Although the electric telegraph is, comparatively speaking, a recent
invention, yet methods of communication at a distance, by means of
signals, have probably existed in all ages and in all nations. There
is reason to believe that among the Greeks a system of telegraphy was
in use, as the burning of Troy was certainly known in Greece very soon
after it happened, and before any person had returned from Troy.
Polybius names the different instruments used by the ancients for
communicating information--"pyrsia," because the signals were always
made by means of fire lights. At first they communicated information
of events in an imperfect manner, but a new method was invented by
Cleoxenus, which was much improved by Polybius, as he himself informs
us, and which may be described as follows:
Take the letters of the alphabet and arrange them on a board in five
columns, each column containing five letters; then the man who signals
would hold up with his left hand a number of torches which would
represent the number of the column from which the letter is to be
taken, and with his right hand a number of torches that will represent
the particular letter in that column that is to be taken. It is thus
easy to understand how the letters of a short sentence are
communicated from station to station as far as required. This is the
pyrsia or telegraph of Polybius.
It seems that the Romans had a method of telegraphing in their walled
cities, either by a hollow formed in the masonry, or by a tube fixed
thereto so as to confine the sound, in order to convey information to
any part they liked. This method of communicating is in the present
age frequently employed in the well known speaking tubes. It does not
appear that the moderns had thought of such a thing as a telegraph
until 1661, when the Marquis of Worcester, in his "Century of
Inventions," affirmed that he had discovered a method by which a man
could hold discourse with his correspondent as far as they could
reach, by night as well as by day; he did not, however, describe this
invention.
Dr. Hooke delivered a discourse before the Royal Society in 1684,
showing how to communicate at great distances. In this discourse he
asserts the possibility of conveying intelligence from one place to
another at a distance of 120 miles as rapidly as a man can write what
he would have sent. He takes to his aid the then recent invention of
the telescope, and explains how characters exposed at one station on
the top of one hill may be made visible to the next station on the top
of the next hill. He invented twenty-four simple characters, each
formed of a combination of three deal boards, each character
representing a letter by the use of cords; these characters were
pushed from behind a screen and exposed, and then withdrawn behind the
screen again. It was not, however, until the French revolution that
the telegraph was applied to practical purposes; but about the end of
1703 telegraphic communication was established between Paris and the
frontiers, and shortly afterward telegraphs were introduced into
England.
The history of the invention and introduction of the electric
telegraph by Prof. Morse is one of inexhaustible interest, and every
incident relating to it is worthy of preservation. The incidents
described below will be found of special interest. The article is from
the pen of the late Judge Neilson Poe, and was the last paper written
by him. He prepared it during his recent illness, the letter embodied
in it from Mr. Latrobe being of course obtained at the time of its
date. It is as follows:
On the 5th of April, 1843, when the monthly meeting of the directors
of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company was about to adjourn, the
President, the Hon. Louis McLane, rose with a paper in his hand which
he said he had almost overlooked, and which the Secretary would read.
It proved to be an application from Prof. Morse for the privilege of
laying the wires of his electric telegraph along the line of the
railroad between Baltimore and Washington, and was accompanied by a
communication from B.H. Latrobe, Esq., Chief Engineer, recommending
the project as worthy of encouragement.
On motion of John Spear Nicholas, seconded by the Hon. John P.
Kennedy, the following resolution was then considered:
_Resolved_, "That the President be authorized to afford Mr. Morse such
facilities as may be requisite to give his invention a proper trial
upon the Washington road, provided in his opinion and in that of the
engineer it can be done without injury to the road and without
embarrassment to the operations of the company, and provided Mr. Morse
will concede to the company the use of the telegraph upon the road
without expense, and reserving to the company the right of
discontinuing the use if, _upon experiment_, it should prove _in any
manner injurious_."
"Whatever," said Mr. McLane, "may be our individual opinions as to the
feasibility of Mr. Morse's invention, it seems to me that it is our
duty to concede to him the privilege he asks, and to lend him all the
aid in our power, especially as the resolution carefully protects the
company against all present or future injury to its works, and secures
us the right of requiring its removal at any time."
[In view of the fact that no railroad can now be run safely without
the aid of the telegraph, the cautious care with which the right to
remove it if it should become a nuisance was reserved, strikes one at
this day as nearly ludicrous.]
A short pause ensued, and the assent of the company was about to be
assumed, when one of the older directors, famed for the vigilance with
which he watched even the most trivial measure, begged to be heard.
He admitted that the rights and interests of the work were all
carefully guarded by the terms of the resolution, and that the company
was not called upon to lay out any of its means for the promotion of
the scheme. But notwithstanding all this, he did not feel, as a
conscientious man, that he could, without further examination, give
his vote for the resolution. He knew that this idea of Mr. Morse,
however plausible it might appear to theorists and dreamers, and
so-called men of science, was regarded by all practical people as
destined, like many other similar projects, to certain failure, and
must consequently result in loss and possibly ruin to Mr. Morse. For
one, he felt conscientiously scrupulous in giving a vote which would
aid or tempt a visionary enthusiast to ruin himself.
Fortunately, the views of this cautious, practical man did not
prevail. A few words from the mover of the resolution, Mr. Nicholas,
who still lives to behold the wonders he helped to create, and from
Mr. Kennedy, without whose aid the appropriation would not have passed
the House of Representatives, relieved the other directors from all
fear of contributing to Mr. Morse's ruin, and the resolution was
adopted. Of the President and thirty directors who took part in this
transaction, only three, Samuel W. Smith, John Spear Nicholas, and the
writer, survive. Under it Morse at once entered upon that test of his
invention whose fruits are now enjoyed by the people of all the
continents.
It was not, however, until the spring of 1844 that he had his line and
its appointments in such a condition as to allow the transmission of
messages between the two cities, and it was in May of that year that
the incident occurred which has chiefly led to the writing of this
paper.