Thanks to Professor Gale, he improved the electro-
magnet, employed a more powerful battery, and was thus able to work
through a much longer line. In February, 1837, the American House of
Representatives passed a resolution asking the Secretary of the Treasury
to report on the propriety of establishing a system of telegraphs for
the United States, and on March 10 issued a circular of inquiry, which
fell into the hands of the inventor, and probably urged him to complete
his apparatus, and bring it under the notice of the Government. Lack of
mechanical skill, ignorance of electrical science, as well as want of
money, had so far kept it back.
But the friend in need whom he required was nearer than he anticipated.
On Saturday, September 2, 1837, while Morse was exhibiting the model to
Professor Daubeny, of Oxford, then visiting the States, and others, a
young man named Alfred Vail became one of the spectators, and was deeply
impressed with the results. Vail was born in 1807, a son of Judge
Stephen Vail, master of the Speedwell ironworks at Morristown, New
Jersey. After leaving the village school his father took him and his
brother George into the works; but though Alfred inherited a mechanical
turn of mind, he longed for a higher sphere, and on attaining to his
majority he resolved to enter the Presbyterian Church.
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