from his cottage, and who but a few days before had spoken to him with more of kindness than he had received of late.  This gentleman, he thought, would aid him in his distress, if he could but reach his house, but in such a snow the journey seemed hopeless to a man in his feeble health.  Still the effort must be made.  Nerved by despair, he set out, and pushed his way resolutely through the heavy drifts.  The way was long, and it seemed to him that he would never accomplish it.  Often he fell prostrate on the snow, almost fainting with fatigue and hunger, and again he would sit down wearily in the road, feeling that he would gladly die if his discovery were but completed.  At length, however, he reached the end of his journey, and fortunately found his acquaintance at home.  To this gentleman he told the story of his discovery, his hopes, his struggles, and his present sufferings, and implored him to aid him.  Mr. Coolidge[A]—­for such was the gentleman’s name—­listened to him kindly, and after expressing the warmest sympathy for him, loaned him money enough to support his family during the severe weather, and to enable him to continue his experiments.

[Footnote A:  O.B.  Coolidge, of Woburn.]

“Seeing no prospect of success in Massachusetts, he now resolved to make a desperate effort to get to New York, feeling confident that the specimens he could take with him would convince some one of the superiority of his new method.  He was beginning to understand the causes of his many failures, but he saw clearly that his compound could not be worked with certainty without expensive apparatus.  It was a very delicate operation, requiring exactness and promptitude.  The conditions upon which success depended were numerous, and the failure of one spoiled all....  It cost him thousands of failures to learn that a little acid in his sulphur caused the blistering; that his compound must be heated almost immediately after being mixed, or it would never vulcanize; that a portion of white lead in the compound greatly facilitated the operation and improved the result; and when he had learned these facts, it still required costly and laborious experiments to devise the best methods of compounding his ingredients, the best proportions, the best mode of heating, the proper duration of the heating, and the various useful effects that could be produced by varying the proportions and the degree of heat.  He tells us that many times when, by exhausting every resource, he had prepared a quantity of his compound for heating, it was spoiled because he could not, with his inadequate apparatus, apply the heat soon enough.