MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREA DWELL. 



305 



Christian dignity and courtesy, which many of us enjoyed bo long, we would ever 

 hold him in grateful remembrance." 



Professor Treadwell says of his acceptance of the Rumford Professorship: 



"I accepted this place rather against my inclinations, and with the suspicion that I was 

 not exactly suited for it. I was a stranger to college life, its association , custom and 

 traditions, unacquainted with some branches of learning, . specially the ancient languages, tha 

 form, and I believe very properly, a principal part of college study, lint the courtesy and 

 kindness of the Professors soon relieved me in a degree from the disagreements of my" false 

 position. Those whom I had not known now became my friends, and 1 found m\ if in a 

 society more exclusively intelligent and gentlemanly than 1 had ever been conn ted frith 

 before." 



His friends had no such misgivings; they knew his high intellectual powers 

 and his abilities. His lectures were remarkable for their choice English, <la 

 of description, precision in the enunciation of propositions, logical sequi QCe of ideas, 

 and well selected and successful experiments. Few lecturers could exceed him in 

 ability to fix clearly and permanently in the minds of his pupils t lie subjects of his 

 teachings. He filled the chair with great honor to the College till his resignation, 

 in 1845. The subjects of the lectures were as follows: Introduction; Properties 

 of Matter; Forms of Materials; Materials; Simple Machines; Friction; Steam and 

 Steam-engine, five lectures; Water- Wheels, two lectures; Lathe; Last-Machine and 

 Hydrostatic Press ; Railways, two lectures ; Cotton Spinning and Weaving, three 

 lectures ; Architecture, three lectures ; and Time-keeping. 



His lectures required but a part of his time, and by the terms of his acceptance of 

 the office he was left free, when not lecturing, to engage in other pursuits. 



clearness 



On November 26, 1835, Professor Treadwell was, with Mr. Henry G. Rice, appointed 



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by His Honor, Lieut.-Governor Armstrong, under a Resolve of the Legislature of the 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the first on a commission " who, with the Treasurer 

 and Receiver-General, shall cause the standard weights and me; ures of the Common- 

 wealth to be carefully examined, and their inaccuracies corrected, or shall supply 

 the places of the imperfect weights and measures by new and accurate on< s as they 

 shall deem expedient, and they shall further procure, to be used as public standards, 

 a new set of weights, . . . and they shall give the preference to such weights and 

 measures, used by the Government of the United States, as they shall find to be 

 accurate, . . . and they shall make a detailed report of their doings to the Legisla- 

 ture as soon as may be." 



In January, 1837, Mr. Treadwell, as chairman, reported that immediately on 



