for independence, and wishing to do something for their
assistance, Mr. Cooper undertook to make a torpedo boat for them. Mr.
Cooper says:

"It was a small one that could be taken on board ship and used to
destroy any vessel that came to destroy them. It was fixed with a
rotary steam engine and a screw wheel to propel it. It was intended to
be guided from the ship or the shore. There were two steel wires fixed
to the tiller of the rudder, and the operator could pull on one side
or the other and guide the vessel just as a horse is guided with
reins. It was so arranged that at night it would carry a light with
its dark side toward the object to be destroyed, and by simply keeping
the light in range with the vessel it would be sure to hit it. The
torpedo was carried on a little iron rod, projecting in front of the
torpedo vessel a few inches under water. Contact would discharge the
torpedo and bend this iron rod. This would reverse the action of the
engine and cause the torpedo vessel to return right back from whence
it came, ready to carry another torpedo."

Unfortunately the torpedo boat was not ready in time to go with the
ship carrying the contributions for Greece. It was stored in Mr.
Cooper's factory (he had then turned his attention to glue) and was
destroyed by the burning of the factory. It seems to have been quite a
promising affair for the time. Mr. Cooper says:

"I experimented with it at once to see how far it could be guided. I
made a steel wire ten miles long and went down to the Narrows to test
the matter. I had steel yards fastened to one end of the wire, and to
the other end the torpedo vessel as attached. It got about six miles
away when a vessel coming into the harbor crossed the wire and broke
it. Although the experiment was not complete it showed that for at
least six miles I could guide the vessel as easily as I could guide a
horse."

Mr. Cooper's work as the pioneer locomotive builder in this country;
his later inventions and improvements in the manufacture of railway
iron and wrought iron beams for fireproof buildings; his application
of anthracite coal to iron puddling, and his other successes are
almost as widely known as his philanthropic efforts for the education
and advancement of the industrial classes of this city.

After all, we are not sure but the story of his long and varied and
always honorable career, told by himself, would not be worth, to young
people who have to make their way