January
Jul 19 Samuel Morse Denounces Joseph Henry's Science
Year:
1854
Month:
july
Day:
19
Date:
Wed, 1854-07-19
SIA Image reference:
In a letter to the New York Daily Times, responding to an editorial praising the Smithsonian and Secretary Joseph Henry, Samuel F.B. Morse writes that "the magnetic telegraph owes little, if anything, to Prof. Henry's labors or discoveries, notwithstanding the labored and reiterated efforts to make that impression." Morse's attack comes in the wake of controversy over Henry's dismissal of Assistant Secretary Charles Coffin Jewett and contradicts earlier statements by Morse. Henry had provided legal testimony for a telegraph entrepreneur contesting Morse's patents.