doubt with the intention of showing and explaining. 

 But the increasing darkness, and my evening engage- 

 ment, forced me to tear myself away. The shops were 

 far out on the Blue Anchor road, some three or four 

 miles from where I was stopping. I might be obliged 

 to walk a long distance before I could catch a cab or 

 omnibus. 



On leaving, Mr. Donkin presented me with a one- 

 foot boxwood scale of his own graduating, which I 

 have had in almost constant use to the present time, 

 and value it highly. 



I found Mr. Saxton waiting for me for our evening 

 engagement, but not having had a mouthful since 

 an early breakfast, food must first be discussed. 

 When I told him what an enjoyable afternoon I 

 had with the great inventor, he asked: "Did he show 

 you through his shops?" 



"Only his erecting shop." 



Then came: "I told you so; they are closed against 

 all foreigners, particularly Americans." 



"But," said I, "the end has not come. Tomorrow 

 I am to send him the pulp dresser. He took my 

 address and promised that after seeing it I should 

 hear from him." 



"No doubt," said Saxton, "and that will be the 

 end of it." 



To which I could only reply by using Jacob Perkins' 

 favorite axiom: "We shall see; time proves all 

 things." [45] 



A few days after the pulp dresser was sent to Mr. 

 Donkin's shops I received a note from him, saying he 

 had been quite unwell and had not been to the shops 

 for a couple of days, but he had examined the pulp 

 dresser and would like to see me at his works, naming 

 a time when he hoped to be able to be there. When 

 I went there I learned that he was still too unwell 

 to venture out, but he had requested that when I 

 called I should be taken to his house, where he would 

 see me. I found him suffering from a very heavy 

 cold, so much so that I determined to make my stay- 

 very short. 



He said he had examined the pulp dresser with 

 much interest; that it was very ingenious, and 

 could be furnished at a much less cost than the 

 Ibotson bare screen as he was then making them, but 

 should Ibotson adopt slit plates such as we had on 

 our revolving pulp dresser, it could be made at less 

 cost than ours; but he was making planers and tools 

 for the Ibotson that would reduce the cost of their 

 production, and at the same time insure greater 



accuracy than he had heretofore obtained by grinding 

 on lap wheels. He named the royalty he was paying 

 Ibotson on all he made. He showed me a list of 

 all the Fourdrinier machines he had built, and also 

 those he had already added the pulp dresser to, and 

 the number that would still be obliged to have them 

 of some kind. The one I had brought, if introduced 

 either with or without patent, would to some extent 

 be a dividing competitor and a cutter down of profits. 

 He did not think, without personal attention in 

 England, I could put it in the hands of anyone to 

 manage with any certainty of being reimbursed the 

 outlay of securing the patents. But he believed it 

 would be to the interest of Ibotson to own and 

 control it, either by patent or suppressing it. He had 

 learned that Ibotson would be in London the next 

 day, and at his shops about noon. His object in 

 seeing me was to state the facts, and to suggest that 

 he should be empowered to confer with him. This 

 would necessitate showing the machine, but in 

 doing so he would guarantee that I should in no 

 way be injured. If I consented to this he would 

 like me to meet them on the morrow, when he hoped 

 to be able to go to the shops. 



This being so arranged, I got up to leave, but he 

 pressed me to stay. He was feeling better, and he 

 felt a little friendly interchange of ideas would cheer 

 him. Finding that I had considerable acquaintance 

 among the artists it opened a subject that I was sur- 

 prised to find him so well posted on, for I did not 

 look for it in one whose whole life had been so intensely 

 devoted to mechanical pursuits as his had been. 



After considerable talk on general subjects far away 

 from either civil or mechanical engineering, he asked 

 if I had any experience in turning copper and leaving 

 it perfectly smooth from the lathe tool? 



Very little, I replied, but I had seen much of it 

 done on calico printing rolls, in Baldwin & Mason's 

 shop. 



Then came the direct question: Do you think you 

 could cover a well-turned drying cylinder, say 3 feet 

 diameter by 6 feet long, with 50 pound copper, that 

 is, copper weighing 50 pounds to a sheet of 30 by 60 

 inches, turn and finish it as perfectly as those I had 

 seen in his erecting shop? 



I said I could readily understand the difficulty of 

 turning thin copper when not cemented or soldered 

 to the cylinder, but I did not see any difficulty in 

 accomplishing it without the use of the lathe further 

 than in polishing after the copper on the cylinder had 

 been drawn through a highly polished die, and only 



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