In order of time I should have mentioned before that, having in 1742 invented an open stove[137] for the better warming of rooms and at the same time saving fuel, as the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my early friends, who, having an iron furnace, found the casting of the plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as they were growing in demand.[n] To promote that demand I wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, "An Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces; wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is particularly explained; their Advantages above every other Method of warming Rooms demonstrated; and all Objections that have been raised against the Use of them answered and obviated," etc. This pamphlet had a good effect. Governor Thomas was so pleased with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declined it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions; namely, that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a good deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and making some small changes in the machine, which rather hurt its operation, got a patent for it there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. And this is not the only instance of patents taken out for my inventions by others,--though not always with the same success,--which I never contested, as having no desire of profiting by patents myself, and hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in very many houses, both of this and the neighboring colonies, has been and is a great saving of wood to the inhabitants. [Footnote 125: George Whitefield, one of the founders of Methodism, who was born in Gloucester, England, in 1714, and died in Newburyport, Mass., in 1770.[n]] [Footnote 126: In London.] [Footnote 127: General Oglethorpe founded an English colony in Georgia in 1732. He wished to make an asylum to which debtors, whose liberty the laws of England put into the hands of the creditor, (see Way to Wealth, p. 204,) might escape, and where those fleeing from religious persecution might be safe from their pursuers.] [Footnote 128: This institution was established in Savannah, and called Bethesda.] [Footnote 129: Written words endure.]