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Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
44
Young
Vail
applied
to
his
father,
who
was
a
man
of
enterprise
and
intelligence.
He
it
was
who
forged
the
shaft
of
the
Savannah,
the
first
steamship
which
crossed
the
Atlantic.
Morse
was
invited
to
Speedwell
with
his
apparatus,
that
the
judge
might
see
it
for
himself,
and
the
question
of
a
partnership
was
mooted.
Two
thousand
dollars
were
required
to
procure
the
patents
and
construct
an
instrument
to
bring
before
the
Congress.
In
spite
of
a
financial
depression,
the
judge
was
brave
enough
to
lend
his
assistance,
and
on
September
23,
1837,
an
agreement
was
signed
between
the
inventor
and
Alfred
Vail,
by
which
the
latter
was
to
construct,
at
his
own
expense,
a
model
for
exhibition
to
a
Committee
of
Congress,
and
to
secure
the
necessary
patents
for
the
United
States.
In
return
Vail
was
to
receive
one-fourth
of
the
patent
rights
in
that
country.
Provision
was
made
also
to
give
Vail
an
interest
in
any
foreign
patents
he
might
furnish
means
to
obtain.
The
American
patent
was
obtained
by
Morse
on
October
3,
1837.
He
had
returned
to
New
York,
and
was
engaged
in
the
preparation
of
his
dictionary.
For
many
months
Alfred
Vail
worked
in
a
secret
room
at
the
iron
factory
making
the
new
model,
his
only
assistant
being
an
apprentice
of
fifteen,
William
Baxter,
who
subsequently
designed
the
Baxter
engine,
and
died
in
1885.
When
the
workshop
was
rebuilt
this
room
was
preserved
as
a
memorial
of
the
telegraph,
for
it
was
here
that
the
true
Morse
instrument,
such
as
we
know
it,
was
constructed.
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