SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 505 



which he lived, and not to this go-ahead age of progres- 

 siveness, when nothing new can long remain new, for 

 even you and I are growing old. 



But before I get any older I am going to describe to 

 you "something new," and useful, too, But I shall take my 

 own way to do it. 



When I was on my way home from the land of cotton 

 bags, I made a small detour from my route for the sake 

 of calling on my old friend, Josiah Warren, at New Har- 

 mony, Indiana, who, whatever may be said of him by 

 those that know least of him, about "his visionary notions 

 of reforming society," has an abundant share of the in- 

 ventive genius that is inherent with the "sons of New 

 England." 1 



I found friend Josiah in his laboratory, sanctum, or 

 work-shop, which undoubtedly bears a very strong re- 

 semblance in many particulars to the shop of that other 

 ingenious Yorker, that Washington Irving immortalized 

 Jabez Doolittle, just before the "first locomotive" started 

 upon its never ending journey over the face of this con- 

 tinent. That was "an experiment." What was ever ac- 

 complished without an experiment? For 17 years, Josiah 

 Warren has been an experimenter, and mostly with one 

 object in view — the cheapening the printing power. For 

 a while he thought to effect this by cheapening the press 

 — being one of the means necessary to effect that benev- 

 olent object. At length he became convinced that this 

 would not produce the desired effect, and he then turned 



'Josiah Warren, born in Boston in 1798; died April 14, 1874. 

 Inventor, social philosopher, peaceful revolutionist. Met Robert 

 Owen at Cincinnati in 1824 and joined his experiment at New Har- 

 mony, Indiana. About 1840, constructed the first press ever used to 

 print newspapers from a roll. Extended stereotyping inventions to 

 all varieties of printing and reproduction. See Lockwood, George, 

 The New Harmony Movement, 294-306 (D. Appleton & Co., New 

 York, 1905) ; The New Harmony Communities, 225-41 (The Chron- 

 icle Co., Marion, Ind., 1902). Manuscript and printed materials 

 relating to Warren are preserved in the Library of the Working- 

 men's Institute at New Harmony, Indiana. 



