408 MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



To Daniel Treadwell, Esq., Camhridge, Mass. 



Orpsance Office, Washingtos, 17 April, 1843. 

 Dear Sir, — Yours of 14th is received. The Ordnance Board has finished its session, and 

 the proceedings were laid before the Secretary of War for his approval some days ago. The 

 Board passed a resolution that the Department be authorized to procure such numbers of your 

 guns of twelve and six pounders and twelve and twenty-four pounder howitzers as it may deem 

 the service to require, to be retained in the arsenals for future service. I learn from Colonel 

 Bomford (who has lately returned here) that he has been spoken to on the subject ; and as his 

 opinion was adverse to the measure, I cannot yet anticipate what the decision of tlie Secretary 

 will be in relation to it. When I am in possession of the papers, you shall be further advised 

 upon the subject. I am respectfully and truly yours, etc., 



G. Talcott, Lt. Col. Ordnance. 



Although these contracts were for cannon for experiment only, such was Pro- 

 fessor Treadwell's confidence in the successful manutacture oE tlie guns by the 

 means devised, and that they would be adopted by the Government when their 

 superiority to all others should be demonstrated, that on his return to Boston he 

 set himself zealously about building the machinery, with the necessary furnaces 

 and other works which would enable him to produce guns of large calibre with 

 expedition and certainty. 



In all the experimental work at the Mill-dam in constructing his first guns, 

 Mr. Treadwell was alone, and wrought at his own expense, giving daily his personal 

 attention to the manufacture of the machinery and tools. Having secured the 

 contract, he had now associated with him Mr. Horace Gray, Dr. Jacob Bigelow, and 

 Messrs. Rice and Thaxter, under the name of the "Steel Cannon Company." 



" The result was the construction of a hydrostatic press, of fourteen-inch piston, having a 

 power calculated at 1,000 tons, and adapting to it a variety of machinery by which the rings can 

 be formed, and aftcrwai-ds united together, with an ease and expedition, and with a perfection in 

 form and freedom from flaw or blemish, altogether unattainable by any other means ; at the 

 same time preserving in the iron all its strength and toughness. 



"A description of this elaborate machinery, and the use of it, would not be intelligible, in 

 detail, without drawings. Nor is it necessary to my present purpose — wliich is to show the 

 superiority of the cannon when made — to say more than that a number of rings or short hollow 

 cylinders are first formed, by means of various moulds, dies, and sets connected with the power- 

 ful press before alluded to. The rings are upon their inner sides, and to about one third of their 

 thickness, of steel ; the outer portion being of iron, wound about the inner steel ring, and the 

 whole welded together. They are then joined together, end to end, successively, by welding, 

 thus forming a frustum of a hollow cone, the hollow being cylindrical. In giving form to the 

 cone, in the press, its size is determined by a mould of great thickness and strength, which 

 encloses the heated portion of the cone, while a solid mandril occupies the hollow cylinder, the 

 force of the press being applied to sets upon its ends. The fibres of the metal are therefore 

 closed, and the metal condensed to a degree not to be attained by the hammer. By turning 



