he had promised me a set of tracings of his most 

 approved dryer, with no other restriction than that 

 I should not show them in England. He had said 

 that he made no secret of his preference for iron 

 dryers, notwithstanding the increased surface required 

 over the ordinary copper ones, but I considered what 

 he had said, as to the arrangement of his drying 

 cylinders, and manner of working them, as con- 

 fidential, being included in his request in regard to 

 not showing his promised tracings in England. 



Mr. Donkin was much surprised at Mr. Dickinson 

 having been so free with me; he thought it most 

 extraordinary, inasmuch as it was well known that 

 he had more reliance on secretly working than on pat- 

 ents to protect him in his inventions, and of all paper 

 makers in England he was the most rigid in enforcing 

 the rule of non-admittance to his mills without a 

 special permit from himself; that all of his machinery 

 was made at his own shops under the same rigid 

 secrecy. 160 I replied that he had offered me a letter 

 to the manager of one of his mills, but would prefer 

 accompanying me if I remained in London over the 

 present week; that I should most certainly avail my- 

 self of this. 



The reference I made to Mr. Dickinson's preference 

 for cast-iron dryers without the copper facing I felt 

 was unfortunate, for it seemed to cast a shade over 

 Mr. Donkin, and he sat as if in deep thought; he 

 suddenly roused himself, and said, if it was not in- 

 trusive or impertinent, he would like to know how I 

 had met with and become acquainted with Mr. 

 Dickinson. 



Not at all, I replied; Mr. Charles Leslie, 161 the 

 artist, had taken me to Ackermann's great artists' 

 emporium, and introduced me to Mr. Ackermann 162 

 as a son of one of his old Philadelphia friends and 



180 In an omitted passage, Sellers wrote that Dickinson, upon 

 showing him "the working of his latest and most improved 

 machine," had assured him that he "was the first American 

 who, with his knowledge, had ever seen their operation" 

 (American Machinist, December 4, 1886, vol. 9, p. 4). It is not 

 clear whether this statement referred only to the latest machine. 



161 Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859), expatriate Philadel- 

 phian who apparently had known Coleman Sellers, George 

 Escol's father, before departing for England in 181 1 at the age 

 of 17. See Dictionary of American Biography. 



162 Rudolph Ackermann (1 764-1834), coach builder, patentee 

 in 1818 of the Ackermann steering linkage (still used in auto- 

 mobiles), lithographer, and publisher. See Dictionary of Na- 

 tional Biography. 



grandson of Charles Willson Peale, the artist, who, 

 up to the time of his death, had been a correspondent 

 of their house. Many fine specimens of art were 

 shown us. The subject of the satin-faced plate paper, 

 then being made by Dickinson, of which the Acker- 

 manns were large consumers, was freely discussed in 

 a manner very interesting to me, so much so that I 

 expressed a wish to meet Mr. Dickinson. Both Mr. 

 Leslie and Ackermann proposed going to his city 

 office at his great paper warehouse. 



In this way my introduction was most favorable. 

 We were taken through the warehouse among im- 

 mense stacks of paper, and into a room where there 

 was at work one of Mr. Dickinson's recent inventions — 

 rotary cutters for cards, principally for playing cards, 

 with greater accuracy and leaving a more perfectly 

 rounded edge than was made by the ordinary shear 

 cutting. 



When I was introduced, it was as an American 

 engaged on paper machinery, and being a young 

 man, as a matter of course, Mr. Dickinson's principal 

 attention was to the great artist, and to the large 

 consumer of his paper; and I walked with them, 

 listening and taking but little part in the conversa- 

 tion, until Mr. Dickinson asked me if I had ever met 

 a Mr. Greatrake in America, who many years before 

 had been taken from him by Mr. Thomas Gilpin 

 offering a higher salary than he could at that time 

 afford to pay. 



On my replying in the affirmative, and that I was 

 well acquainted with Gilpin, and thoroughly posted 

 as to his cylinder paper machine, he then spoke of 

 Greatrake as having been one of his most reliable 

 and trusted employees; that it was a severe blow his 

 leaving at the time he did, knowing that he had 

 taken with him to introduce in the States his inven- 

 tions, that they had together worked on for years, 

 through great difficulties. He was very bitter on 

 Gilpin for, as he called it, buying Greatrake to get 

 his inventions. 



Before we left, he asked me if I had ever met any 

 of Mr. Greatrake's family. He referred particularly 

 to a daughter, Eliza, who many years ago had 

 written to his wife, announcing her marriage, since 

 which time they had lost all trace of her. 



I told him her case was a sad one; her husband was 

 my mother's brother; that since the birth of her only 

 child she had become a hopelessly confirmed invalid. 



Mr. Dickinson would like his wife to meet me, and 

 learn something of her old friend, and regretted that 

 his family were at his Brighton house. He was going 



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