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Several valuable relics of the early days of the Electric Telegraph have been obtained; among them a piece of the original wire used by Alfred Vall#, in his experiments as the Speedwell Iron Works, near Morristown, N.J., 1837-43.

It was over this wire that the message "A patient waiter is no looser" was sent in January 6, 1838. The ability to send and decipher this message was the test by which Judge Stephen Vail, (father of Alfred), was induced to furnish the funds to Morse and Vail, which enabled them to prosecute their researches and to construct the Telegraph Machines which were used in experiments before the Congressional Committee at Washington, which finally culminated in the appropriation of $30,000.00, by the general government for the construction of a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore in 1844. 

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# See "The American Inventors of the Telegraph" - "The Century", 1888.