e mastery
by man of the subtle fluid. He also discovered that the intensity and
power of the electric current were materially augmented by increasing
the number of the series of battery plates without increasing the
quantity of metal used in their construction.

These discoveries of Henry were, beyond all question, the most important
in real and intrinsic value ever made in the progress of electric
science, as they form the solid basis upon which all subsequent
inventors have been enabled to accomplish successful results in their
various fields of endeavor. It is conceded by all familiar with the
history of electrical progress that the name of Professor Joseph Henry
is to be honored and cherished as one of the very foremost of scientific
discoverers of any age or country, and it must remain a cause of sincere
and permanent regret that of all the fabulous wealth that has resulted
from the advancement of electrical science, this modest and unselfish
inventor should have passed hence without ever having realized any
substantial reward for his great work. Not only so, but he was never
awarded the appropriate acknowledgment to which he was so eminently
entitled for the inestimable benefits his discoveries conferred upon his
countrymen and upon the world at large.

The possibility of utilizing Professor Henry's electromagnet for the
purpose of transmitting intelligence to a distant point was conceived by
still another American, Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, of New
York, [Footnote: He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27,
1791.--ED.] during his passage on board the packet-ship Sully, from
Havre to New York, in the winter of 1832. Incidental discussions between
himself and Doctor Jackson, a fellow-passenger, in reference to recent
electrical improvements on both sides of the Atlantic, led Morse to the
conclusion that intelligence might be instantaneously transmitted over a
metallic circuit to a distant point, and he thereupon determined to
devote himself to the solution of the problem involved. The following
day he exhibited a rough sketch of a plan for recording electric
impulses necessary to convey and express intelligence. He pursued the
subject with great devotion during the remainder of the voyage, and
after arrival in New York began the construction of the necessary
apparatus to accomplish his purpose.

Morse was by profession a portrait painter of more than ordinary merit,
and was obliged to contin