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Alfred Lewis Vail (September 25, 1807 – January 18, 1859) was an American machinist and inventor. Along with Samuel Morse, Vail was central in developing and commercializing American telegraphy between 1837 and 1844.
Alfred Vail, Morse’s colleague, received Morse’s message in Baltimore and then successfully returned the same message back to Morse in the national Capitol Building’s Rotunda. For Vail, this event was the culmination of years of his own labor and financial investment, yet his influence has largely been lost in the historical record.
Alfred Vail, a co-inventor of the telegraph, was born in Morristown, New Jersey on September 25, 1807 to Bethiah Youngs (1778-1847) and Stephen Vail (1780-1864). After attending public schools, Alfred Vail became a machinist at Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey, a lucrative iron company owned by his father.
Alfred Lewis Vail (born Sept. 25, 1807, Morristown, N.J., U.S.—died Jan. 18, 1859, Morristown) was an American telegraph pioneer and an associate and financial backer of Samuel F.B. Morse in the experimentation that made the telegraph a commercial reality.
May 25, 2020 · Alfred Vail came up with dots and dashes, but Patent Office gave credit to Samuel Morse, the better known inventor. In 1887, 18 years after his father’s death, Stephen Vail took up metaphorical arms to claim Alfred Vail’s place as a key figure in communications history.
Nov 9, 2009 · On May 24, 1844, Morse sent Vail the historic first message: “What hath God wrought!” The telegraph system subsequently spread across America and the world, aided by further innovations.
Alfred Vail receives and Samuel Morse’s telegraph message, “What hath God wrought.” The message was transmitted from the U.S. Supreme Court room to the Mount Clare Station of the B&O Railroad in Baltimore, Maryland. Vail then transmitted the message back to Morse.
