Morse's original insulators found

Morse’s Original Insulators Found.

Glass Insulators through which the wire was run carrying the first message over a telegraph line from Washington to Balti­more, were recently discovered in the docu­ment room of the Senate by gentlemen who were taking measurements of the walls for the purpose of putting in new files cases.

While it was known that the insulators had been placed in some portion of the Sen­ate side of the building by Prof. Morse, their exact location was not known to any of the present employees of the Capitol until discovered as stated.

It was in the winter of 1843 that Prof. Morse, after repeated efforts, succeeding in securing from Congress an appropriation to enable him to make the test of his im­provements in telegraphy. He had already demonstrated that he could send and re­ceive a message a distance of ten miles through coiled insulated wire, the fact hav­ing been satisfactorily demonstrated a num­ber of times to members of the House and Senate, who were wiling to aid him. However, there was a large number of doubting Thomases who would take no interest in the man or in the invention and declined to witnesses his tests, all of which were made at the capital. Prof. Morse was fully con­vinced in his own mind that the same could be done over even a much greater distance in a straight line. In fact, it was his belief that space could be annihilated in the trans­mission of intelligence through his invention. It simply depended upon the power of the battery used, and this he proposed to overcome by relays of batteries where needed. That Prof. Morse was correct in his belief is carried out by the fact that messages are known in telegraphy as repeaters. Strong doubts existed however, in the minds of some of the law-makers and the appropriation-givers us to the abil­ity of the inventor to do what he said he could.

Appropriations were not handed out in those days as they are now, and the voters held their representatives accountable for their acts. This fact made the lawmakers "leary" of giving the appropriation because it might have been regarded as useless waste of public funds, and give encouragement and aid to an invention which appeared to some a little more than the delusion of mesmer­ism. Among those who took an active in­terest in securing the appropriation was the Hon. John Kennedy, of Maryland, and the Hon. George Ferris, of New York, and after laboring from 1836 to 1843 a bill appropriating $30,000 was passed by the House by a vote of 89 to 83. To become a law it required the concurrence of the Senate and the sanction of the President. The records show that the bill passed the House on the twenty-third of February, and while it is said that Prof. Morse anticipated no violent opposition in the Senate, that body would adjourn on the third of March, and it is doubtful if the bill could be reached on the calendar before ad­journment and under the rules no bill could be taken from its regular order. During the last few days of the session Prof. Morse haunted the halls and gallery of the Sen­ate, and on the afternoon of the last day he became discouraged and felt convinced that be would have to wait until the next Congress. With a sad heart he left the Capitol and went to his boarding house and to his room, where he remained until next morning, when it was his intention to take a train for New York, where he intended to resume his work as an artist. His plans, however, were not carried out, for just be­fore he was ready to go to the depot he received a call from Miss Annie Ellsworth, daughter of the Commissioner of Patents, who said she had called to congratulate him upon the passage of his bill. Prof. Morse could scarcely believe the young lady when she told him that the bill had passed the Senate only a few minutes before ad­journment and that she had asked her fa­ther's permission to convey to him the glad news. Miss Ellsworth was promised by the inventor that she could send the first mes­sage over the long distant line, a promise which was fulfilled.

With the necessary money as his disposal, Prof. Morse at once began the work of con­structing the line to Baltimore, first experi­menting with an underground system, which did not work satisfactorily, and was soon abandoned. The overhead wires were then strung, touching Baltimore at the office of the Mount Clare depot, recording instru­ments being placed there and in the Supreme Court room in the Capitol. There was little delay in making satisfactory test of the line, and when all was in readiness — May 19, 1844 — Miss Ellsworth was sent for to come to the Capitol and she promptly responded. She wrote for transmission the words: "What hath God wrought," the first formal message ever sent over a telegraphic wire, and which was preserved and is now in the possession of the Connecticut Historical So­ciety.

Naturally the line did not do a sufficient business to make it a paying or one even self-sustaining, and during the year fol­lowing its completion Prof. Morse asked an appropriation of $8,000 from Congress for its continued maintenance, and he also renewed his application to become the sole possessor of telegraph in the United States. The for­mer was granted, but the latter was denied. Strange to say, Prof. Morse experienced much difficulty in getting capitalists inter­ested in his invention, but finally Amos Kendall, former Postmaster General, became associated with him, and it was not long before lines were extended and cities united by wire and money went into the pockets of the inventor and his associates.

                                                                            HAMILTON.