416 Mr. Mallet oii the Physical Conditions 



(2100 dollars), which ha3 been paid to the manufacturer, Mr. Daniel Treadwell, of Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



" The resolution of the House of Representatives is herewith returned. 

 " I am, Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



" G. Talcott, Lieut.-Col. Ordn. 



" Ron. William Wilkins, Secretary of War, 

 " Washington." 



It is not unworthy of remark, that the United States Ordnance, which has really done 

 more to advance e-vperimentally the art of manufacturing cannon than all the European 

 services together, possesses no Government establishments for gun-founding, boring, &c., 

 whatever ; and one of its most distinguished officers, long employed in the personal super- 

 intendence of the execution of Government contracts for ordnance, in private foundries, 

 voluntarily bears testimony to " the improvement in the quality of cannon, which has been 

 CTreatly assisted by the proprietors of the foundries at which the experiments were made." 

 " Their practical knowledge of the qualities and treatment of iron, their suggestions, and 

 zealous co-operation in all experiments made, and the liberality with which they provided 

 all needful facilities for the purpose, have contributed most materially to the success which 

 has attended these efforts to improve the strength and safety of cannon." — Reports, p. 277. 



Can it bo doubted that a like, or even a much higher result, would accrue from a 

 really candid, liberal, and trustful resolve, to gather and apply to the improvements of our 

 ordnance, all that vast accumulation of science and practical skill, which exists in the 

 foundries and the engineering workshops of England, but which has so far been systema- 

 tically repelled, and often, when volunteered with undeniable success, requited by the 

 adoption, whole or in part, of the information or invention conferred, without that just 

 acknowledgment which the enthusiastic improver covets above all things. 



NothiniT can be more judicious than the formation of those Government gun and other 

 foundries, &c., recently set about, as the means (amongst other important ends) of enabling 

 officers of the artillery and engineering corps to acquire that practical knowledge which 

 existing methods of their education, with the habits and subsequent employments of 

 service, render so deficient ; but while ever the gates of our arsenals, or the interior of 

 departments, are closed to civil visitants, and the experiments and processes conducted 

 therein pretended to be held secret by " the custom of the service," and with an unworthy 

 jealousy, — so long will " the improvements" of these departments be found far in the rear 

 of those of private intelligence, enterprise, and science. 



Secrecy in such matters can answer no end now-a-days but as a cloak to ignorance or 



