Application was immediately made for a British patent, but Cooke and
Wheatstone and Edward Davy, it seems, opposed it; and although Morse
demonstrated that his was different from theirs, the patent was refused,
owing to a prior publication in the London MECHANICS' MAGAZINE for
February 18, 1838, in the form of an article quoted from Silliman's
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE for October, 1837. Morse did not attempt to
get this legal disqualification set aside. In France he was equally
unfortunate. His instrument was exhibited by Arago at a meeting of the
Institute, and praised by Humboldt and Gay-Lussac; but the French patent
law requires the invention to be at work in France within two years, and
when Morse arranged to erect a telegraph line on the St. Germain
Railway, the Government declined to sanction it, on the plea that the
telegraph must become a State monopoly.
All his efforts to introduce the invention into Europe were futile,
and he returned disheartened to the United States on April 15, 1839.
While in Paris, he had met M. Daguerre, who, with M. Niepce, had just
discovered the art of photography. The process was communicated to
Morse, who, with Dr. Draper, fitted up a studio on the roof of the
University, and took the first daguerreotypes in America.
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