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diture will be for material, which, whether the experimentshall succeed or fail, will remain uninjured, and of very littlediminished value below the price that will be paid for it.
The estimates of Professor Morse, as will be seen by hisletter, marked 9, amount to $26,000; but, to meet any con-tingency not now anticipated, and to guard against any wantof requisite funds in an enterprise of such moment to theGovernment, to the people, and to the scientific world, thecommittee recommend an appropriation of $30,000, to be ex-pended under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury;and to this end submit herewith a bill.
It is believed by the committee that the subject is one ofsuch universal interest and importance, that an early actionupon it will be deemed desirable by Congress , to enable theinventor to complete his trial of the invention upon the ex-tended scale contemplated, in season to furnish Congress witha full report of the result during its present session, if thatshall be practicable.
All which is respectfully submitted.
Francis O. J. Smith, Jas. M. Mason,
S. C. Phillips, John T. H. Worthington,
Samuel Cushman, Wm. H. Hunter,
John I. He Graff, George W. Toland,Edward Curtis,
Committee on Commerce, U. S. II. A.”
Nothing further was effected at that session of Congress , andbut little hope was entertained that Congress would ever grantthe desired appropriation. Mr. F. 0. J. Smith was so well con-vinced of the practicability of the system of telegraph, thathe abandoned his seat in Congress , and purchased one quarterinterest in the invention for Europe and America , under dateof March, 1838. In May, 1838, Professor Morse and Mr.Smith visited Europe to obtain patents and to make sales ofthe invention. In England a patent was refused, because abrief description of the invention had been published. InFrance a patent was granted, but by order of the governmenthe was forbidden to put it in operation, and at the end of twoyears the patent expired. The various efforts in Europe provedof no avail.
In June, 1840, Professor Morse obtained his patent in theUnited States , based on the specification filed by him in April,1838. In December, 1842, he petitioned Congress again foraid to test the practicability of his invention, and on the 30thof December the Committee on Commerce reoorted a bill in