Samuel Morse ALS Lamenting the Beginning of the Telegraph Case

MORSE, Samuel F.B. Autograph Letter Signed, "Saml. F.B. Morse", 1p, 8” x 10”, “Po’keepsie”, January 18, 1851. Mounting remnants at verso. Waviness at left edge, flattened folds, creasing, minor toning and some scattered foxing, else in very good plus condition with sharp text.

Morse writes to Reverend R. H. Seely concerning his patent over the telegraph and electromagnetics, in part, "...I am compelled to have my mind wholly absorbed in the self-defense in the interminable litigation that has been forced upon me, from having in a sad hour for my own peace, given way to the delusion that a Patent was a protection and guarantee of justice.” This dispute led to the landmark Supreme Court ruling known as the Telegraph Case. 

Morse continues, “I should be much gratified to compare notes with Prof. Mitchell on some points. Bain’s machine infringes in several points upon mine, and it is for this infringement that a motion for an injunction will be heard in April at Phila." 

Scottish inventor Alexander Bain had developed an early form of a fax machine, which, using electrical impulses, was able to copy images and then transmit them over wire. This was an invention that used some basic transmission principles from the telegraph and enhanced them by copying images rather than using Samuel Morse’s dot-dash method to convey messages. Henry O’Reilly took Bain’s invention to create a competing model to Morse’s telegraph. Morse’s legal challenge to O’Reilly began as the injunction mentioned in this letter and ended over two years later in the Supreme Court’s landmark patent case O’Reilly v. Morse (the Telegraph Case). The Supreme Court upheld Morse’s claim of inventing the telegraph but denied his claim of a patent on a scientific concept or idea, in this case the properties of electrical impulses.

Reverend Raymond H. Seely was a prominent Congregational minister in Massachusetts, who at a much later celebration with Morse in Paris, recalled being in the room with Morse when the first message was sent.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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