A day or two after, the meeting was held which had been called for the purpose of hearing the report of the patent expert and organizing the company. At this meeting the expert was not prepared to report, as an application for the reissue of an important patent was still pending. Mr. Merrick moved that a temporary organization be then effected, so that we might proceed at once with work on pressing orders. On my assurance that this reissue was certain to be allowed, the motion was adopted and a temporary board of directors was elected. Mr. Merrick and myself were elected president and vice-president respectively. Mr. Merrick told me afterwards that he made the motion because he knew that those twenty-one gentlemen there assembled could never be got together again if this meeting should prove fruitless. The directors held a meeting immediately after, and at this meeting I presented a letter which I had written to the chairman of the meeting called for organization, setting forth the requirements of the engine for the latest and most improved tools and asking for an immediate appropriation of $100,000 for their purchase, as time was of the utmost consequence. To this Mr. Merrick replied that such action would be entirely unnecessary, saying: “I assure you gentlemen, and I assure Mr. Porter, that for a long time to come he will find in these works everything he can possibly desire.” Of course I could make no reply to this positive statement, and the matter was dropped. We immediately took possession of the works, and a large force of men were put at work cleaning the tools and getting them in working order; I also had my drawings, patterns, and all work in progress brought from Newark and from all shops where it had been commenced. Prominent among these latter were the bed, cylinder and shaft of the first of the 40×48-inch engines which were then ready for finishing.