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In America, the first telegraph line, from
Washington to Baltimore, was completed in 1844. On the 24th
of March in that year, the first short sentence of four
words was telegraphed along it. This sentence, in
consequence of an invitation from Morse, was dictated by
the daughter of his friend, the chief at the Patent Office,
Mr. Ellsworth.[1] I found this first American original
telegram preserved in the Museum of the Historical Society
at Hartford, in Connecticut, and have not failed to take an
exact copy of it.
I do not intend at present to say more about the spreading of the telegraph in both hemispheres. My object here has been to give a true and accurate account of the first begining of the art of telegraphing by means of galvanism
and electro-magnetism.
- ↑ This Mr. Ellsworth had in May, 1840, allowed himself to return to Morse his original specification, sent in in April, 1838, before his departure for England. The pretext was that he might make some explanatory references and add a duplicate drawing. Morse sent in a new specification on the 16th May, 1840.—It has been supposed that he introduced into this new document a very important improvement with which he had got acquainted in London, and through which it became possible to telegraph to great distances; I mean: the Relays, the linking of fresh circuits to those already exhausted on a long line.
