Although highly efficient and of unquestionable security, this safety device was considered an insufficient safeguard by Eiffel, who, speaking in the name of the Commission, demanded the application of a device known as the rack and pinion safety that was used to some extent on European cog railways. The commissioners not only considered this system more reliable but felt that one of its features was a necessity: a device that permitted the car to be lowered by hand, even after failure of all the hoisting cables. The serious shortcomings of the rack and pinion were its great noisiness and the limitation it imposed on hoisting speed. Both disadvantages were due to the constant engagement of a pinion on the car with a continuous rack set between the rails. The meeting ended in an impasse, with Brown unwilling to approve the objectionable apparatus and able only to return to New York and lay the matter before his company. While Eiffel's attitude in the matter may appear highly unreasonable, it must be said that during a subsequent meeting between Brown and Koechlin, the French engineer implied that a mutual antagonism had arisen between the Tower's creator and the Commission. Thus, since his own judgment must have had little influence with the commissioners at that time, Eiffel was compelled to specify what he well knew were excessive safety provisions. This decision placed Otis Brothers in a decidedly uncomfortable position, at the mercy of the Commission. W. E. Hale, promoter of the water balance elevator--who by then had a strong voice in Otis' affairs--expressed the seriousness of the matter in a letter to the company's president, Charles R. Otis, following receipt of Brown's report on the Paris conference. Referring to the controversial cogwheel, Hale wrote ... if this must be arranged so that the car is effected [sic] in its operation by constant contact with the rack and pinion ... so as to communicate the noise and jar, and unpleasant motion which such an arrangement always produces, I should favor giving up the whole matter rather than allying ourselves with any such abortion.... we would be the laughing stock of the world, for putting up such a contrivance. This difficult situation apparently was the product of a somewhat general contract phrased in terms of service to be provided rather than of specific equipment to be used. This is not unusual, but it did leave open to later dispute such ambiguous clauses as "adequate safety devices are to be provided."