SAMUEL F. B. MORSE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 02/22/1871 - HFSID 350580
Price: $7,500.00
SAMUEL F.B. MORSE
Signed autograph letter (1871) to an experimenter, in which Morse discusses "the
present Science of Electro-Magnetism."
ALS: "Saml F.B. Morse". 1½ pages, 5 x 8, front and verso. New York, 1871 February 22.
The inventor of the Morse Code and the Electromagnetic Telegraph writes to G.W.
Varnum, M.D., Montgomery City, Mo. In full: "I received yesterday through my friend
& your Cousin J.B. Varnum, Esq your letter of the 16t. instant. In regard to the
experiment mentioned in your letter, it is by no means new. Indeed it was from observing
this effect, upon a needle, of the magnetism of an electric current (not indeed upon the
modern electromagnet, which was the result of his observation,) that Oersted founded the
present Science of Electro-magnetism. The use made also of this effect of the magnet
upon the needle, to indicate the presence of an electric current upon the telegraph wires,
is almost universal in the Offices in Europe; every instrument being furnished with a
Galvanometer for the purpose, So although although (sic) not new, you have at least the
satisfaction of having independently Suggested a valuable use of the magnetic needle.
With respect Yr. Ob. Serv." G.W. VARNUM was a doctor and scientist who had
unknowingly reproduced Hans Christian Oersted's experiment regarding the correlation
between magnets and electricity. MORSE greatly admired Oersted, the Danish physicist who
founded Electromagnetism - the science upon which Morse's telegraph was based. Seventeen
years after Oersted made his discovery, Morse patented his version of the
electromagnetic telegraph (1837). After constructing a 37-mile line of wire and poles
between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, he publicly demonstrated that telegraphic
communication was possible when he sent the message "What hath God wrought" via
Morse code (May 24, 1844). Throughout the next two decades, lines and poles were laid
across the U.S. By the 1860s, telegraphs had become the dominant form of communication,
and by the following decade, news could be telegraphically transmitted to and from the U.S.
and Europe in a matter of minutes. Morse enjoyed international fame as the "Father of
the Telegraph". Slightly soiled. Fine condition. Framed by the Gallery of History:
36¼x22¼. Frame has a small chip at top center.
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