scarcely know it
for the same instrument which you saw in Paris."
This and many other allusions, in the correspondence of those years, to
Morse's work in simplifying and perfecting his invention, some of which I
have already noted, answer conclusively the claims of those who have said
that all improvements were the work of other brains and hands.
On September 7, 1840, he writes again to Vail:--
"Your letter of 28th ult. was received several days ago, but I have not
had a moment's time to give you a word in return. I am tied hand and foot
during the day endeavoring to realize something from the Daguerreotype
portraits.... As to the Telegraph, I know not what to say. The delay in
finishing the apparatus on the part of Prosch is exceedingly tantalizing
and vexatious. He was to have finished them more than six months ago, and
I have borne with his procrastination until I utterly despair of their
being completed.... I suppose something might be done in Washington next
session if I, or some of you, could go on, but I have expended so much
time in vain, there and in Europe, that I feel almost discouraged from
pressing it any further; only, however, from want of funds. I have none
myself, and I dislike to ask it of the rest of you. You are all so
scattered that there is no consultation, and I am under the necessity of
attending to duties which will give me the means of living.
"The reason of its not being in operation is not _the fault of the
invention_, nor is it _my neglect_. My faith is not only unshaken in its
_eventual adoption throughout the world_, but it is confirmed by every
new discovery in the science of electricity."
While the future looked dark and the present was darker still, Morse
maintained a cheerful exterior, and was still able to write to his
friends in a light and airy vein. The following letter, dated September
30, 1840, was to a Mr. Levering in Paris:--
"Some time since (I believe nearly a year ago) I wrote you to procure for
me two lenses and some plates for the Daguerreotype process, but have
never heard from you nor had any intimation that my letter was ever
received. After waiting some months, I procured both lenses and plates
here. Now, if I knew how to scold at you, wouldn't I scold.
"Well, I recollect a story of a captain who was overloaded by a great
many ladies of his acquaintance with orders to procure them various
articles in India, just as he was about to sail thither, all which he
promised to fulfill. But, on his return, when they flocked round him for
their various articles, to their surprise he had only answered the order
of one of them. Upon their expressing their disappointment he addressed
them thus: 'Ladies,' said he, 'I have to inform you of a most unlucky
accident that occurred to your orders. I was not unmindful of them, I
assure you; so one fine day I took your orders all out of my pocketbook
and arranged them on the top of the companionway, but, just as they were
all arranged, a sudden gust of wind took them all overboard.' 'Aye, a
very good excuse,' they exclaimed. 'How happens it that Mrs. ----'s did
not go overboard, too?' 'Oh!' said the captain, 'Mrs. ---- had
fortunately enclosed in her order some dozen doubloons which kept the
wind from blowing hers away with the rest.'
"Now, friend Lovering, I have no idea of having my new order blown
overboard, so I herewith send by the hands of my young friend and pupil,
Mr. R. Hubbard, whom I also commend to your kind notice, ten golden
half-eagles to keep my order down."