MACHINES FOR ROPE-MAKING. 



331 



return to London, and I lost sight of the Chatham trial, 

 expecting to close the sale to Mr. Whittaker ; but as he failed 

 to carry out his purchase, after paying £850 on account, 

 and my newly-invented machines are an improvement on 

 those I had in 1860, I will, on the opening of Parliament, 

 have the facts brought out, unless Lord Clarence Paget orders 

 me to have a fair trial in some other of Her Majesty's 

 dockyards. 



The patentee being applied to by the Rev. George Kowe, 

 Government Lecturer on Geography, Training College, York, 

 for a supply of his prepared Indian fibres with yarns and 

 cloth made from them, for the purpose of illustrating his 

 Lecture on the Fibre-yielding Plants of the East and West 

 Indies, which he delivered on the 10th February, 18 61 — felt 

 happy to forward to the care of the rev. gentleman, a well 

 assorted box of his prepared fibres, &c, &c, and had, in a 

 few days, the following letter in reply : — 



« 33, Lord Mayor's Walk, York. 

 « February 12th, 1861. 

 "DEAR Sir — I send off to-day by the Great Northern 

 Parcels Office, the small card box filled with the specimens 

 of the rheea fibre, &c, which you so kindly lent me for 

 exhibition at the soiree of the Mechanics' Institute of this 

 city, on Wednesday evening last. I believe you will find 

 that I have taken the greatest care of them all ; and hope 

 they will reach you safely. The samples, showing the gradual 

 change from the rough stalk to the silky-looking fibre, were 

 to me, and to others, extremely interesting; and I should 

 rejoice in the possession of similar examples for future use. 

 It was examined by several practical men from the West 

 Biding, and no doubt expressed of its excellence and prospect 

 of introduction if only one question could be solved — Can we 

 depend upon a regular and large supply ? If so, we 



