I, however, did not want him to expend any of this energy in getting a steam-engine to suit him, and so the passing months brought us no nearer to an agreement. My experience with Ducommen et Cie. confirmed me in my decision not to let the mechanical control of the engine in England pass out of my hands, and Mr. Hoyle told me that he could not advise me to do so. Mr. Whitworth was at that time in the death agonies of his artillery system, and I did not meet him, but I learned through Mr. Hoyle that he was highly indignant at me for presuming to take the position I had done, and was immovably fixed in his own. CHAPTER XIV Study of the Action of Reciprocating Parts. Important Help from Mr. Frederick J. Slade. Paper before Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Appreciation of Zerah Colburn. The Steam Fire Engine in England. After the close of the Paris Exposition I devoted myself in earnest to the study of the action of the reciprocating parts of the engine, and will here give a sketch of its development. In the high-speed steam-engine the reciprocating parts were found to be a most essential feature. Besides transmitting the pressure of the steam to the crank they perform quite another office. It is their inertia, relieving the crank from shocks on the dead centers, and equalizing the distribution of the pressure on it through the stroke, that makes the high-speed engine possible. I employed this inertia before I knew anything about it. I had been occupied with the subject of balancing. I had demonstrated practically that the centrifugal force of a weight equal to that of the reciprocating parts, opposite the crank and at the same distance from the center as the crank-pin, perfectly balanced a horizontal engine, and had shown this fact conclusively at this exposition.