February 16, 1844. Description of Franklin's printing press including a sketch, and a suggestion that it be displayed in the National Institute. February 26, 1844. and children describing and providing sketches of items observed in the National Institute, including detailed description of implements of war from the Fiji Islands. March 31, 1844. reflecting upon thirteen years of marriage: "We have avoided the quicksands of jealousy, the whirlpools of dissipation, the rocks of passion, and the many other impediments to a safe and happy voige. I don't believe that a preparation consists in a belief in Millerism, Jo Smithism, or any of the popular isms of the day, but in doing right?" Concerning the telegraph: "?the thirteen miles will be sufficient to test the phylosophical principal and then if it works well we are in hopes that congress will make appropriations for its continuance to Philadelphia." Topics: Laying of the test cable; conversion to telegraph posts from trench pipe; government involvement in the project; F.O.J. Smith's view of Mr. Vail and the difficulties he causes the project, and Smith's account of other conflicts in the telegraph project; patents; manuscript patent application; description of Mount Vernon and the Princeton Steamship catastrophe; Ezra Cornell attends lecture by Daniel Webster; Ezra Cornell studies in the United States Patent Office Library; Ithaca affairs; Ithaca fire; family finances; instructions and advice on child rearing; family news; business matters; plow business Personal names: Cornell, E.B.; Slater, Justus; Morse, Samuel F.B.; Cornell, Elijah; Smith, F.O.J.; Beebe, A.; Vail, Alfred; Gale, Leonard; Cornell, Mary Ann Geography: Washington, D.C.