our whale-oil, of which, after
the supply of Paris, there will be a surplus for re-exportation.

4. Should our fur-trade be recovered out of the hands of the English, it
will naturally come to Honfleur, as the out-port of Paris.

5. Salt is an important article in all our return cargoes; because,
being carried as ballast, its freight costs nothing. But on account
of some regulations, with which I am not well acquainted, it cannot at
present be shipped to advantage from any port on the Seine.

6. Our vessels being built sharp, for swift sailing, suffer extremely
in most of the western ports of France, in which they are left on dry
ground at every ebb of the tide. But at Honfleur, I am told, they can
ride in bold water, on a good bottom, and near the shore, at all times.

These facts may, perhaps, throw some light on the question in which, for
the good of both countries, you are pleased to interest yourself. I take
the liberty, therefore, of barely mentioning them, and with the more
pleasure, as it furnishes me an occasion of assuring you of those
sentiments of respect and esteem, with which I have the honor to be your
most obedient, humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XLII.--TO MONSIEUR DE CREVE-COEUR, January 15,1787

TO MONSIEUR DE CREVE-COEUR.

Paris, January 15,1787.

Dear Sir,

I see by the Journal of this morning, that they are robbing us of
another of our inventions, to give it to the English. The writer,
indeed, only admits them to have revived what he thinks was known to the
Greeks, that is, the making the circumference of a wheel of one single
piece. The farmers in New Jersey were the first who practised it, and
they practised it commonly. Dr. Franklin, in one of his trips to London,
mentioned this practice to the man now in London, who has the patent for
making those wheels. The idea struck him. The Doctor promised to go to
his shop, and assist him in trying to make the wheel of one piece. The
Jersey farmers do it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it, while
green and juicy, into a circle; and leaving it so until it becomes
perfectly seasoned. But in London there are no saplings. The difficulty
was, then, to give to old wood the pliancy of young. The Doctor and the
workman labored together some weeks, and succeeded; and the man obtained
a patent for it, which has made his fortune. I was in his shop in
London; he told me the whole story himself, and acknowledged not only
the origin