ply to this letter has not been preserved, but he probably
agreed to Vail's proposition,--anything honorable to keep the telegraph
in the public eye,--for, as we shall see, in a later letter he refers to
the machines which Prosch was to make. Before quoting from that letter,
however, I shall give the following sentences from one to Baron
Meyendorff, of March 18, 1840:

"I have, since I returned to the United States, made several important
improvements, which I regret my limited time will not permit me to
describe or send you.... I have so changed the _form_ of the apparatus,
and condensed it into so small a compass, that you would scarcely know it
for the same instrument which you saw in Paris."

This and many other allusions, in the correspondence of those years, to
Morse's work in simplifying and perfecting his invention, some of which I
have already noted, answer conclusively the claims of those who have said
that all improvements were the work of other brains and hands.

On September 7, 1840, he writes again to Vail:--

"Your letter of 28th ult. was received several days ago, but I have not
had a moment's time to give you a word in return. I am tied hand and foot
during the day endeavoring to realize something from the Daguerreotype
portraits.... As to the Telegraph, I know not what to say. The delay in
finishing the apparatus on the part of Prosch is exceedingly tantalizing
and vexatious. He was to have finished them more than six months ago, and
I have borne with his procrastination until I utterly despair of their
being completed.... I suppose something might be done in Washington next
session if I, or some of you, could go on, but I have expended so much
time in vain, there and in Europe, that I feel almost discouraged from
pressing it any further; only, however, from want of funds. I have none
myself, and I dislike to ask it of the rest of you. You are all so
scattered that there is no consultation, and I am under the necessity of
attending to duties which will give me the means of living.

"The reason of its not being in operation is not _the fault of the
invention_, nor is it _my neglect_. My faith is not only unshaken in its
_eventual adoption throughout the world_, but it is confirmed by every
new discovery in the science of electricity."

While the future looked dark and the present was darker still, Morse
maintained a cheerful exterior, and was still able to write to his
friends in a light and airy v