After signals had been
sent through it, the wire was cut by an anchor, and a portion of it
carried off by sailors. This appears to be the first experiment in
signalling on a subaqueous wire. It was repeated on a canal at
Washington the following December, and both are described in a letter to
the Secretary of the Treasury, December 23, 1844, in which Morse states
his belief that 'telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan
may with certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean. Startling
as this may now seem, I am confident the time will come when the project
will be realised.'
In December, 1842, the inventor made another effort to obtain the
help of Congress, and the Committee on Commerce again recommended an
appropriation of 30,000 dollars in aid of the telegraph. Morse had come
to be regarded as a tiresome 'crank' by some of the Congressmen, and
they objected that if the magnetic telegraph were endowed, mesmerism or
any other 'ism' might have a claim on the Treasury. The Bill passed the
House by a slender majority of six votes, given orally, some of the
representatives fearing that their support of the measure would alienate
their constituents. Its fate in the Senate was even more dubious; and
when it came up for consideration late one night before the adjournment,
a senator, the Hon.
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