result all worked out for him.  In each case of type such common letters as e and t have many more types than little used letters such as q and z.  By observing the number of types of each letter provided, Vail was enabled to arrange them in the order of their importance in assigning them symbols in the code.  Thus the Morse code was arranged as it stands to-day.  Alfred Vail played a very important part in the arrangement of the code as well as in the construction of the apparatus, and there are many who believe that the code should have been called the Vail code instead of the Morse code.

[Illustration:  MORSE’S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT

A pen was attached to the pendulum and drawn across the strip of paper by the action of the electro-magnet.  The lead type shown in the lower right-hand corner was used in making electrical contact when sending a message.  The modern instrument shown in the lower left-hand corner is the one that sent a message around the world in 1896.]

Morse came down to Speedwell when he could to assist Vail with the work, and yet it progressed slowly.  But at last, early in January of 1838 they had the telegraph at work, and William Baxter, the apprentice boy, was sent to call the senior Vail.  Within a few moments he was in the work-room studying the apparatus.  Alfred Vail was at the sending key, and Morse was at the receiver.  The father wrote on a piece of paper these words:  “A patient waiter is no loser.”  Handing it to his son, he stated that if he could transmit the message to Morse by the telegraph he would be convinced.  The message was sent and recorded and instantly read by Morse.  The first test had been completed successfully.

VI

“WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?”

    Congress Becomes Interested—­Washington to Baltimore Line
    Proposed—­Failure to Secure Foreign Patents—­Later Indifference of
    Congress—­Lean Years—­Success at Last—­The Line is Built—­The First
    Public Message—­Popularity.

Morse and his associates now had a telegraph which they were confident would prove a genuine success.  But the great work of introducing this new wonder to the public, of overcoming indifference and skepticism, of securing financial support sufficient to erect a real line, still remained to be done.  We shall see that this burden remained very largely upon Morse himself.  Had Morse not been a forceful and able man of affairs as well as an inventor, the introduction of the telegraph might have been even longer delayed.