He was president of Franklin Telegraph Co., from 1869 to 1871, during which time he invented the first practical system of duplex telegraphy which was successfully applied to the English, French and Belgian lines.
He sold rights under his duplex patents to the Western Union Telegraph and Cable Companies, receiving large royalties for the use of his inventions from governments in England, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Russia and India, and several submarine cable companies.
In 1881, he performed a similar service for the Central and South American Telegraph Company, whose cables extended from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico to Callao, Peru, in all between 4,000 and 5,000 miles.
There he had a library of 10,000 volumes, and a collection of Chiriquí Province pottery, which was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
In 1872, the American Institute of New York awarded him the Great Medal of Honor for the invention of the duplex telegraph.