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Alfred Vail Morristown Alfred Vail bought an interest in Samuel F. B. Morse's telegraph in 1837, and agreed to manufacture a complete set of telegraphic instruments and to finance American and foreign patents. He participated in the first public exhibition of the telegraph in New York City and before the Franklin Institute and the United State Congress. He invented the horizontal lever motion for the telegraph, devised the dot-dash alphabet, and built the grooved roller and automatic telegraph lever.