Previous image preload Next image preload
Back to catalog
Lot 166
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3
Best Samuel Morse ALS available stating he was inventor of telegraph!
Best Samuel Morse ALS available stating he was inventor of telegraph!
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3
Description:

Morse Samuel 1791 - 1872 The best Samuel Morse ALS available, proclaiming he was the inventor of the telegraph, and describing its first use!

Single page ALS penned entirely in the hand of Samuel Morris on lined paper, 5" x 8". Dated "Nov 11th, 1861", and boldly signed by Samuel Morris as "Sam F.B. Morse". Sheet inlaid to a backing sheet. Near fine, with strong contrast. Accompanied by a fine engraving of Samuel Morse, 4.25" x " laid into a page, along with documented provenance as noted below.

The long road to the invention of the telegraph was shrouded with periods of melancholy, followed by exuberance and achievement, and then by years of legal battles establishing primacy to Morse's invention during the very early period of Patent Law designed to protect intellectual property rights. The latter touchy subject is addressed in this letter by Samuel Morse to A.J. Goodman, Esq, whereas Morse emphatically asserts "A letter dated Oct 18th from you has just reached me inquiring if I lay claim to the first operator in Telegraphs, and when the first line was used ... Presuming you mean the Elector magnetic recording Telegraphy I reply that being the inventor of it, I must of necessity be the first operator. " It would be hard to imagine the frustration on the part of Morse, who had clearly developed the Telegraph and had already operated it 25 years before this letter from Goodman who was now yet another person asking Morse if he considers himself to be the inventor. Morse's patent was put in place after the revised Patent Act of 1836 was put in place, a Patent Office was created and the new act 'marked the beginning of our present patent system' based on the 'examination system' involving scrutiny of each patent application.

If one first goes back in time to Morse's early years, before was known for his inventions, he was making a living as a professional painter. The precipice of how the telegraph came to be was born through despair and occured when Morse was in Washington to paint a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette. He had received a letter from his father. His wife, Lucretia, had fallen gravely ill less than a month after giving birth to their third child. Morse immediately packed up his paint and headed home to New Haven, but by the time he made it home, he was too late—Lucretia had died, and, in fact, had already been buried for several days. "You cannot know the depth of the wound that was inflicted when I was deprived of your dear mother, nor in how many ways that wound has been kept open" But without Morse's wound, the telegraph as we knew it may never have existed—after his wife's death, Morse vowed to figure out a way to deliver life-and-death messages in a timely manner.

A race between two sets of researchers ensued to see who could design the system first; and the credit for inventing the telegraph generally falls between: Sir William Cooke (1806-79) and Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-75) in England, and Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale (1800-83) and Alfred Vail (1807-59) in the U.S. In the 1830s, the British team of Cooke and Wheatstone developed a telegraph system with five magnetic needles that could be pointed around a panel of letters and numbers by using an electric current. (Their system was soon being used for railroad signaling in Britain), while Yale-educated Morse worked to develop an electric telegraph of his own. In collaboration with Gale and Vail, Morse eventually produced a single-circuit telegraph. In 1842 Morse had strung "wires between two committee rooms in the Capitol, and sent messages back and forth" demonstrating his telegraph system. In response, Congress appropriated $30,000 in 1843 for construction. History was made in 1844 when Morse telegraphed a Bible quote from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore: "What hath God wrought?"

This climatic moment was followed by non-stop lawsuits, the first historic lawsuit was to begin in 1848 - lawsuits which were not only to establish this inventors claim, but were to be used as a precedent in all future patent litigation. The first patent battle Morse was involved with revolved around whether or not he was the actual inventor of the telegraph. Morse swore to the originality of his invention though the burden of proof fell on Morse as he did not apply for an American patent in a timely manner. Therefore he had to rely on the testimony of various colleagues and friends to determine when Morse had a working model of his telegraph (which was determined to be around 1835). The following series of lawsuits set the pace for Patent law which continues today. The Patent act of 1836 was a detailed revision of earlier law whose intent was to encourage invention and creative activity. Patent laws were originally designed to protect the individual investor (or corporation) with the belief that the patent system would operate to benefit both the inventor and society, with the assumption that by protecting the rights of the inventor, he/she would then willingly share their invention with the public and allow for commercial development.

So as it stands, today Samuel Morse is not just known for his invention of the telegraph but also known to have set the precedent for all future patent litigation! Samuel Morse's letter dated 1861 (shown below) is an example whereby he once again is forced to set facts straight:

"New York Nov 11th, 1861

Sir,

A letter dated Oct 18th from you has just reached me inquiring if I lay claim to the first operator in Telegraphs, and when the first line was used.

Presuming you mean the Elector magnetic recording Telegraphy I reply that being the inventor of it, I must of necessity be the first operator. The first line constructed between two commercial points was the experimental line, ordered by the Government in 1843 and completed in May 1844 between Washington and Baltimore. An experimental line of short circuit was operated by me in New York as early as the autumn of 1835.

Respectfully

Sam. S.B. Morse

A J Goodman, Esq"

An extraordinary well preserved, important and highly relevant letter; not only signed and dated by Morse, but with his emphatic statement "I reply that being the inventor of it, I must of necessity be the first operator." for price comparison see here:

ALs

10 Mar 1864. 1 p, 4to. To an unnamed recipient. Sending a copy of the message that was sent over the wires of the first completed telegraph in America & discussing how the message was chosen. Loss to lower left corner touching text. Stained & soiled. Silked. Backed. Sold w. a.f. Swann, Apr 17, 2012, lot 276, $30,000

Morse, Samuel F. B., 1791-1872

ALs

18 Apr 1843. 3 pp, 10 by 8 inches. To John C. Spencer. Writing the Secretary of the Treasury about the building of the first telegraph line in America. Margins frayed. Soiled. With address panel on verso of third page. Profiles in History, Dec 18, 2012, lot 276, $28,125

Morse, Samuel F. B., 1791-1872

ALs

3 Mar 1843. 1 p, 4to. To Representative Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith. Announcing that the Senate had passed his bill concerning testing the practicability of establishing a telegraph system in the United States. With integral blank. Swann, Apr 17, 2012, lot 275, $27,500

Provenance: This item was recently discovered in an extra illustrated volume of "History of the City of New York" by Mary L. Booth, New York W. R. C. Clark, 1867. Originally two volumes, the monumental task of expanding the work to 21 volumes by none other than Emery E. Childs esquire of New York City. In volume 1 of this work exists a lovely india ink Drawing of Mary L. Booth along with a notation "presented by her to E E C" in pencil. Next to the title page we find an original letter of Booth to Childs dated April 4, 1872 " I am in receipt of your favor of the 4th inst., and am grateful to hear that you are taking the trouble to illustrate my History of the City of New York in the manner you describe. I shall be happy to see you, should you favor me with a callas I am usually in my office during business hours and should be pleased to facilitate your Enterprise by any means in my power"

It is assumed that the book took several years to assemble at which point, assumedly through Childs, it made its way to Senator Charles B. Farwell of Chicago who took the seat of John A. Logan in 1887. Farwell had an extensive library that fortunately survived the great Chicago fire in 1871 having been housed in his Lakeside home. In the American Bibliopolist of November 1871 there is an article about the devastation to libraries caused by the tragedy . "Mr C. B. Farwell's library is also fortunately far out from the city, at his country house, and is safe, The same remark will also apply to the extensive collection of books and curiosities belonging to Mr. E. E. Childs." This establishes the Chicago connection between Childs and Farwell.

That these letters were preserved for over 140 years and have never been on the market for that period is remarkable on many levels. It is the state of being wedged in these volumes that also account for what is mostly the pristine state of preservation.

Accepted Forms of Payment:

American Express, MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Paypal, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer

Shipping

Applicable shipping and handling charges will be added to the invoice. ***PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR SHIPMENT TO BE SENT TO AN ADDRESS OTHER THAN THE ONE YOU HAVE ON FILE WITH INVALUABLE, YOU WILL NEED TO INFORM US OF THIS AS SOON AS PAYMENT IS SUBMITTED FOR YOUR WINNINGS*** Shipping and handling costs are competitive as we maintain discounted contracts with FedEx. If you have any questions, contact University Archives prior to bidding. After payment has been made in full, University Archives will ship your purchase within 5 business days following receipt of full payment for item. We currently ship via FedEx but if your purchase is shipping to a P.O. Box, we ship via USPS. All items are insured. We ship from our offices in Westport, CT. We may opt to use a third party shipper for very fragile, bulky or oversized items. Items requiring third party shipping will be denoted in the item description. Packages shipped internationally will have full value declared on shipping form. International buyers will be responsible for any customs fees incurred.

Please remember that the buyer is responsible for all shipping costs from University Archives' offices in Westport, CT to the buyer's door. Please see full Terms and Conditions of Sale.

University Archives

You agree to pay a buyer's premium of 20% and any applicable taxes and shipping.

View full terms and conditions

Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $299 $20
$300 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $2,999 $200
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000