Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Alfred Vail's Notebook, green. |
Scope & Content |
Notebook owned by Alfred Vail. Green marbled hardcover. Contains circuit drawings; notes pertaining to telegraph; and geneological information pertaining to the Vail Family. This item belongs to the Telegraph Papers Series 2 |
Object Name |
Notebook |
Catalog Number |
HS1991.210 |
Collection |
Historic Speedwell Collection |
Physical characteristics |
1 bound hardcover notebook, handwritten contents. |
Creator |
Vail, Alfred |
Biographical History |
Visiting New York University in September 1837, Alfred attended one of Samuel F. B. Morse's early telegraph experiments. Vail negotiated an arrangement with Morse to develop the technology at Speedwell Ironworks at his own expense in return for 25% of the proceeds which would be reduced to one-eighth following the addition of other partners. Morse retained patent rights to everything Vail developed although Alfred's father Stephen paid the patent filing fees. Vail refined Morse's crude prototype to make it suitable for public demonstration and commercial operation. The first successful completion of a transmission with this system was at the Speedwell Iron Works on January 8, 1838, across two miles of wiring in the National Historic Landmark Factory Building at was is today Historic Speedwell. The message read "A patient waiter is no loser." Over the next few months Morse and Vail demonstrated the telegraph to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, members of Congress, and President Martin Van Buren and his cabinet. Demonstrations such as these were crucial to Morse's obtaining a Congressional appropriation of $30,000 to build his first line in 1844 from Washington to Baltimore where Vail sent the "What hath God wrought" message to Morse. Alfred Vail spent the decade between 1838 and 1848 researching, improving, and writing about the electromagnetic telegraph, including his 1845 book The Electromagnetic Telegraph with the Reports to Congress and a Description of all Telegraphs Known in 1845. Vail retired from the telegraph operations in 1848 and moved back to Morristown. |
Year Range from |
1837 |
Year Range to |
1848 |
System of arrangement |
The arrangement of the collection reflects the natural groupings found within the Collection: History of the Telegraph (Telegrams, Articles, Publications and Manuals related to the telegraph), and the Vail family Telegraph Research (James Cummings Vail Research Notebook and other research activities). Series 1: History of the Telegraph (HS2012.10.1) Telegrams, telegraph manuals and books related to the use of the telegraph and its history. Series 2: Vail Family Telegraph Research (HS2012.10.2) Correspondence, journals and articles collected or created by James Cummings Vail. |
Subjects |
Telecommunications industry Telegraph Telegraph industry Wire Electrical apparatus Electricity Inventions Inventors |
Parent ObjectID |
HS2012.010.0002 |
Copyrights |
Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research; however, as with all materials in the Morris County Park Commission, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. |
Level of description |
Item |