MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWET.L. 



489 



Mr. Tread well expressed his acknowledgments as follows. 



"Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Academv, 



" I receive with great satisfaction the Rumford medals, which, in accordance with a vote passed 

 at the annual meeting, you have now presented to me. I prize this premium the more as coming 

 from this body, with which I have been intimately associated for more than forty years as an 

 active member, and for a very large part of the time as an onice-bearer. I may be permitted to 

 say, however, that, although I am sensible that I am indebted for this award in a large degree to 

 your kind partiality for an old associate, which turned your attention to his labors, yet it was 

 made not only without any application on my part, but your motion towards it was wholly 

 unknown, and not even thought of by me, until the vote of the Rumford Committee was 

 communicated to me. 



" The award was, as stated in your vote, (which uses the language of the Count Rumford,) 

 for ' improvements in the management of heat.' But as this management of heat was incidental 

 to and intimately connected with improvements in the construction of cannon, to which 1 had 

 given years of labor, you have extended your examination into the character of these improve- 

 ments generally. For the very thorough research which it is evident you have made into the 

 whole subject, I feel under great obligations to you; and the very favorable conclusions which 

 you have reached, and which have been so fully and kindly expressed by you, sir, as to the ori i- 

 nality and value of my researches and labors, form an additional source of satisfaction to me. 

 This, taken alone, would constitute one of the most welcome recognitions and rewards that could 

 be given to me. Permit me, in conclusion, to express my special obligations to the members of 

 the Rumford Committee for directing their attention to my labors, and for the very favorable 

 view which they have taken of their merits." * 



Of the many congratulations on the reception of the Rumford medals, the follow- 

 ing is from his friend, Admiral Charles Henry Davis. 



To Professor Daniel Treadwell. 



"Washington, November 23, 1865. 



My dear Friend, — I have for some time been meaning to write to you a single line to tell 

 you with how much satisfaction and improvement I have read, this autumn, very carefully, the 

 several papers — contained in the volume you gave me last summer — on your method of con- 

 structing cannon. I wished also to learn from you the result of your suit against the Parrott 

 gun, and to ask vou to send me the proceedings in the case, if they have been published or 



printed. 



No one of your friends is more fully alive than I am to the injustice and the painful disap- 

 pointment you have suffered ; and I know it is but a poor consolation to dwell upon the certain 



recognition of your claims hereafter. 



But it is most gratifying to me to see that the testimony of the highest authority has sus- 

 tained your originality and done honor to your inventive genius. 



The presentation of the Rumford medal is the best and the sufficient vindication of your 

 rights, and a proper rebuke to those, both at home and abroad, who have stolen your invention. 



During the war T was chairman of a commission (of which General Barnard of the Engineers, 

 Professors Bache and Henry, and Mr. Saxton were members) for examining inventions offered 



* Proceedings of the Academy, Vol. VIL p. 144. 



