I come now to the turning-point in my career, and the reflection forces itself upon me, how often in the course of my life incidents trivial in themselves have proved afterwards to have been big with consequences; and how events, sometimes chains of events, beyond my control, of which indeed I had no knowledge, have determined my course. The same must be the case in the lives of many persons, and the thoughtful mind cannot look back on them without being impressed by the mysterious interrelations of our being. One morning in the winter of 1860-61, Mr. Henry A. Hurlbut, of the firm of Swift, Hurlbut & Co., wholesale dealers in hats at No. 65 Broadway, and who was interested in my governor manufacture, called upon me to tell me that a friend of his, Mr. Henry A. Burr, manufacturer of felt hat bodies at the corner of Frankfort and Cliff streets in New York, had been having trouble with his engine. He thought my governor was just what he needed, and asked me to accompany him to Mr. Burr’s office, where he would give me the advantage of his personal introduction. In the interview with Mr. Burr which followed, I did not have an opportunity to say a word. After Mr. Hurlbut had explained the object of our visit, Mr. Burr replied that he had had a great deal of trouble with the regulation of his engine, and had thought seriously of getting a Corliss engine in the place of it; but two or three weeks before the builders of the engine had sent him a very skillful engineer, and since he came there had been no further trouble, so he should not need my governor. He invited us to see his engine, in which--since it had been taught to behave itself--he evidently took much pride. We found a pair of beam-engines of 5 feet stroke, running at 25 revolutions per minute, made by Thurston & Gardiner of Providence. They had the usual poppet valves and the Sickels cut-off. This was made adjustable, and was regulated by the governor. At the time of our entrance, Mr. Allen, the new engineer, was engaged on the scaffold. Mr. Burr called him and he came down, and at Mr. Burr’s request explained to us the variable liberating mechanism and what he had done to make it work satisfactorily. The regulation did not appear to me to be very close, and I made a determined effort to induce Mr. Burr to substitute one of my governors. I showed him a cut of the governor, and pointed out its combination of power and sensitiveness, but all in vain. He was satisfied with things as they were, and I went away crestfallen, having lost not only the sale of a governor, but also an opportunity for a triumph in a very important place. But I did not know to whom I had in fact been talking.