It was not yet in a shape to prove to a skeptical world its practical
utility; much had still to be done to bring it to perfection; new
discoveries had still to be made by Morse and by others which were
essential to its success; the skill, the means, and the faith of others
had to be enlisted in its behalf, but the actual invention was there and
Morse was the inventor.

How simple it all seems to us now, and yet its very simplicity is its
sublimest feature, for it was this which compelled the admiration of
scientists and practical men of affairs alike, and which gradually forced
into desuetude all other systems of telegraphy until to-day the Morse
telegraph still stands unrivalled.

That many other minds had been occupied with the same problem was a fact
unknown to the inventor at the time, although a few years later he was
rudely awakened. A fugitive note, written many years later, in his
handwriting, although speaking of himself in the third person, bears
witness to this. It is entitled "Good thought":--

"A circumstance which tends to confuse, in fairly ascertaining priority
of invention, is that a subsequent state of knowledge is confounded in
the general mind with the state of knowledge when the invention is first
announced as successful. This is certainly very unfair. When Morse
announced his invention, what was the general state of knowledge in
regard to the telegraph? It should be borne in mind that a knowledge of
the futile attempts at electric telegraphs previous to his successful one
has been brought out from the lumber garret of science by the research of
eighteen years. Nothing was known of such telegraphs to many scientific
men of the highest attainments in the centres of civilization. Professor
Morse says himself (and certainly he has not given in any single instance