THREATENED REMOVAL FROM BERLIN. 53 



for M month with the general, who was a highly 

 cultured and very humane man. and as I knew well 

 that his opinions were not altogether different from 

 those subscribed by us. "You know", said the general 

 in conclusion, directing a look towards me, "that I 

 am of the opinion, that every man. and particularly 

 every officer, should always express his opinion openly, 

 you have however not considered that openly and 

 publicly are world-wide different things!" 



We soon learnt that as punishment we were all 

 to be sent back to our brigade - - or our regiment, 

 as it is now again called. For me this was an 

 almost insupportably hard blow, disturbing all my 

 life -plans, and making it impossible for me to go 

 on providing for my younger brothers. The problem 

 was to find a way to prevent this removal. That 

 was only to be attained by an important military dis- 

 covery, which should necessitate my presence in Berlin. 

 Telegraphy, in which I was specially interested, could not 

 perform this service, for only few then believed in its 

 great future, and my projects were still undeveloped. 



By good luck gun-cotton occurred to me, which 

 a little while before had been discovered by Professor 

 Schonbein in Basle, but had not yet been brought 

 into use. It appeared to me indubitable that it could 

 be so improved as to be made available for military 

 purposes. I therefore went immediately to my old 

 teacher Erdmann, professor of chemistry at the Royal 

 Veterinary School, told him of my trouble, and begged 

 permission to institute experiments with gun-cotton in 



