I shall make but one quotation from the long opinion handed down by the Supreme Court and delivered by Chief Justice Taney:—­

“Neither can the inquiries he made, nor the information or advice he received from men of science, in the course of his researches, impair his right to the character of an inventor.  No invention can possibly be made, consisting of a combination of different elements of power, without a thorough knowledge of the properties of each of them, and the mode in which they operate on each other.  And it can make no difference in this respect whether he derives his information from books, or from men skilled in the science.  If it were otherwise, no patent in which a combination of different elements is used could ever be obtained.  For no man ever made such an invention without having first obtained this information, unless it was discovered by some fortunate accident.  And it is evident that such an invention as the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph could never have been brought into action without it.  For a very high degree of scientific knowledge, and the nicest skill in the mechanic arts, are combined in it, and were both necessary to bring it into successful operation. And the fact that Morse sought and, obtained the necessary information and counsel from the best sources, and acted upon it, neither impairs his rights as an inventor, nor detracts from his merits.”

The italics are mine, for it has over and over been claimed for everybody who had a part in the early history of the telegraph, either by hint, help, or discovery, that more credit should be given to him than to Morse himself—­to Henry, to Gale, to Vail, to Doctor Page, and even to F.O.J.  Smith.  In fact Morse used often to say that some people thought he had no right to claim his invention because he had not discovered electricity, nor the copper from which his wires were made, nor the brass of his instruments, nor the glass of his insulators.

I shall make one other quotation from the opinion of Judge Kane and Judge Grier at one of the earlier trials, in Philadelphia, in 1851:—­

“That he, Mr. Morse, was the first to devise and practise the art of recording language, at telegraphic distances, by the dynamic force of the electro-magnet, or, indeed, by any agency whatever, is, to our minds, plain upon all the evidence.  It is unnecessary to review the testimony for the purpose of showing this.  His application for a patent, in April, 1838, was preceded by a series of experiments, results, illustrations and proofs of final success, which leave no doubt whatever but that his great invention was consummated before the early spring of 1837.  There is no one person, whose invention has been spoken of by any witness, or referred to in any book as involving the principle of Mr. Morse’s discovery, but must yield precedence of date to this.  Neither Steinheil, nor Cooke and Wheatstone, nor Davy, nor Dyar, nor Henry, had at this time made a recording