intended to experiment with a longer line, he was informed that such
was his intention as soon as he could secure the means. Young Vail
replied that he thought he could secure the money if Morse would admit
him as a partner. To this Morse assented.

Vail plunged into the enterprise with all the enthusiasm of youth.
That very evening he studied over the commercial possibilities, and
before he retired had marked out on the maps in his atlas the routes
for the most needed lines of communication. The young man applied to
his father for support. The senior Vail was the head of the Speedwell
Iron Works at Morristown, New Jersey, and was a man of unusual
enterprise and ability. He determined to back his son in the
enterprise, and Morse was invited to come and exhibit his model. Two
thousand dollars was needed to make the necessary instruments and
secure the patents. On September 23, 1837, the agreement was drawn
up by the terms of which Alfred Vail was, at his own expense, to
construct apparatus suitable for exhibition to Congress and to secure
a patent. In return he was to receive a one-fourth interest. Very
shortly afterward they filed a caveat in the Patent Office, which is a
notice serving to protect an impending invention.

Alfred Vail immediately set to work on the apparatus, his only helper
being a fifteen-year-old apprentice boy named William Baxter. The
two worked early and late for many months in a secret room in the
iron-works, being forced to fashion every part for themselves. The
first machine was a copy of Morse's model, but Vail's native
ability as a mechanic and his own ingenuity enabled him to make many
improvements. The pencil fastened to the armature which had marked
zigzag lines on the moving paper was replaced by a fountain-pen which
inscribed long and short lines, and thus the dashes and dots of the