31 March 1881 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NPV and MoHi, UCCL 01934 and UCCL 01933)
Let the wages remain as at at present during the month of April, since you believe it best.
If Charley wants to fly off & go, let us not object. I have found a man in a factory here who is more than competent to take his place.
If Charley wants fine sand, he knows how & where to get it—let us try to keep that fact in mind.
When you get hold of Beck I hope you will get something absolutely positive out of him, & will be able to report his exact language. If he will say distinctly whether Charley’s invention is valuable or not; & how valuable it is, then we can comprehend. Except he can do this, his testimony cannot help us.
I think you will find, upon examination, that Mr. Allen (like Mr. Beck) has not been told what Charley’s process is—& consequently he is not in a position to deliver an opinion about it. In giving you the impression that Charley’s is the only process which can produce originals, he has manifestly said too much, for Charley has not produced any originals yet, but only copies (as far as my information goes). If Charley can produce originals, it was not sagacious to bother over second-hand things all these slow & expensive months.
Mr. Beck gave me the decided impression that the production of originals for embossed printing is neither a difficult nor expensive thing— mentioned the making them in wax, for one thing, & the taking a plaster pattern from the wax. Is it possible that ther Charley has devised a process which is cheaper & more expeditious than that?
The only person who has said anything that was really encouraging from all points of view, was the man at Koch’s who said there was a fortune ready for the man who can find a way to cast fine nice brass book-stamps. So I think it is simply wisdom to develop & prove that possibility & leave wall paper &c till later.
I hope that before April is over we shall see palpable & demonstrable (not theoretic & imaginative) reasons for going on; but my hopes are not high—they have had a heavy jolt. I feel pretty sore & humiliated when I think over the history of the past few months. The book I was at work on & intended to rush through in two months time, is standing still. One can’t write a book unless he can banish other perplexities & put his whole mind on it. However, that “goes without saying,” as they say the French say.
Use enclosed letter about memorandum book, Dan, if you want to discomfort that cuss.
Will forward those contracts to you as soon as they are witnessed.
We must get up our pluck, Dan—but let it be on a basis of demonstrated fact, this time.
enclosure:
In offering $100 for that memorandum book, you offered a full $100 more than it was worth. I invented the thing myself—& not recently, by any manner of means. I have had it manufactured both in America & Europe, & I have by me the first one I ever used—& it is full of dates, too—dates enough to knock the value clear out of this American patent. I gave the invention away, once, to a foreigner who wanted to patent it in a European state;—an Episcopal Clergyman located on the Continent—& I can produce that man’s evidence whenever it is wanted. Whoever ventures to work under this American patent will need to move with some caution.
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV, is source text for the letter; MS, MoHi, is source text for the enclosure.
MicroPUL, reel 2; MTBus, 152, partial publication.
See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open letter.