in comparison with the 'sounder.'

The original telegraph of Morse, exhibited in 1837, has become an
archaic form. Apart from the central idea of employing an electro-magnet
to signal--an idea applied by Henry in 1832, when Morse had only thought
of it--the development of the apparatus is mainly due to Vail. His
working devices made it a success, and are in use to-day, while those of
Morse are all extinct.

Morse has been highly honoured and rewarded, not only by his countrymen,
but by the European powers. The Queen of Spain sent him a Cross of the
Order of Isabella, the King of Prussia presented him with a jewelled
snuff-box, the Sultan of Turkey decorated him with the Order of Glory,
the Emperor of the French admitted him into the Legion of Honour.
Moreover, the ten European powers in special congress awarded him
400,000 francs (some 80,000 dollars), as an expression of their
gratitude: honorary banquets were a common thing to the man who had
almost starved through his fidelity to an idea.

But beyond his emoluments as a partner in the invention, Alfred Vail had
no recompense. Morse, perhaps, was somewhat jealous of acknowledging
the services of his 'mechanical assistant,' as he at one time chose to
regard Vail. When personal friends, knowing his services, urged Vail
to insist upon their recognition, he replied, 'I am confident that
Professor Morse will do me justice.' But even ten years after the death
of Vail, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honour by the leading
citizens of New York, Morse, alluding to his invention, said: 'In 1835,
according to the concurrent testimony of many witnesses, it lisped its
first accents, and automatically recorded them a few blocks only distant
from the spot from which I now address you. It was a feeble child
indeed, ungainly in its dress, stammering in its speech; but it had then
all the distinctive features and characteristics of its present manhood.
It found a friend, an efficient friend, in Mr. Alfred Vail, of New
Jersey, who, with his father and brother, furnished the means to give
the child a decent dress, preparatory to its' visit to the seat of
Government.'

When we remember that even by this time Vail had entirely altered the
system of signals, and introduced the dot-dash code, we cannot but
regard this as a stinted acknowledgment of his colleague's work. But
the man who conceives the central idea, and cherishes it, is apt to be
niggardly in allowing merit to th