worthy gentleman." (Greatrake was the father of 

 Eliza our Uncle Franklin's first wife.) 



When I made my report to Mr. Mathews, who 

 knew the information I wanted to get from Mr. 

 Dickinson, he seemed a good deal put out. The next 

 evening he told me that Mr. Dickinson had called on 

 him and he thought it probable that I would hear 

 from him, which I did in the shape of an invitation to 

 dine with him, pot luck, as his family were at their 

 house at Brighton. I felt like declining but Mathews 

 insisted on my going. He [Dickinson] had his wife 

 up from Brighton for the night and gave me a pressing 

 invitation to accompany her to Brighton, which I 

 declined. After breaking bread with him he was an 

 entirely different man from what I found in his office 

 and during the remainder of my stay in London I had 

 much more attention from him than I supposed so 

 busy a man could give. I received all the information 

 I wanted as to his cast iron drying cylinders, including 

 drawings he had made for me of what was then his 

 monopoly, machines and dryers for what he called 

 enamelled plate paper. 



At the time I was in England there were not more 

 than a dozen of the complete machines in use. I only 

 visited three of the mills. Though invited, I did not 

 get the opportunity of visiting the Dickinson mills. 

 I was indebted to Mr. Dickinson for much information 

 and kindly advice, and it was a great satisfaction to 

 have met on so friendly terms these two great 

 inventors. [38] 



I cannot with certainty fix the time of my first visit 

 to York, Pa. when I was shown the room that Grand- 

 father worked in when facing and making molds for 

 the Continental Government, and the Old King 

 paper mill on the Codorus Creek at York, an ante- 

 Revolutionary Mill at the time of my visit being 

 carried on by George King, who I think was a son of 

 the original proprietor. 137 They were old customers 

 of N. & D. Sellers. 



The object of my visit was to plan the changes and 

 to give the direction to change the mill from a hand 

 vat into a machine mill. On my return Grandfather 

 was greatly interested in my description of the sur- 

 roundings and showed that he had a very clear recol- 

 lection of them and also of a mill I visited on the 

 Conewago, also an old Revolutionary mill, and I 

 have the impression that he said at the time he was 



Figure 48. — Screw press, for paper, showing 

 lantern-head (f) on the iron screw. From 

 Abraham Rees, ed.. The Cyclopaedia (London, 

 1819), plates vol. 4, "Paper Mill." 



there these mills were mostly making cartridge paper 

 from the copperas striped linen rags of the country, 

 or white paper as much as they cotdd get rags to make. 

 It was at York 138 that Shryock first made straw boards 

 and paper by the lime process. We made his cylinders 

 I think at a later period than the alteration of the 

 King Mill was made. 



137 Philip Jacob King, in 1798 (Hunter, cited in note 116 

 above, p. 156). 



Chambersburg, according to Weeks. See note 132 above. 



106 



