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The single-wire telegraph revolutionized long distance communication but it was not the brainchild of one inventor, Samuel Morse. His colleagues and employees--specifically Ezra Cornell and Joseph Henry--made crucial contributions.
Examining the careers of the three men and the key events, this book presents Morse as primarily a businessman and consolidator of ideas who, frequently in conflict with his associates, sought to present the telegraph as a uniform system under his sole imprimatur. The battle between Morse and Cornell over the invention of the magnetic relay was central to the drama.
What emerges is a complex portrait of three ambitious and brilliant innovators and the age in which they lived.
Table des matières
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Notes on Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
Section I:¿Knickerbocker Tales
¿1.¿The American Experiment
¿2.¿SPAAM (The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Arts and Manufactures)
¿3.¿T. Romeyn Beck
¿4.¿The Albany Academy
¿5.¿The Big Ditch
¿6.¿A Tale of Two Cities
¿7.¿Portrait Painter
¿8.¿The Man Who Sneezed So Singularly
Section II:¿Henry's Influence on Morse
¿9.¿The New, Old School
10.¿The Vision at Palmyra
11.¿Ghost Story
12.¿Wrap Artist
13.¿The American Achievement
14.¿Que Viva Mexico
15.¿Endless Debate
16.¿Quantity vs. Intensity
17.¿The Barnaby Mooer Side-Hill Plow
18.¿Catching Colt
19.¿Out of the "Fog" of Invention
20.¿The Plow in Maine
21.¿Sins of the Father
Section III:¿The Madman and the Telegrapher
22.¿A Federal No-Show Job
23.¿Cable Problems
24.¿Big Confab at Little Relay
25.¿The Trouble with Fisher ...
26.¿On the Third Floor of the Patent Office
27.¿The Burden of Big Science
28.¿Bartlett's Contract
29.¿Cross-Cut!
30.¿A Fight Over Pole Insulators
31.¿Out of the Frying Pan
Section IV:¿Relay Race
32.¿The Magnetic Telegraph Company
33.¿A Red Herring
34.¿The Mule Kicks Back
35.¿The State Fair
36.¿Raising Cash
37.¿When the Going Gets Tough ...
38.¿... The Tough Go to Europe
39.¿Trompe l'œil
40.¿"The Telegraph for Dummies"
41.¿O'Reilly
42.¿Saxton Faxton's Love-Hate Relationship
43.¿Organization Man
44.¿Crossing the Rubicon
Section V:¿Prodigal
45.¿Audubon's Laundry
46.¿Tit for Tat
47.¿An Indispensable Plague
48.¿The New York-Offing Line
49.¿Rebirth of a Notion
Coda: King Edward of Kalamazoo
Afterword
Appendix A: Morse's Deposition
Appendix B: Questions Prepared for Professor Henry by Morse, 1839
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
A propos de l'auteur
Kenneth B. Lifshitz has lectured widely on such topics as the great chain across the Hudson and The Franklin Marble. Also a bass player, he has performed with local and regional symphony orchestras. He lives in the Catskill region of New York.
