About the first order we had was from a company formed for lighting the streets in Philadelphia with arc lights, of which Thomas Dolan, a prominent manufacturer in Philadelphia, was president. Our order was for eight engines, 8×16 inches, to drive eight Brush dynamos each of 40-light power. The order was given to Mr. Merrick. I never saw Mr. Dolan; his own mill was at the northern end of the city, and he met Mr. Merrick by appointment at lunch in the business center, to which conferences I was never invited. When the plant was in operation I heard incidentally that they had a new engineer at the electric-light works, and I thought I would go up and make his acquaintance. I went the same evening. I was met at the door by a stranger who politely showed me the plant. I did not introduce myself. He asked me if I were interested in electric lighting. I told him I was not but might be. He said it was his duty to warn me against the use of high-speed engines; he should not have advised these, but found them already installed when he took charge of the place, and he was doing the best he could to make them answer for the present, but the works would be greatly enlarged after a while, when these engines would be gotten rid of and proper engines substituted in place of them. He called his assistant to corroborate his statement of the difficulty they had in getting along with them. I listened to these outrageous falsehoods and looked around and saw the eight engines running smoothly and silently at 280 revolutions per minute, each engine exerting the power of four engines of the same size, at the old maximum speed of 70 revolutions per minute, and giving absolutely uniform motion without a fly-wheel, and said nothing.