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A deposit was made of two original letters written to S. Vail and Son, in 1838, by Alfred Vail, while associated with Professor Morse. They describe Mr Vail' relations with Prof. Morse, and the operations or the first practical electro-magnetic telegraph machine ^[[then being tested]] before th^[[e]] Committee on Commerce at the U. S. Capital^[[.]] [[strikeout]]by[[/strikeout]]This original instrument, invented and constructed by Alfred Vail ^[[by which the historic message "What hath God wrought" was received at the Baltimore end of the first telegraph line, May 24, 1844]] is [[[strikeout]] now[[/strikeout]]^[[also]] preserved in the collection, where it was deposited by the [[2x underlined]] sons[[/underlined]] of the great inventor some years ago.

In addition to these ^[[letters]] are several sheets of drawings, and lithographs of the early machines all deposited by Mrs Amanda Vail, widow of Alfred Vail; also a paper ribbon containing a dot and dash record of the first presidential election reported by telegraph in 1844. This relic was deposited by Stephen Vail, son of the inventor.