INTRODUCTION, 



tenure of intellectual property, he is fully aware that his com- 

 pensation, like that of most inventors or discoverers, may be 

 but the scourge of litigation and of " hope deferred that maketh 

 the heart sick ;" and yet it may be reasonably expected, that 

 when the plans of the inventor are generally understood and 

 appreciated, a diiferent result may follow, and a reasonable com- 

 pensation be obtained. 



This work, with the drawings and the descriptions con- 

 tained in it, will at least have this good effect, to prevent much 

 waste of time and money in litigation and dispute, between 

 other persons as to what is new, in the application of metal- 

 lized or vulcanized gum-elastic. It is a thing of almost every- 

 day occurrence, that an individual makes an invention, that is 

 actually such, as far as he is concerned, and it is supposed by 

 him to be quite new, when it afterwards appears that it has been 

 previously made by another, if not by many others long before. 

 Time and money would have been saved, and controversy pre- 

 vented, if the first inventor had published his invention to the 

 world. 



If the writer is thought to be extravagant in his predic- 

 tions, with regard to the future use and importance of some 

 things he has described, which are as yet hardly known to the 

 public, it may be attributed, in part, to a presentiment of the 

 future, quite common to inventors, with regard to the future 

 usefulness of their improvements. These anticipations, in some 

 cases, fall far short of what is subsequently realized, in the bene- 

 fits conferred on mankind ; and it comes to be often remarked, 

 after the discoverers are gone, that they were not aware in their 

 lifetime of what they had accomplished, and what benefits they 

 had conferred upon others. This is no doubt sometimes the 

 case ; but in general, it may be presumed that the man who 

 really understands his subject, can anticipate the future very 

 nearly with regard to it. 



Notwithstanding the allusions that are made in the following 

 pages, to circumstances of trial and embarrassment for the want 

 of pecuniary means to pursue his investigations, the writer 





