_Letter of Capt. William W. Pell,
of the packet ship Sully._
NEW YORK, _Sept. 27th, 1837_.
DEAR SIR—On my arrival here I received your
letter, calling upon my recollection for what was said on
the subject of an electric telegraph, during the passage
from Havre, on board of the ship Sully, in October, 1832.
I am happy to say, I have a distinct remembrance of your
suggesting, as a thought newly occurred to you, the
possibility of a telegraphic communication being effected
by electric wires. As the passage progressed, and your
idea developed itself, it became frequently a subject of
conversation. Difficulty after difficulty was suggested
as obstacles to its operation, which your ingenuity still
labored to remove, until your invention, passing from its
first crude state through different grades of improvement,
was, in seeming, matured to an available instrument, wanting
only patronage to perfect it, and call it into reality; and
I sincerely trust that circumstances may not deprive you
of the reward due to the invention, which, whatever be its
source in Europe, is with you at least, I am convinced,
original.
When you observed to me a few days before leaving the
ship, “_well, Captain, when you hear of the telegraph one
of these days, as the wonder of the world, remember the
discovery was made on board the good ship Sully_,” I, then,
little thought, I should ever be called upon to throw into
the scale, my mite of testimony in support of your claims
to priority of invention, for what seemed so startling a
novelty.
With my respects and best wishes,
I subscribe myself,
WILLIAM W. PELL.