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mained without success, Because he did not know what was wanted to make a powerful magnet. Two years later, in 1837,when news of the above described doings in Europe reached America (his brother Sidney was editor of a newspaper), he, with the aid of a scientific gentleman, who knew what Professor Henry, then at Princeton, had done with regard to electro-magnets, produced something which, however, was net at all fit for practical use.
Professor Henry and Professor Bache, from America, had been, in 1837, in London, and had visited Professor Wheatstone in King's College on the 11th of April, which was six weeks after Mr. Cooke had been with him. During the summer Professor Wheatstone had signified to some Americans his wish to make an application for a patent at the Patent Office in Washington.
Morse's idea, then, was not to produce on paper letters or signs representing them, but to have only ten signs for the nine digits and the zero. With these he proposed to express numbers on strips of paper. In an alphabetical vocabulary the words were all numbered. He had an eleventh sign which served to indicate that the next following signs were really to represent numbers, not words. For each of the signs mentioned, he had a metal type with
