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Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
48
Morse
and
Smith
arrived
in
London
during
the
month
of
June.
Application
was
immediately
made
for
a
British
patent,
but
Cooke
and
Wheatstone
and
Edward
Davy,
it
seems,
opposed
it;
and
although
Morse
demonstrated
that
his
was
different
from
theirs,
the
patent
was
refused,
owing
to
a
prior
publication
in
the
London
MECHANICS'
MAGAZINE
for
February
18,
1838,
in
the
form
of
an
article
quoted
from
Silliman's
AMERICAN
JOURNAL
OF
SCIENCE
for
October,
1837.
Morse
did
not
attempt
to
get
this
legal
disqualification
set
aside.
In
France
he
was
equally
unfortunate.
His
instrument
was
exhibited
by
Arago
at
a
meeting
of
the
Institute,
and
praised
by
Humboldt
and
Gay-Lussac;
but
the
French
patent
law
requires
the
invention
to
be
at
work
in
France
within
two
years,
and
when
Morse
arranged
to
erect
a
telegraph
line
on
the
St.
Germain
Railway,
the
Government
declined
to
sanction
it,
on
the
plea
that
the
telegraph
must
become
a
State
monopoly.
All
his
efforts
to
introduce
the
invention
into
Europe
were
futile,
and
he
returned
disheartened
to
the
United
States
on
April
15,
1839.
While
in
Paris,
he
had
met
M.
Daguerre,
who,
with
M.
Niepce,
had
just
discovered
the
art
of
photography.
The
process
was
communicated
to
Morse,
who,
with
Dr.
Draper,
fitted
up
a
studio
on
the
roof
of
the
University,
and
took
the
first
daguerreotypes
in
America.
The
American
Congress
now
seemed
as
indifferent
to
his
inventions
as
the
European
governments.
An
exciting
campaign
for
the
presidency
was
at
hand,
and
the
proposed
grant
for
the
telegraph
was
forgotten.
Mr.
Smith
had
returned
to
the
political
arena,
and
the
Vails
were
under
a
financial
cloud,
so
that
Morse
could
expect
no
further
aid
from
them.
The
next
two
years
were
the
darkest
he
had
ever
known.
'Porte
Crayon'
tells
us
that
he
had
little
patronage
as
a
professor,
and
at
one
time
only
three
pupils
besides
himself.
Crayon's
fee
of
fifty
dollars
for
the
second
quarter
were
overdue,
owing
to
his
remittance
from
home
not
arriving;
and
one
day
the
professor
said,
'Well,
Strother,
my
boy,
how
are
we
off
for
money?'
Strother
explained
how
he
was
situated,
and
stated
that
he
hoped
to
have
the
money
next
week.
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