His
working devices made it a success, and are in use to-day, while those of
Morse are all extinct.
Morse has been highly honoured and rewarded, not only by his
countrymen, but by the European powers. The Queen of Spain sent him a
Cross of the Order of Isabella, the King of Prussia presented him with a
jewelled snuff-box, the Sultan of Turkey decorated him with the Order of
Glory, the Emperor of the French admitted him into the Legion of Honour.
Moreover, the ten European powers in special congress awarded him
400,000 francs (some 80,000 dollars), as an expression of their
gratitude: honorary banquets were a common thing to the man who had
almost starved through his fidelity to an idea.
But beyond his emoluments as a partner in the invention, Alfred Vail
had no recompense. Morse, perhaps, was somewhat jealous of acknowledging
the services of his 'mechanical assistant,' as he at one time chose to
regard Vail. When personal friends, knowing his services, urged Vail to
insist upon their recognition, he replied, 'I am confident that
Professor Morse will do me justice.' But even ten years after the death
of Vail, on the occasion of a banquet given in his honour by the leading
citizens of New York, Morse, alluding to his invention, said: 'In 1835,
according to the concurrent testimony of many witnesses, it lisped its
first accents, and automatically recorded them a few blocks only distant
from the spot from which I now address you.
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