When captain of the 18th Infantry, I equipped my company with my invention, using belts made of leather, with sewed-on leather loops. These did not prove entirely satisfactory. The acid in the leather acted on the copper in the shell, producing verdigris, causing the shells to stick in the belt or, after firing, in the chamber of the gun. Belts of this character were submitted to every equipment board organized between 1866 and 1879, but so wedded were the authorities to the use of ancestral methods that no board even made favorable mention of my invention. Meanwhile, the cavalry and infantry on active service against Indians adopted these belts of this character, fabricating them themselves. [Illustration: FIG. 1. LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH MAIN WEB A B, AND TWO LOOPS, C C, SHOWING WARP AND WOOF THREADS.] [Illustration: FIG. 2. CROSS SECTION OF MAIN FABRIC, SHOWING EXTRA THREADS _g_, IN TUBE OF SELVEDGE.] [Illustration: MILLS BELT, PATTERN OF 1887.] [Illustration: SECTION THROUGH DOUBLE LOOP BELT, SHOWING CONTINUOUS FABRIC.] [Illustration: MILLS DOUBLE LOOP BELT, CARRYING 90 ROUNDS, CALIBRE .30.] [Illustration: MILLS NINE POCKET BELT, HOLDING 90 ROUNDS, CALIBRE .30.] [Illustration: MILLS INFANTRY BELT, DISMOUNTED. MODEL OF 1910, TEN POCKETS, 20 CLIPS, 100 ROUNDS, CALIBRE .30.] Becoming known at Washington, two ordnance inspectors were sent to inspect the equipment of the armies of General Terry and General Crook, confronting the hostile Sioux, in 1876. They reported it was impossible to compel soldiers on the frontier to use the regulation McKeever cartridge boxes, and recommended the manufacture of a uniform belt at arsenals. The Chief of Ordnance approved, and thirty thousand sewed canvas belts were made at Watervliet. Their uniformity and the facility with which they could be procured made them more satisfactory than those previously used, but the loops were still apt to rip and enlarge. My experience with looms as a boy, gave me the idea of weaving the whole belt, body as well as loops, in one piece without sewing the loops, uniform in size and incapable of ripping or enlarging. In search for advice as to the feasibility of this plan, I visited the Russell Manufacturing Company, at Middletown, Connecticut, and found Mr. Hubbard in charge. I asked if he could not help devise a method for weaving the loops on the belt. He told me that thirty years' experience in textile fabrics told him it was utterly impossible, and that I should know that every string had two ends! "You an army officer?" he asked; "Will you get angry if I give you some good advice?" "No." "Do you see that building?" pointing to the insane asylum. "Well, there are smarter men than you right in that building who got there by having just such things as this on their minds too long. I advise you to get it off." Notwithstanding his advice, I did _not_ get the matter off my mind until I had accomplished my conception.