In a long room of the University you had wires extended from end to end, where the magnetic apparatus was arranged.
"It is not necessary for me to describe particulars which have now become familiar to every one.

The fact which I recall with the liveliest interest, and which I mentioned in conversation at Mr.Bancroft's as one of the choicest recollections of my life, was that of the first transmission and recording of a telegraphic dispatch.
"I suppose, of course, that you had already made these experiments before the company arrived whom you had invited.

But I claim to have witnessed _the first transmission and recording of words_ by lightning ever made public....

The arrangement which you exhibited on the above mentioned occasion, as well as the mode of receiving the dispatches, were substantially the same as those you now employ.

I feel certain that you had then already grasped the whole invention, however you may have since perfected the details." Others bore testimony in similar words, so that we may regard it as proved that, both in 1835 and 1836, demonstrations were made which, uncouth though they were, compared to present-day perfection, proved that the electric telegraph was about to emerge from the realms of fruitless experiment.