Marine Telegraphy

Professor Morse applied to Congress for pecuniary aid to enable him to construct an experimental line of telegraph between Washington and Baltimore. He was unsuccessful, and for four years he waited for the tardy action of his government. Then, in the spring of 1842, Congress appropriated $30,000 for his use; and two years afterward Professor Morse transmitted from Washington to Baltimore, a distance of forty miles, the first message, furnished him by a young lady--"What hath God wrought!" The first public message was the announcement of the nomination of James K. Polk for President of the United States, by a Democratic convention sitting at Baltimore, in May, 1844.

Others claimed to be the authors of the great invention, and Professor Morse was put upon the defensive. Infringements of the patents he had obtained ensued, and years of costly litigation. He triumphed. His rights were fully and finally established by the careful sifting of testimony by the courts, and a decision was made from which there could be no just appeal, that Professor Morse was the original and sole inventor of the electromagnetic recording telegraph system, known by his name. Its value was soon perceived. Monarchs bestowed orders and pecuniary gifts upon the inventor, and colleges conferred honorary degrees upon him.

Professor Morse originated marine telegraphy. He suggested the possibility of telegraphic communication between America and Europe, by means of a submarine cable, in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury in the summer of 1843; and in 1858 he participated in the labors and honors of achieving it. In the summer of that year a cable was laid between Valencia in Ireland and the shore of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, over the great ocean plateau discovered by Professor Maury of the National Observatory. The first intelligent communication was made on the 13th of August. Early in the morning of the 17th, a message was received from the Queen of Great Britain, for the President of the United States, and an answer was immediately returned, when the cable ceased its functions. It was dumb until the summer of 1866, when communication was re-established, and has been permanent ever since. There now seems to be no impediment to its utterances by a pathway under the sea, and over the land, between nearly all the countries of the civilized world.

Many new functions of this great invention have been discovered, and its powers seem to be in their infancy of manifestation. Messages are now sent by a single wire, each way, at the same instant of time. The human voice and the melody of musical instruments may now be transmitted over hundreds of miles of space, and even impressions of handwriting and the living features of the human face may now be sent by friend to friend, from State to State, from ocean to ocean. Commerce and agriculture are receiving vast benefits from its use in meterological observations and scientific predictions of future events.

In the year 1870, Congress authorized the establishment of a Weather-Signal Service, under the control of the War Department, which was designed to collect information and give notice by signals or by telegraph, of any approaching danger; in time of peace, of dangers to arise from storms in their progress, or other atmospheric disturbances. This peculiar service was invented and organized by General Albert J. Myer, who has been at the head of it from the beginning. The system, as arranged by General Myer, permits the forecasting of atmospheric phenomena for twenty-four hours in advance; and to such perfection is the system brought, that almost ninety per cent. of the predictions are verified by actual results. Simultaneous weather reports from simultaneous observations, taken at different places, are transmitted to the Signal Office at Washington. Three of these simultaneous reports are made in each twenty-four hours, at the same instant of time, at intervals of eight hours; and warnings are given by signals, maps, bulletins, and official despatches, furnished by the Signal Office three times each day, to nearly all the newspapers of the land. So thoroughly is this work done, by means of the telegraph, and by the perfect organization of the system and the discipline of the operators, that it is estimated one-third of all the families in our country are in possession, each day, of the information at the Signal Office in Washington. The value of this service to commerce and agriculture is incalculable. A storm ranging in any part of the country may be known to ports and districts in its track many hours before it can reach such points; and deductions from known meterological laws, enables the Signal Bureau to predict the probable state of the weather in every part of the country with great accuracy. The advantages of such a service is obvious. The invention and operations of the electro-magnetic telegraph, furnishes a marvellous chapter in the history of our country.