f turns should be increased from
tens to hundreds, as shown by Professor Henry in his paper published in
the 'American Journal of Science,' 1831.... After substituting the
battery of twenty cups for that of a single cup, we added some hundred or
more turns to the coil of wire around the poles of the magnet and sent a
message through two hundred feet of conductors, then through one thousand
feet, and then through ten miles of wire arranged on reels in my own
lecture-room in the New York University in the presence of friends."

This was a most important step in hastening the reduction of the
invention to a practical, workable basis and I wish here to bear
testimony to the great services of Professor Henry in making this
possible. His valuable discoveries were freely given to the world with no
attempt on his part to patent them, which is, perhaps, to be regretted,
but much more is it to be deplored that, in, the litigation which ensued
a few years later, Morse and Henry were drawn into a controversy,
fostered and fomented by others for their own pecuniary benefit, which
involved the honor and veracity of both of these distinguished men. Both
were men of the greatest sensitiveness, proud and jealous of their own
integrity, and the breach once made was never healed. Of the rights and
wrongs of this controversy I may have occasion later on to treat more in
detail, although I should much prefer to dismiss it with the
acknowledgment that there was much to deplore in what was said and
written by Morse, although he sincerely believed himself to be in the
right, and much to regret in some of the statements and actions of Henry.

At this late day, when the mists which enveloped the questions have
rolled away, it seems but simple justice to admit that the wonderful
discoveries of Henry were essential to the successful working over long
distances of Morse's discoveries and inventions; just as the discoveries
and inventions of earlier and contemporary scientists were essential to
Henry's improvements. But it is also just to place emphasis on the fact
that Henry's experiments were purely scientific. He never attempted to
put them in concrete form for the use of mankind in general; they led up
to the telegraph; they were not a practical telegraph in themselves. It
was Morse who added the final link in the long chain, and, by combining
the discoveries of others with those which he had himself made, gave to
the world this wonderful new ag