d Dr. Jackson described
some of the more recent discoveries of European scientists--the length of
wire in the coil of a magnet, the fact that electricity passed
instantaneously through any known length of wire, and that its presence
could be observed at any part of the line by breaking the circuit. Morse
was, naturally, much interested and it was then that the inspiration,
which had lain dormant in his brain for many years, suddenly came to him,
and he said: "If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any
part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be
transmitted instantaneously by electricity."

The company was not startled by this remark; they soon turned to other
subjects and thought no more of it. Little did they realize that this
exclamation of Morse's was to mark an epoch in civilization; that it was
the germ of one of the greatest inventions of any age, an invention which
not only revolutionized the methods by which intelligence was conveyed
from place to place, but paved the way for the subjugation, to the uses
of man in many other ways, of that mysterious fluid, electricity, which
up to this time had remained but a plaything of the laboratory. In short,
it ushered in the Age of Electricity. Least of all, perhaps, did that Dr.
Jackson, who afterwards claimed to have given Morse all his ideas,
apprehend the tremendous importance of that chance remark. The fixed idea
had, however, taken root in Morse's brain and obsessed him. He withdrew
from the cabin and paced the deck, revolving in his mind the various
means by which the object sought could be attained. Soon his ideas were
so far focused that he sought to give them expression on paper, and he
drew from his pocket one of the little sketch-books which he always
carried with him, and rapidly jotted down in sketches and words the ideas
as they rushed from his brain. This original sketch-book was burned in a
mysterious fire which, some years later, during one of the many telegraph
suits, destroyed many valuable papers. Fortunately, however, a certified
copy had wisely been made, and this certified copy is now in the National
Museum in Washington, and the reproduction here given of some of its
pages will show that Morse's first conception of a Recording Electric
Magnetic Telegraph is practically the telegraph in universal use to-day.

[Illustration: DRAWINGS FROM 1832 SKETCH BOOK, SHOWING FIRST CONCEPTION
OF TELEGRAPH]

His first though