Archive Record
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Metadata
Title |
The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: with reports of Congress and a Description of all Telegraphs Known employing Electricity of Galvanism |
Scope & Content |
The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: with reports of Congress and a Description of all Telegraphs Known employing Electricity of Galvanism by Alfred Vail The Telegraph Collection is organized into 2 series, items in this record refer to Series 1: History of the Telegraph; |
Object Name |
Book |
Catalog Number |
HS2018.005.0001 |
Collection |
Historic Speedwell Collection |
Physical characteristics |
First edition. viii 208 pages. 8vo. Early 1/4 leather over marbled boards. |
Creator |
Vail, Alfred |
Biographical History |
Alfred Lewis Vail, (born Sept. 25, 1807, Morristown, N.J., U.S.—died Jan. 18, 1859, Morristown), American telegraph pioneer and an associate and financial backer of Samuel F.B. Morse in the experimentation that made the telegraph a commercial reality. This book is perhaps the most important book documenting the earliest history of telegraphy. Published by Vail in 1845 after the successful test of a congressionally approved experimental telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. in response to repeated requests for information about said test. Apparently the first American book devoted to the electric telegraph, it contains 81 wood engravings, over 60 pages documenting the device itself, and its applications. Many reports to Congress on the subject, and a history of telegraphs employing electricity in various ways for the transmission of intelligence. As such, it is the earliest and most complete survey of the work done to that date, the cradle period of telegraphic expansion into the "real world" from the laboratory. |
System of arrangement |
The Telegraph Collection is organized into 2 series: History of the Telegraph; Vail Family Telegraph Research. 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). |
Subjects |
19th Century Telecommunication lines Telecommunications industry Telegraph Telegraph industry Telegraph lines Telegraph offices Electrical apparatus Electricity |
Parent ObjectID |
HS2012.010.0001 |
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 |