440 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



I am grieved to learn that Judge Kent has left Cambridge. There was something real and 

 hearty about him, and he will be a great loss to the good-fellowship of the place. I enclose a 

 " bill of the play " showing natural history exhibited on the Boulevards. After you have read it, 

 send it, witli my regards, to Dr. Jeffries Wyinan. The exhibition is very curious. 



Your 



D. Tread well. 



In the summer of 1848, finding that no thin £ further could be done towards 



O ~ *3 



introducing his guns, Mr. Treadwell returned to Cambridge. 



To Colonel George Talcott. 



Cambridge^ September 3, 1849. 



Dear Sir, — Since my return from Europe, which is now about a year, I have expected and 

 intended every month to go to Washington, where I promised myself the pleasure of seeing you. 

 But something has constantly occurred to prevent my journey. Being assured, however, that 

 you have not forgotten me, by your frank enclosing a pamphlet to me, the other day, and for 

 which I am much obliged, I can no longer delay writing to you to communicate something of my 

 cannon affairs abroad, as well as some other information that I wish to place in your possession. 



The French Government of Louis Philippe made a long course of trials on the thirty-two 

 pounder that I sent to them at Yincennes. They did not however carry the proofs to extreme 

 charges, which they were preparing to do when the Revolution put a stop to that and all other 

 experiments. The Commission reported upon the trials made,* and were highly satisfied 

 with the performance of the gun, never before having seen a piece stand unaltered the same 



number of charges. 



ge to me, and, being 



nothing more would be done in the unsettled state of the government, I was constrained to 

 give up the further pursuit of the subject. In England I did not expect to obtain even an exam- 

 ination of the invention, and none was made. Thus rests the unfortunate project, about which, 

 however, I hope to have the pleasure of talking with you verbally before long. . • • 



Daniel Treadwell. 



The other matter referred to is a method of constructing torpedoes of great 

 destructive power, confidentially intrusted to Mr. Treadwell for communication to 

 the Ordnance Office of the United States. 



Here ended all efforts to induce our Government to adopt the most important 

 improvement, if not the only improvement, in the construction of heavy ordnance 

 since the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 



Th 



i gentlemen associated in this enterprise believed themselves warranted, on 

 business principles, in assuming that the Army and Navy would secure the best 

 armaments. In this they were mistaken. Although the guns had been proved 

 superior in strength and endurance, to any before made, the number ordered did 

 not warrant any probable expectation that they would prove remunerative. 



* See Report in Appendix, No. IV. 



* 



