CHAPTER XXIII.
1835--1837 First exhibitions of the Telegraph .-- Testimony of Robert G.Rankin and Rev.Henry B.Tappan .-- Cooke and Wheatstone .-- Joseph Henry, Leonard D.
Gale, and Alfred Vail .-- Professor Gale's testimony .-- Professor Henry's discoveries .-- Regrettable controversy of later years .-- Professor Charles T.Jackson's claims .-- Alfred Vail .-- Contract of September 23, 1837 .-- Work at Morristown.

New Jersey .-- The "Morse Alphabet."-- Reading by sound .-- first and second forms of alphabet.
In after years the question of the time when the telegraph was first exhibited to others was a disputed one; it will, therefore, be well to give the testimony of a few men of undoubted integrity who personally witnessed the first experiments.
Robert G.Rankin, Esq., gave his reminiscences to Mr.Prime, from which I shall select the following passages:-- "Professor Morse was one of the purest and noblest men of any age.

I believe I was among the earliest, outside of his family circle, to whom he communicated his design to encircle the globe with wire....
"Some time in the fall of 1835 I was passing along the easterly walk of Washington Parade-Ground, leading from Waverly Place to Fourth Street, when I heard my name called.

On turning round I saw, over the picketfence, an outstretched arm from a person standing in the middle or main entrance door of the unfinished University building of New York, and immediately recognized the professor, who beckoned me toward him.

On meeting and exchanging salutations,--and you know how genial his were,-- he took me by the arm and said: "'I wish you to go up in my sanctum and examine a piece of mechanism, which, if you may not believe in, _you_, at least, will not laugh at, as I fear some others will.