Alfred Lewis Vail (September 25, 1807, in
Morristown, New JerseyMorristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544. Its estimated population in 2004 was 18,842. It is the county seat of Morris County...
– January 18, 1859) was a
machinistA machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...
and
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
. Vail was central, with
Samuel F.B. MorseSamuel Finley Breese Morse was the American inventor of a single-wire telegraph system and Morse code and a painter of historic scenes.-Birth and education:Samuel F.B...
, in developing and commercializing the telegraph between 1837 and 1844. Vail and Morse were the first two telegraph operators on Morse's first experimental line between Washington, DC, and Baltimore, and Vail took charge of building and managing several early telegraph lines between 1845 and 1848. He was also responsible for several technical innovations of Morse's system, particularly the sending key and improved recording registers and relay magnets. Vail left the telegraph industry in 1848 because he believed that the managers of Morse's lines did not fully value his contributions. His last assignment, superintendent of the Washington and New Orleans Telegraph Company, paid him only $900 a year, leading Vail to write to Morse, "I have made up my mind to leave the Telegraph to take care of itself, since it cannot take care of me. I shall, in a few months, leave Washington for New Jersey,...and bid adieu to the subject of the Telegraph for some more profitable business."
Biography
Vail's parents were Bethiah Youngs (1778-1847) and Stephen Vail (1780-1864). Vail was born in
Morristown, New JerseyMorristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544. Its estimated population in 2004 was 18,842. It is the county seat of Morris County...
, where his father was an entrepreneur and industrialist who built the
Speedwell IronworksSpeedwell Ironworks was an ironworks in Speedwell, New Jersey, USA, just north of Morristown, New Jersey. It is on Speedwell Avenue, part of U.S. Route 202...
into one of the most innovative iron works of its time. Their son and Alfred's brother was
George VailGeorge Vail was an American Democratic Party politician who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857.-Biography:...
, a noted politician of his time.
Alfred attended public schools before taking a job as a machinist at the iron works. He enrolled in
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
to study theology in 1832, where he was an active and successful student and a member of the Eucleian Society, graduating in 1836. Visiting his
alma materAlma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother". It was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity for the Virgin Mary. In modern times it is ordinarily used to refer to the university or college a person attended...
on September 2, 1837, he happened to witness one of
Samuel F. B. MorseSamuel Finley Breese Morse was the American inventor of a single-wire telegraph system and Morse code and a painter of historic scenes.-Birth and education:Samuel F.B...
's early telegraph experiments. He became fascinated by the technology and negotiated an arrangement with Morse to develop the technology at Speedwell at his own expense in return for 25% of the proceeds. Alfred split his share with his brother George Vail. When Morse took on Francis O. J. Smith, a congressman from Maine, as a partner, he reduced the Vails' share to one-eighth. Morse retained patent rights to everything Vail developed.
After having secured his father's financial backing, Vail refined Morse's crude prototype to make it suitable for public demonstration and commercial operation. The first successful completion of a transmission with this system was at the Speedwell Iron Works on January 6, 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wiring. The message read "A patient waiter is no loser." Over the next few months Morse and Vail demonstrated the telegraph to Philadelphia's
Franklin InstituteThe Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest and premier centers of science education and development in the United States. The Institute itself comprises three centers — The Science Center, The Franklin Center, and The Center for Innovation in Science...
, members of Congress, and President
Martin Van BurenMartin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he served as the eighth Vice President and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson...
and his cabinet. Demonstrations such as these were crucial to Morse's obtaining a Congressional appropriation of $30,000 to build his first line in 1844 from Washington to Baltimore.
There has been a minor controversy as to whether Vail or Morse invented the "Morse Code". The argument for Vail's invention is laid out by a number of scholars.
http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/vail.html
The argument offered by supporters of Morse claims that Morse originally devised a cipher code similar to that used in existing semaphore telegraphs, by which words were assigned three or four digit numbers and entered into a codebook. The sending operator converted words to these number groups and the receiving operator converted them back to words using this codebook. Morse spent several months compiling this code dictionary. It is said by Morse supporters that Vail, in public and private writings, never claimed the code for himself. According to one researcher, in a February 1838 letter to his father, Judge Stephen Vail, Alfred wrote, "Professor Morse has invented a new plan of an alphabet, and has thrown aside the Dictionaries." In an 1845 book Vail wrote describing Morse's telegraph, he also attributed the code to Morse.
Vail retired from the telegraph operations in 1848 and moved back to Morristown. He spent his last ten years conducting genealogical research. Since Vail shared a one-eighth interest in Morse's telegraph patents with his brother George, Vail realized far less financial gains from his work on the telegraph than Morse and others.
His papers and equipment were subsequently donated by his son Stephen to the
Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines...
and
New Jersey Historical SocietyThe New Jersey Historical Society is a historical society and museum located in Newark, New Jersey, United States. It was founded in 1845 at Trenton by intellectual and business leaders of New Jersey, most prominently Joseph C. Hornblower, Peter D. Vroom and William Whitehead.The Society was first...
.
Vail's cousin was Theodore N. Vail, who became the first president of
American Telephone & TelegraphAT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies...
.
Legacy
A US Army base has been named in his honor, Camp Vail in Eatontown, New Jersey, later renamed
Fort MonmouthFort Monmouth is an installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about one mile from the Atlantic Ocean. The post covers nearly of land, from the Shrewsbury...
part of Camp Vail was an Army housing complex, after World War II the families of Servicemen & Civilian Army Employees negotiated
with the Army to purchase the development which was later named, Alfred Vail Mutual Association, and due to the
work of the Town Clerk the residents retained the rights to the original Charter of
Shrewsbury TownshipShrewsbury Township may refer to:* Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey* Shrewsbury Township, York County, Pennsylvania* Shrewsbury Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania* Shrewsbury Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania* Shrewsbury, UK...
Est. 1693.
This Housing Development Exist to this day under that name. An elementary school near the Speedwell Works, in
Morristown, New JerseyMorristown is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544. Its estimated population in 2004 was 18,842. It is the county seat of Morris County...
, is named "Alfred Vail."
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