360. FIRST PUBLIC TELEGRAPH DEMONSTRATION RELIC A superb, most important relic from the infancy of electronic communications, a 4 3/4" section of cotton-covered solid copper wire used to transmit the first telegraph message in a public demonstration of Samuel Morse's telegraph, in Speedwell, New Jersey, January 10, 1838. The wire is attached to a mount with an A.D.S. of Stephen Vail, the son of Morse's partner, Alfred Vail. The letter, 1p. 8vo. on Century Magazine letterhead on Feb. 25, 1838 reads in full: "This is to certify that the accompanying piece of wire is a part of the three mile wire used for telegraphing on the 10th & 11th of January of 1838, at Speedwell, N.J. as described in the April no. of the Century, 1838, on page 934 (2nd col.) in experiments conducted by Prof. Morse & Alfred Vail and is presented to the Century Co. by the son of the latter - Stephen Vail". Very good condition. On Sep. 2, 1837 Alfred Vail accidentally walked in on a demonstration of his telegraph Morse was giving at the University of the City of New York. Vail was immediately "sold" on the invention, and an agreement was signed between Morse and Vail in which the latter promised to construct by January 1, 1838, "at his own proper cost and expense" a model of the telegraph to exhibit before officials in Washington. Vail and his chief engineer William Baxter worked feverishly on improving Morse's invention, with little input from Morse himself. Past their deadline, and following a test on January 6, 1838, a public demonstration was arranged for a few days later. Several hundred men and women crowded into Speedwell to witness the first public demonstration, and the message "Railroad cars just arrived, 345 passengers" crossed the wire which we offer here. Morse exulted, writing his brother Sidney, "We have shown it to the Morristown people with great éclat.... The success is complete." The Jerseyman, a local newspaper, reported: "Time and distance are annihilated, and the most distant points of the country are by its means brought into the nearest neighborhood." An important relic in the history of electronic communications. $1,200-1,500