"During the voyage of the packet ship Sully from Havre to New York, in October, 1832, a conversation arose one day in the cabin upon electricity and magnetism. Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, described an experiment recently made in Paris with an electro-magnet, by means of which elec­tricity had been transmitted through a great length of wire, arranged in circles around the walls of a large apartment. The transmission had been instantaneous, and it seemed as though the flight of electricity was too rapid to be measured. Among the group of passengers no one listened more attentively to Dr. Jackson's recital than a New York artist, named Samuel Finley Breece Morse, who was returning from a three years' residence in Europe, whither he had gone for improve­ment in his art. ... "Why," said he, when the doctor had finished, "if that is so, and the presence of electricity could be made visible in any desired part of the circuit, I see no reason why intelli­gence might not be transmitted instantaneously by electric­ity." "How convenient it would be," added one of the passen­gers, "if we could send news in that manner." "Why can't we?" asked Morse, fascinated by the idea. From that hour the subject occupied his thoughts, and he began to exercise his Yankee ingenuity in devising the requisite apparatus."