On a cold day in January 1838, a crowd gathered at Speedwell after Alfred Vail and Professor Samuel F.B. Morse moved the equipment for their electromagnetic telegraph from a workshop at the Ironworks into the Factory. After Alfred had seen Morse demonstrate the idea at the University of the City of New York, he persuaded his father, Stephen Vail, to finance it, and under a signed contract he applied the skills he had learned at the Ironworks to help develop the invention. After months of collaboration and many modifications, the first message, “A patient waiter is no loser,” was sent on January 6, 1838. On January 11th, one hundred people attended demonstrations at the Factory, where messages were transmitted over 2 miles of hand insulated wire hung around the building, and a local newspaper declared that “Time and distance are annihilated.” The Speedwell demonstrations were followed by others in New York and Philadelphia, and in 1844 a successful line was established between Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. The Factory then remained part of Stephen Vail’s business operations, and later generations preserved the building because of these events. By 1968, when the property was set aside as Speedwell Village, the Factory had deteriorated and underwent major reconstruction, and in 1975 it was designated a National Historic Landmark. The building itself was probably erected as a mill in 1829 by Stephen Vail’s son-in-law, Dayton Canfield. Stephen Vail bought the property and water rights for $600, intending to convert it into a cotton factory, had the building moved onto a higher foundation to increase water power, and added a new flume, waterwheel, and gear system. He planned to rent it to investors from Paterson who might install as many as 20 looms, but they withdrew at the last minute, no sizable tenant was found despite repeated efforts, and the underused building became the logical place for Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse to demonstrate their new invention in 1837.
