Speedwell Ironworks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Speedwell Ironworks was an ironworks just north of Morristown, New Jersey on Speedwell Avenue, part of U.S. Route 202. The site is most famous for being the place where Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse first demonstrated the electric telegraph, and for providing most of the machinery for the SS Savannah, first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Situated at a natural gorge of the Whippany River, there is evidence of several hydraulic powered forges predating the establishment of ironworks by Stephen Vail and two business partners. Vail became sole owner of the works in 1815 and expanded it, producing a variety of agricultural and industrial machinery. The ironworks innovated the first durable iron tire for railroad locomotives in January of 1836. With changing industrial trends and a decline in the flow of the Whippany River, the ironworks effectively shut down in 1873, selling its equipment to ironworks in Brooklyn, Coatbridge, Scotland. In 1908 what remained of the factory buildings burned.
Stephen Vail also bought an adjacent 40-acre lot to which he eventually retired in 1844, though it was an active retirement. The Vail Homestead or Speedwell Village, as it is now known, is the site of Historic Speedwell, a National Historic Landmark, part of the Morris county Park Commission. The site is set up as a 19th century farm, complete with residential buildings, a granary, carriage house, etc.
Of particular interest is the old Factory Building, which Stephen Vail had constructed for hobby purposes upon his retirement. It is the site of the first public demonstration of the electric telegraph on January 11, 1838. Although Morse and Alfred Vail had done most of the research and development in the ironworks facilities, they chose the factory house as the demonstration site. Without the repeater, the range of the telegraph was limited to two miles, and the inventors had pulled two miles of wires inside the factory house through an elaborate scheme. The first public transmission was witnessed by a mostly local crowd.
