the propeller is to push her forward. If set so as to act in a direct line with the plane of motion, it will use all its force to push her forward; if set so as to use its force in a perpendicular direction, it will use all its force to raise her out of the water. If placed at an angle of 45° with the plane of motion, half the force will be used in raising the ship out of the water, and only half will be left to push her forward.

ENOS M. RICKER.

Park Rapids, Minn., Jan. 23, 1886.

SIBLEY COLLEGE LECTURES.

BY THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY NON-RESIDENT LECTURERS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF BALANCING FORCES DEVELOPED IN MOVING BODIES.

BY CHAS. T. PORTER.

INTRODUCTION.

On appearing for the first time before this Association, which, as I am informed, comprises the faculty and the entire body of students of the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and the Mechanic Arts, a reminiscence of the founder of this College suggests itself to me, in the relation of which I beg first to be indulged.

In the years 1847-8-9 I lived in Rochester, N.Y., and formed a slight acquaintance with Mr. Sibley, whose home was then, as it has ever since been, in that city. Nearly twelve years afterward, in the summer of 1861, which will be remembered as the first year of our civil war, I met Mr. Sibley again. We happened to occupy a seat together in a car from New York to Albany. He recollected me, and we had a conversation which made a lasting impression on my memory. I said we had a conversation. That reminds me of a story told by my dear friend, of precious memory, Alexander L. Holley. One summer Mr. Holley accompanied a party of artists on an excursion to Mt. Katahdin, which, as you know, rises in almost solitary grandeur amid the forests and lakes of Maine. He wrote, in his inimitably happy style, an account of this excursion, which appeared some time after in Scribner's Monthly, elegantly illustrated with views of the scenery. Among other things, Mr. Holley related how he and Mr. Church painted the sketches for a grand picture of Mt. Katahdin. "That is," he explained, "Mr. Church painted, and I held the umbrella."

This describes the conversation which Mr. Sibley and I had. Mr. Sibley talked, and I listened. He was a good talker, and I flatter myself that I rather excel as a listener. On that occasion I did my best, for I knew whom I was listening to. I was listening to the man who combined bold and comprehensive grasp of thought, unerring foresight and sagacity, and energy of action and power of accomplishment, in a degree not surpassed, if it was equaled, among men.

Some years before, Mr. Sibley had created the Western Union Telegraph Company. At that time telegraphy was in a very depressed state. The country was to a considerable extent occupied by local lines, chartered under various State laws, and operated without concert. Four rival companies, organized under the Morse, the Bain, the House, and the Hughes patents, competed for the business. Telegraph stock was nearly valueless. Hiram Sibley, a man of the people, a resident of an inland city, of only moderate fortune, alone grasped the situation. He saw that the nature of the business, and the demands of the country, alike required that a single organization, in which all interests should be combined, should cover the entire land with its network, by means of which every center and every outlying point, distant as well as near, could communicate with each other directly, and that such an organization must be financially successful. He saw all this vividly, and realized it with the most intense earnestness of conviction. With Mr. Sibley, to be convinced was to act; and so he set about the task of carrying this vast scheme into execution. The result is well known. By his immense energy, the magnetic power with which he infused his own convictions into other minds, the direct, practical way in which he set about the work, and his indomitable perseverance, Mr. Sibley attained at last a phenomenal success.

But he was not then telling me anything about this. He was telling me of the construction of the telegraph line to the Pacific Coast. Here again Mr. Sibley had seen that which was hidden from others. This case differed from the former one in two important respects. Then Mr. Sibley had been dependent on the aid and co-operation of many persons; and this he had been able to secure. Now, he could not obtain help from a human being; but he had become able to act independently of any assistance.

He had made a careful study of the subject, in his thoroughly practical way, and had become convinced that such a line was feasible, and would be remunerative. At his instance a convention of telegraph men met in the city of New York, to consider the project. The feeling in this convention was extremely unfavorable to it. A committee reported against it unanimously, on three grounds--the country was destitute of timber, the line would be destroyed by the Indians, and if constructed and maintained, it would not pay expenses. Mr. Sibley found himself alone. An earnest appeal which he made from the report of the committee was received with derisive laughter. The idea of running a telegraph line through what was then a wilderness, roamed over for between one and two thousand miles of its breadth by bands of savages, who of course would destroy the line as soon as it was put up, and where repairs would be difficult and useless, even if the other objections to it were out of the way, struck the members of the convention as so exquisitely ludicrous that it seemed as if they would never be done laughing about it. If Mr. Sibley had advocated a line to the moon, they would hardly have seen in it greater evidence of lunacy. When he could be heard, he rose again and said: "Gentlemen, you may laugh, but if I was not so old, I would build the line myself." Upon this, of course, they laughed louder than ever. As they laughed, he grew mad, and shouted: "Gentlemen, I will bar the years, and do it." And he did it. Without help from any one, for every man who claimed a right to express an opinion upon it scouted the project as chimerical, and no capitalist would put a dollar in it, Hiram Sibley built the line of telegraph to San Francisco, risking in it all he had in the world. He set about the work with his customary energy, all obstacles vanished, and the line was completed in an incredibly short time. And from the day it was opened, it has proved probably the most profitable line of telegraph that has ever been constructed. There was the practicability, and there was the demand and the business to be done, and yet no living man could see it, or could be made to see it, except Hiram Sibley. "And to-day," he said, with honest pride, "to-day in New York, men to whom I went almost on my knees for help in building this line, and who would not give me a dollar, have solicited me to be allowed to buy stock in it at the rate of five dollars for one."

"But how about the Indians?" I asked. "Why," he replied, "we never had any trouble from the Indians. I knew we wouldn't have. Men who supposed I was such a fool as to go about this undertaking before that was all settled didn't know me. No Indian ever harmed that line. The Indians are the best friends we have got. You see, we taught the Indians the Great Spirit was in that line; and what was more, we proved it to them. It was, by all odds, the greatest medicine they ever saw. They fairly worshiped it. No Indian ever dared to do it harm."

"But," he added, "there was one thing I didn't count on. The border ruffians in Missouri are as bad as anybody ever feared the Indians might be. They have given us so much trouble that we are now building a line around that State, through Iowa and Nebraska. We are obliged to do it."

This opened another phase of the subject. The telegraph line to the Pacific had a value beyond that which could be expressed in money. It was perhaps the