MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TREADWELL. 421 



I trust, sir, you will not suffer the experiments to rest here, hut direct a trial on shipboard, 

 which will be the only true test ; and, as there can be no dispute as to the sufficiency of the 

 friction as here made to destroy the force of the recoil, however heavy the charges or however 

 light the guns, I feel warranted in claiming for it your early attention. 



Very respectfully yours, 



Daniel Treadwell. 



This letter appears to have had no effect in removing Commodore Crane's 

 objections, and, as a hist resort, an appeal was made to the Hon. George Bancroft, 

 then Secretary of the Navy. 



To THE Hon. George Bancroft. 



Cambridge, September 15, 1845. 

 Dear Sir, — I enclose to you herewith a letter addressed to you as Secretary of the Navy on 

 my improvement in cannon, in which I have stated at some length what may be expected from 

 adopting it. I have received from Commodore Crane a copy of a report made to him by Com- 

 mander Wadsworth, in some degree condemning my gun-carriage, and have written to Commodore 

 Crane a reply to his letter and the report. I wish very much tluit you would take the trouble to 

 read these letters and the report, of which it is not necessary for me to send you coj)ies, as they 

 arc all in Commodore Crane's office. The truth is, that the old officers, with all respect be it 

 spoken, are so entirely conservative that no improvement can be introduced with their good-will, 

 and it must rest with you principally to give this improvement to the Navy or to let it die.* I do 

 not see that anything more can be done by me in the getting up works for making these cannon 

 without Government help, as I have already spent so much time, health, and money upon it that 

 I have come to the end of my tether in the work if it be not taken iiold of in earnest by Govern- 

 ment. Whether it deserves this or not I leave to your judgment after reading the accompanying 

 letter, in which I have stated the case as fairly as I could have done it if I had no interest in it. 

 Should I desire to print tlie account of the improvement in the form in which it is addressed 

 to you, I presume you can have no objection. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



D. Treadwell. 



* Mr. Treadwell was not alone-in his views of the uld Commodore. Mr. Howard, from the Joint Committee on 

 Orihiance, submitted, February 15, 1869, a report to the United States Senate, in which, commenting on the want of 

 interest of the Chief of Ordnance of the Navy, is the following : " The difficulty seems to be twofold. First, the 

 orduance officers, knowing their positio'u secure to them for life, have not felt the incentive to exertion and improve- 

 ment which stimulates men not in the Government employ, and they have become attached to routine and to the 

 traditions of their corps, jealous of innovation and new ideas, and slow to adopt improvements. In the second place, 

 these officers, edncatcd to a specialty and proud of their positions, come to look upon tlicmselves as possessing all the 

 knowledge extant upon the siihji-ct of ordnance, and regard citizen inventors and meclianics who offer hnprovcments 

 in arras as ignorant and designing persons and pretentious innovators, who have no claim to consideration. Another 

 difficulty that has retarded progress in the science of ordnance has been the fact that prominent officers have been 

 inventors of arms, and have possessed sufficient influence to secure the adoption and the retention in service of their 

 inventions, frequently without due regard to their merit, and to the prejudice of other and better devices brought for- 

 ward by citizens or developed in other countries." The committee recommend " that every encouragement should be 

 given to inventors, and a full and fair trial accorded to all devices offered to the Government that promise a solution 

 of the ordnance problem." 



