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