e thirty-six miles
in the interior, and after seven hours' drive through a wild region of
the Western Catskill mountains, passing into the very outskirts of
civilization, through a deep gorge of mountain precipices that rose on
each side of the road more than a thousand feet, at an angle of
forty-five degrees, I at length found the little village of some three
hundred inhabitants of which I was in search, embosomed in the deep
valley of the Westkill creek. I had no difficulty in finding Mr. Hill.
He is unquestionably a man of genius, intelligence, and piety, retiring
and sensitive; and his simple description of the effect upon him when
the result of his discovery stood revealed before him, was true to
nature, and, among other things, demonstrated to me that his discovery
was a fact. I have not time to give you the details of the conversation;
but I succeeded in dissuading him from thinking of a patent as a
security, and in this I am rejoiced. He shall not be plagued by
lawsuits, have his life shortened and made miserable, and his just right
in the property of his discovery snatched from him, if I can prevent it.
His discovery, fortunately for him, is one that can be kept secret, and
his case furnishes a capital example of the reality and nature of
property in invention or discovery. It can be seen at a glance in this
stage of the matter that Mr. Hill now has that property absolutely in
his own possession, and no one has a right to demand it of him, nor
request it, without paying him such a price as he may affix to his
property. I have a plan which pleased him, and which I think, will
secure the object aimed at, to wit, ample remuneration to him, and in
such a shape as to leave him the use of his powers the remainder of his
life (unlike my own case) for further research and scientific pursuits,
without fear of fraud, of attacks on his character, and endless
litigation. More of this another time. I must now stop, simply remarking
on the strangeness of the circumstances of this discovery as contrasted
with Daguerre's discovery; the latter surrounded by every facility for
experiment in the metropolis of refinement and science, the former
surrounded by no facilities whatever for experiment, excepting such as
were transported by him at great trouble and comparative expense, with
limited pecuniary means, into the primeval forest, with scarcely an
individual to consult with except his wife, and literally surrounded by
wild beast