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1218 NOTES TO VOLUME II.
which had taken place for many years, eminently qualified him for
the profession of a patent agent and consulting Engineer, which he
exercised for many years, bringing his varied experience to bear
upon, and complete for practical purposes, the crude ideas of inventors,
"His own improvements of useful instruments were very numerous.
and among them may be mentioned the Pentagraph, an instrument
for giving any number of copies of a letter, or other document, at
the time of writing the original; this was somewhat generally used,
until it was superseded by Wedgwood’s carbonic manifold writer,
and by the modern forms of copying-presses. The ever-pointed
pencil, and the everlasting gold pen, are among his useful, though
minute inventions; for the latter he took the residuum found after
dissolving platinum, and, with the iridium, he skilfully pointed the
gold pens.
"He had for many years entertained the idea of returning to the
United States, in order to perfect and to patent several new inven
tions ; as he imagined that the expense of patents in Great Britain,
at that time, pressed with undue severity upon inventors, since,
unless they were prepared to incur a large expense for a problemati
cal return, they could not exhibit their unpatented inventions, except
at the risk of being deprived of them. On the other hand, he
thought that the moderate charge to citizens of the United States
of America, enabled a poor inventor to take out a patent there
without the aid of a capitalist, and thus to convert his inventions
into property, which he might take to market, and run no risk of
losing his right. Being assisted by a few of the older members of
the Institution of Civil Engineers, who knew him well and estimated
his uprightness and simplicity of character, as well as the ingenuity
of his mind, he carried his intention of emigrating into effect in the
autumn of 1848, and in a farewell letter he said, "The Creator has
constituted me an inventor, and I consider every useful invention
given me, as a commission from Him, in trust, for the benefit of
mankind; and I should deem myself guilty of a breach of that trust,
were I not to use every reasonable exertion to carry the same into
effect, as long as it can afford me due support. Society is now
enjoying many comforts and conveniences from my inventions, while
I have great difficulty in procuring common necessaries.’
"Nothing was heard of him, after his arrival in the United States,
until quite recently, when his death was reported to have occurred
at Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, U. S., on June 28, 1855. It is
feared that his sanguine anticipations of the States being a land of
promise for inventors were not realized, and that he might eventually
have been really better appreciated, had he remained in England."
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