Alfred Vail's Drawing of Many Circuits with One Battery

Summary

This page is from Alfred Vail's scientific notebook, and it shows a diagram of one of his experiments. The diagram shows an arrangement of many circuits with only one battery and one wire for a common circuit. This experiment was designed for when different letters are desired in succession.

Subject

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese 1791-1872

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

• Alfred Vail was a key partner to American inventor Samuel Morse and is credited with designing the machine and alpha code used in the creation of the electromagnetic telegraph.
• For other materials relevant to Vail's work, see Negative Numbers SIA2011-0824 to SIA2011-0826, and SIA2011-0828 to SIA2011-0830. For letters between Vail, Morse, and first Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry, see Negative Numbers SIA2011-0814 to SIA2011-0823.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7055, Box 5, Folder: 6

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

c. 1844

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Electric apparatus and appliances
• Telegraph
• Inventions
• Science
• Telecommunication
• Electromagnets
• Notebooks
• History
• Experiments
• Electromagnetic telegraph
• Electromagnetism
• Science--Experiments
• Science--History

Place

United States

Form/Genre

• Document
• Paper

ID Number

SIA2011-0827

Physical description

Number of Images: 1; Color: Color; Size: 8w x 4.25h; Type of Image: Document; Medium: Paper

Full Record

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