sing the magnet for such a purpose. The researches of
Professor Joseph Henry on the electro-magnet, in 1830, were equally
unknown to Morse, until Professor Gale drew his attention to them,
and in accordance with the results, suggested that the simple
electro-magnet, with a few turns of thick wire which he employed, should
be replaced by one having a coil of long thin wire. By this change
a much feebler current would be able to excite the magnet, and the
recorder would mark through a greater length of line. Henry himself, in
1832, had devised a telegraph similar to that of Morse, and signalled
through a mile of wire, by causing the armature of his electro-magnet
to strike a bell. This was virtually the first electro-magnetic acoustic
telegraph.[AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.]

The year of the telegraph--1837--was an important one for Morse, as
it was for Cooke and Wheatstone. In the privacy of his rooms he had
constructed, with his own hands, a model of his apparatus, and
fortune began to favour him. Thanks to Professor Gale, he improved the
electro-magnet, employed a more powerful battery, and was thus able to
work through a much longer line. In February, 1837, the American House
of Representatives passed a resolution asking the Secretary of the
Treasury to report on the propriety of establishing a system of
telegraphs for the United States, and on March 10 issued a circular of
inquiry, which fell into the hands of the inventor, and probably urged
him to complete his apparatus, and bring it under the notice of the
Government. Lack of mechanical skill, ignorance of electrical science,
as well as want of money, had so far kept it back.

But the friend in need whom he required was nearer than he anticipated.
On Saturday, September 2, 1837, while Morse was exhibiting the model to
Professor Daubeny, of Oxford, then visiting the States, and others, a
young man named Alfred Vail became one of the spectators, and was
deeply impressed with the results. Vail was born in 1807, a son of
Judge Stephen Vail, master of the Speedwell ironworks at Morristown,
New Jersey. After leaving the village school his father took him and his
brother George into the works; but though Alfred inherited a mechanical
turn of mind, he longed for a higher sphere, and on attaining to his
majority he resolved to enter the Presbyterian Church. In 1832 he
went to the University of the city of New York, where he graduated in
October, 1836. Near the close of th