ifferent from any form of telegraph devised by others.

I shall make but one quotation from the long opinion handed down by the
Supreme Court and delivered by Chief Justice Taney:--

"Neither can the inquiries he made, nor the information or advice he
received from men of science, in the course of his researches, impair his
right to the character of an inventor. No invention can possibly be made,
consisting of a combination of different elements of power, without a
thorough knowledge of the properties of each of them, and the mode in
which they operate on each other. And it can make no difference in this
respect whether he derives his information from books, or from men
skilled in the science. If it were otherwise, no patent in which a
combination of different elements is used could ever be obtained. For no
man ever made such an invention without having first obtained this
information, unless it was discovered by some fortunate accident. And it
is evident that such an invention as the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph could
never have been brought into action without it. For a very high degree of
scientific knowledge, and the nicest skill in the mechanic arts, are
combined in it, and were both necessary to bring it into successful
operation. _And the fact that Morse sought and, obtained the necessary
information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither
impairs his rights as an inventor, nor detracts from his merits._"

The italics are mine, for it has over and over been claimed for everybody
who had a part in the early history of the telegraph, either by hint,
help, or discovery, that more credit should be given to him than to Morse
himself--to Henry, to Gale, to Vail, to Doctor Page, and even to F.O.J.
Smith. In fact Morse used often to say that some people thought he had no
right to claim his invention because he had not discovered electricity,
nor the copper from which his wires were made, nor the brass of his
instruments, nor the glass of his insulators.

I shall make one other quotation from the opinion of Judge Kane and Judge
Grier at one of the earlier trials, in Philadelphia, in 1851:--

"That he, Mr. Morse, was the first to devise and practise the art of
recording language, at telegraphic distances, by the dynamic force of the
electro-magnet, or, indeed, by any agency whatever, is, to our minds,
plain upon all the evidence. It is unnecessary to review the testimony
for the purpose of showing th