The governor seemed to please every one. In anticipation of a demand for them, I had shipped a number to London, which met a ready sale. The most appreciative persons as a class were the linen-manufacturers of Belfast. One of them early took a license to sell them there. The first one I sold in London was to my friends Easton, Amos & Sons. As soon as they saw it in operation it struck them as the very thing they needed. In connection with their engineering works they carried on the manufacture of lead pipe by hydraulic pressure. The engine which drove a large section of their machine tools also drove the hydraulic pumps for this manufacture. It was a very trying service. The resistance was very heavy and came on and off the engine instantly. The action of the common governor was not prompt enough to control it, and they had to employ a man handling a disk valve with a very short motion. He had to keep his eye fixed on a column of mercury. When this rose he must open the valve, and when it dropped he must shut it. It had been found that this was a poor reliance for the instantaneous action required. They got a governor from me at once. I received a message from them the next day. The governor would not answer at all; would I come down and see about it? I happened first to meet an old man, foreman of the turners. “What is the matter?” “Matter! The governor won’t work, that’s what’s the matter.” I was rather an impulsive young man and replied, “It will work, or I’ll eat it.” He sharply responded, “If it does work I’ll eat it, and I haven’t a tooth in my head.” Foolish old man! he was more rash than I. I saw at a glance that the governor went through but half its action. There was evidently some resistance in the valve, a common fly-throttle. After they shut down at night I had the valve pulled out, and found that the chamber was larger than the pipe and that the wings of the valve were long and their points caught on the ends of the pipe. The wings of the valve were soon shortened and rebedded in the chamber, and when started again the governor controlled the motion of the engine perfectly, to the great gratification of everybody, and the delight of the boys, who had heard the old man promise to eat it. The valve had been put in for my governor to work, and the fitters had put up a job on me. The old man was not in the secret. So the laugh was on him instead of on me.