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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
101
'In
looking
back
to
that
time,
I
wonder
at
the
patience
with
which
Mr.
Elkington
listened
to
what
I
had
to
say,
being
very
young,
and
scarcely
able
to
find
English
words
to
convey
my
meaning.
After
showing
me
what
he
was
doing
already
in
the
way
of
electro-plating,
Mr.
Elkington
sent
me
back
to
London
in
order
to
read
some
patents
of
his
own,
asking
me
to
return
if,
after
perusal,
I
still
thought
I
could
teach
him
anything.
To
my
great
disappointment,
I
found
that
the
chemical
solutions
I
had
been
using
were
actually
mentioned
in
one
of
his
patents,
although
in
a
manner
that
would
hardly
have
sufficed
to
enable
a
third
person
to
obtain
practical
results.
On
my
return
to
Birmingham
I
frankly
stated
what
I
had
found,
and
with
this
frankness
I
evidently
gained
the
favour
of
another
townsman
of
yours,
Mr.
Josiah
Mason,
who
had
just
joined
Mr.
Elkington
in
business,
and
whose
name,
as
Sir
Josiah
Mason,
will
ever
be
remembered
for
his
munificent
endowment
of
education.
It
was
agreed
that
I
should
not
be
judged
by
the
novelty
of
my
invention,
but
by
the
results
which
I
promised,
namely,
of
being
able
to
deposit
with
a
smooth
surface
30
dwt.
of
silver
upon
a
dish-cover,
the
crystalline
structure
of
the
deposit
having
theretofore
been
a
source
of
difficulty.
In
this
I
succeeded,
and
I
was
able
to
return
to
my
native
country
and
my
mechanical
engineering
a
comparative
Croesus.
'But
it
was
not
for
long,
as
in
the
following
year
(1844)
I
again
landed
in
the
Thames
with
another
invention,
worked
out
also
with
my
brother,
namely,
the
chronometric
governor,
which,
though
less
successful,
commercially
speaking,
than
the
first,
obtained
for
me
the
advantage
of
bringing
me
into
contact
with
the
engineering
world,
and
of
fixing
me
permanently
in
this
country.
This
invention
was
in
course
of
time
applied
by
Sir
George
Airy,
the
then
Astronomer-Royal,
for
regulating
the
motion
of
his
great
transit
and
touch-recording
instrument
at
the
Royal
Observatory,
where
it
still
continues
to
be
employed.
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