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Auction archive: Lot number 149

MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE (1791-1872). Autograph letter signed ("Sam:F:B:Morse") to Catherine Pattison, New York, 27 August 1837. 4 pages, 4to, 252 x 205 mm. (10 x 7.7/8 in.), separate address leaf, slight separations along fold, otherwise in good ...

Auction 29.05.1998
29 May 1998
Estimate
US$4,500 - US$6,500
Price realised:
US$8,625
Auction archive: Lot number 149

MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE (1791-1872). Autograph letter signed ("Sam:F:B:Morse") to Catherine Pattison, New York, 27 August 1837. 4 pages, 4to, 252 x 205 mm. (10 x 7.7/8 in.), separate address leaf, slight separations along fold, otherwise in good ...

Auction 29.05.1998
29 May 1998
Estimate
US$4,500 - US$6,500
Price realised:
US$8,625
Beschreibung:

MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE (1791-1872). Autograph letter signed ("Sam:F:B:Morse") to Catherine Pattison, New York, 27 August 1837. 4 pages, 4to, 252 x 205 mm. (10 x 7.7/8 in.), separate address leaf, slight separations along fold, otherwise in good condition. "THE TELEGRAPH...IS TESTED TO MY SATISFACTION" A warm letter to a young lady, written the month before Morse first filed the plans for the Telegraph (on which he had worked since 1832) with the Patent Office. Here, he expresses his concerns that his idea will be imitated and patented elsewhere. Morse, an accomplished painter, has been visiting Boston and Cape Cod and found "much of importance to my studies for my Historical Pictures," and has "made a thorough search for the relics of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims." He is experiencing "a little anxiety in relation to my Telegraph," even though he is confident that "the Telegraph in all its essential parts is tested to my own satisfaction and that of the scientific gentlemen who have seen it, but before it can be perfected for the public eye I have reason to fear that other nations will have taken the hint, and will rob me of both the credit and the profit. Ther are indications of this in the foreign journals. I have a defender...in the Journal of Commerce," and other journals, he hopes "will not allow foreign nations to take credit for an invention, which they consider the 'greatest in the annals of the world ' when the editors learn that it certainly belongs to America. There is not a thought in any one of the foreign journals relative to the Telegraph which I had not expressed nearly five years ago...to scientific friends...But enough of Telegraphs until we have one between N. York & Troy and then I promise you that my first communication...shall be to you..." He goes on to write of family affairs and the novels of Hannah More. It would require seven years' further work for Morse to perfect his design, get financial backing, build a test line and finally, on 24 May 1844. transmit the famous line "What hath God wrought!" from the Supreme Court in Washington to Baltimore, finally proving the merit of his invention.

Auction archive: Lot number 149
Auction:
Datum:
29 May 1998
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Park Avenue
Beschreibung:

MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE (1791-1872). Autograph letter signed ("Sam:F:B:Morse") to Catherine Pattison, New York, 27 August 1837. 4 pages, 4to, 252 x 205 mm. (10 x 7.7/8 in.), separate address leaf, slight separations along fold, otherwise in good condition. "THE TELEGRAPH...IS TESTED TO MY SATISFACTION" A warm letter to a young lady, written the month before Morse first filed the plans for the Telegraph (on which he had worked since 1832) with the Patent Office. Here, he expresses his concerns that his idea will be imitated and patented elsewhere. Morse, an accomplished painter, has been visiting Boston and Cape Cod and found "much of importance to my studies for my Historical Pictures," and has "made a thorough search for the relics of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims." He is experiencing "a little anxiety in relation to my Telegraph," even though he is confident that "the Telegraph in all its essential parts is tested to my own satisfaction and that of the scientific gentlemen who have seen it, but before it can be perfected for the public eye I have reason to fear that other nations will have taken the hint, and will rob me of both the credit and the profit. Ther are indications of this in the foreign journals. I have a defender...in the Journal of Commerce," and other journals, he hopes "will not allow foreign nations to take credit for an invention, which they consider the 'greatest in the annals of the world ' when the editors learn that it certainly belongs to America. There is not a thought in any one of the foreign journals relative to the Telegraph which I had not expressed nearly five years ago...to scientific friends...But enough of Telegraphs until we have one between N. York & Troy and then I promise you that my first communication...shall be to you..." He goes on to write of family affairs and the novels of Hannah More. It would require seven years' further work for Morse to perfect his design, get financial backing, build a test line and finally, on 24 May 1844. transmit the famous line "What hath God wrought!" from the Supreme Court in Washington to Baltimore, finally proving the merit of his invention.

Auction archive: Lot number 149
Auction:
Datum:
29 May 1998
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Park Avenue
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