330 MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TKEADWELL. 



wood screws, at oue operation, by water, steam, or any other power." The machine 

 as described is divided into three sections : " First, the feeding in the wire, cutting 

 it off, heading it, and discharging the screw blank thus made from the heading 

 section. Second, the feeding the blank into the holding gripes, and cutting the 

 screw. Third, the slitting or sawing the groove or screw, polishing the head and 

 rounding the same." A patent was obtained, but an intelligible description cannot 

 be given without drawings which are not preserved. The specification closes as 

 follows : " We may remark, that, with a good water or other power, a machine such 

 as has now been described will make from eight to twelve screws per minute." * 



Notwithstanding his devotion to manufactures, he was still a student, and during 

 the winter of 1817 devoted a portion of his time to the study of French, under 

 tlie direction of Mi". Joseph Bourgon, at that time a teacher in Boston. This was 

 all the regular instruction he received after leaving the school of his native town. 



His next invention was a machine for making wrought-iron nails. It made 

 finished nails, with heads and points complete, from heated nail-rods fed in from 

 above. Of the arrangement of the various parts little is known — no complete 

 description having been preserved — except that it contained four hammers, probably 

 moved by cams, which gave the requisite blows to form the rod. About the time 

 it was finished and at work, an Englishman appeared and claimed priority of in- 

 vention, although his machine never made a perfect nail. Mr. Treadwell dechned 

 to contend with him, and abandoned the business. It would seem, however, that 

 his invention, either as thus made, or with some subsequent improvements, was 

 again put in operation, for he was employed on the mill-dam of the Boston Water 

 Power Company in the manufacture of nails from 1824 to 1827 ; although, as he 

 afterwards remarks, not with great profit. 



Mr. Treadwell's health, never vigorous, was much impaired by the great energy 

 with which for several years he had devoted himself to his mechanical pursuits; 

 he had been obliged at times to give up all work, and go to his native town for rest 

 and recreation; one summer was spent in a voyage among the islands along the 

 coast of Maine. But with all his care he found himself unable to return to his 

 trade, and in February, 1817, the firm of Churchill and Treadwell was dissolved 

 by mutual consent. 



" "Worn out with the anxieties of this work, I determined to attempt a change of pursuits, 

 and at the age of twenty-seven commenced the study of medicine. I had previously formed a 



* Marcli 11, 1818, a model of this machine was sent to the Patent-Oflace at Washington. This with the draw- 

 ing was probably destroyed in the burning of the office, in 1823. 



