The point of interest to myself in this story lies here. The old judge had no sound mechanical education, but was very fertile minded. He came almost every morning with a new idea that he wanted embodied. It was always absurd. He generally protested vigorously against being overruled. When he was furnishing all the money he could not see why he should not be allowed to have _something_ to say about it. I happened to be present in their office one morning when he got particularly excited over their opposition. He was a stout party, and on this occasion I had the fun of joining in the shout of laughter that greeted him, when, after pacing the floor in silence for a few minutes, he exclaimed, with his hand on the fabled seat of his sympathies, “I thank my God that if there is one thing I am free from, it is pride of opinion.” My recollection of the above action of Easton, Amos & Sons and of Judge Winter contributed materially to form my imagination of the predicament in which I would certainly find myself, should I yield to Mr. Whitworth the power to make whatever changes might occur to him in my engine. CHAPTER XV Preparations for Returning to America. Bright Prospects. Having but little practical work to occupy me that winter, I devoted myself to getting out for Elliott Bros. a second edition of my instruction book to accompany the Richards indicator, and my paper for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the illustrations and material for Mr. Colburn’s articles on the Allen engine published in _Engineering_. I found in the library of the Manchester Philosophical Society a copy of the twentieth volume of the “Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences,” containing the report of the experiments of M. Regnault to determine the properties of steam, with the leaves uncut, of which I was then able to make some use. I was anxious to obtain a copy of this volume for myself, and also of Volume 21, containing other memoirs by M. Regnault. This object I succeeded in accomplishing when in Paris that winter through the kind interest of M. Tresca, the well-known Sous-Directeur of the Ecole des Arts et Métiers. This was a matter of so much difficulty, that a letter from M. Tresca to the publisher was found not to be sufficient. It was necessary that M. Tresca should personally identify me as the “savant” to whom he had given the letter. I was then able to obtain both the volumes, which I brought home with me on my return to America.