MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TEEADWELL. 381 



the more famous inventions, and understood the difficulties overcome, and the means devised 

 for overcoming them, he would accord to these inventions a very high place among modern 

 machines." 



Mr. Treadwell did not escape the ordinary consequences of a successful 

 invention; they testify to the value of the invention, but are of little direct use 

 to the inventor : — 



" In a few years after the successful establishment of my spinning-machine, imitators and 

 pirates sprung up in all directions. I never midertook the legal defence of my rights, prefer- 

 ring to suffer pecuniary loss rather than endure the delays and vexatious of a suit, as the law 

 of patents was then administered." 



Seventy-six of Mr. Tread well's machines are at this time (October, 1887) in use 

 and in good condition in the Government ropery at the Charlestown Navy Yard, 

 spinning day by day yarn that has never been excelled. The rope made by the 

 Government for the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, was spun upon 

 them, and was exhibited as the best rope then made. After more than half a centui-y, 

 by the perfection of their products they still bear testimony to the wonderful inge- 

 nuity and faithful workmanship of their inventor and maker. 



The development of machine spinning may be inferred from the fact, that, in 

 1886, 125 millions of pounds of hemp, valued at about ten millions of dollars, were 

 spun upon machines in the United States alone, valued as cordage at fifteen millions 

 of dollars. 



" In 1831," says the Autobiography, " being then in my fortieth year, I mar- 

 ried Miss Adeline Lincoln, a daughter of Dr. Levi Lincoln of Hingham. She has 

 been my fliithful and devoted companion to the present time (18o-±), and I trust will 

 be preserved to me to my end." * 



This most happy union he communicated to his friend, Dr. Sweetser, in the 

 following letter : — 



To Dr. Samuel Sweetser. 



Boston, Ootober 14, 1831. 

 Dear Doctor, — Let mc draw you a domestic scene. It is a gentleman sitting in his own 

 well-furnished parlor before a comfortable fire, the evening being cool, his wife, good-humored 

 and well pleased of course, beside him, now plying the needle, now casting a glance at the misty 

 future, now dropping a word on the domestic economy or proposing some improvement in the 

 household affairs, and then instancing the application of some fact of history or trait of 



• Mrs. Treadwell was bom on the 24th of May, 1801, and died, without issue, on the 28tb of May, 1885. 



