MEMOIR OF DANIEL TEEADW I.I.. 



4f. 



fideneo in mv 



representations, than I chose to do again. No other course s *ned 01 n to me bu( to secure the 



go 



mcnt to adopt it, and wait the event. Early in the year 1865 1 determin I to adopt this corns. . 



in 



for a patent In Sopteml>er 



I commenced writing an account of its structure and a demonstration of it> strength. Tin 

 account, although finished in November, was not, owing to several unfon n hindrances, pub- 

 lished until the beginning of 1856. As soon as it was printed, 1 Ben! oopies oi to all the 



military and naval posts and stations, and especially to the ordnance officer* at \\ shin ton. 

 I likewise wrote a letter to the chief of the Ordnance Bureau, calling his attention to it, st ting 

 amongst other things, that it must soon come up and be adopted in Kurope, — that it must i 

 taken up here in the end; — why not, then, commence now, and have the credit, if any credit 

 should come of it, of leading the way in it, rather than he driven by others to the i. • ol ii '.' 'J 

 this letter no answer or acknowledgment was ever return) I. 



"Again, two years after this, the rifled cannon made its appearance in En land. To Carry 



this out, Armstrong, as I have said before, constructed his gun : ter the method used by mo 

 eighteen years before. It now seemed to me that it would give i a great euporioritj over all 

 the European forms of rifled cannon to apply the principle of the rifle-fa II to cannon con- 

 structed after the method last proposed by me. So strongly was I impressed with this ide 

 that in February, 1860, notwithstanding my age and feeble health, I made the journejf to 

 "Washington to urge it upon the authorities. I found them all as torpid a- lo any of tin- improve- 

 ments of Europe, in rifled cannon, as they were to improvements in naval matters in th< Sandwich 

 Islands. I obtained, after a long and m-patient waiting, an interview with the ^-rrctary ol War. 

 Floyd. He treated me courteously, though I saw at once that he knew nothing, and car 1 noth- 

 ing, about rifled cannon. But as he requested me, on taking my leave, to put the sub- usee 

 of the statement which I had made to him in writing, I did bo on my return home, and 1 re- 

 warded it to him. This completed my intercourse with him, though I aft rwardi printed my 

 letter, a copy of which is herewith enclosed. Here the matter has rested, so far as applications 

 from me are concerned." 



The letter to the chief of the Ordnance Bureau above referred to was as 



folio 



ws: 



To General Joseph G. Tottex, Chief op the Bureau of Bnginbbbino. 



I \MHUIDGK, IH.V) 



Dear Sir, — Something more than ten years ago I had the favor of an interview and com r- 

 sation with you under an introduction from Colonel Thayer upon the subject of cannon. 1 1 - ing 

 then ensaired in makimr a small number of wrou-ht-iron and steel for the government You 



c"*'& w,k * AXX limxwil & 



were then extremely desirous of carrying the manufacture to cannon of very large size, instan- 

 cing the celebrated guns at the Dardanelles as worthy of imitation, and lamenting that our < fi- 

 nance Department would not attempt with all our arts to produce guns equal to tho i of the 

 Turks. My project, owing to the opposition of the old commodores, was not encouraged, and 1 

 was obliged to leave it in abeyance, although the guns made by me possessed a strength never 



before attained or approached. 



The great attention given bv the engineers and cannon-makers of Europe for the last two or 

 three vears to discover some way of making guns of great size, and the uniform failure of all 

 «.«:- ~i.x *_ • _.x ... i x„ rru Ma f.;i nmM Jiavp led me to re-examine the subject, and 



