Life of Count R^lmford. 639 



The Rumford Professorship at the College remained 

 without "an incumbent after Dr. Bigelow's resignation 

 until 1834, when Mr. Daniel Treadwell was elected to 

 it, discharging its duties until he resigned it in 1845. 



Professor Treadwell also as an incumbent of this 

 office, and in his genius and scientific attainments, and 

 likewise in the many improvements and inventions which 

 have distinguished his name, was singularly well quali- 

 fied to represent the objects and purposes recognized by 

 Count Rumford in his foundation. As a lecturer, 

 clear, concise, and effective, the Professor greatly inter- 

 ested the undergraduates of the College, and he was an 

 excellent experimenter. He ranks among remarkable 

 men for the additions which he has made to the in- 

 dustrial arts. Without a liberal education, starting in 

 early life as a silversmith, he added many ingenious 

 tools to the implements of his trade. He invented a 

 machine for cutting wood-screws, before made by 

 hand, by which a hank of wire was converted into 

 screws at the rate of a dozen a minute. He first pro- 

 posed the supplying of Boston with pure water, point- 

 ing out the sources ; and he showed the importance and 

 economy of reservoirs within the city. The practicabil- 

 ity of conducting transportation on a single set of 

 tracks, with proper sidings, he first suggested in a pub- 

 lication in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, in 

 August, 1827. He constructed a power printing-press, 

 from which came the first sheet ever printed by other 

 than hand-power on this continent. He contrived the 

 first machinery for spinning cordage, which is now, in 

 its original form or with slight modifications, used in 

 France, England, Russia, and America. This machin- 

 ery enabled America for the first time to export cord- 



