The friendship I formed with him in 1849 lasted till his death, more than forty years afterward.
The mechanics of Worcester were unsurpassed for their ingenuity anywhere on the face of the earth.

Worcester was the centre and home of invention.

Within a circle of twelve miles radius was the home of Blanchard, the inventor of the machine for turning irregular forms; of Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine; of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, which doubled the value of every acre of cotton-producing land in the country; of Erastus B.Bigelow, the inventor of the carpet machine; of Hawes, the inventor of the envelope machine; of Crompton and Knowles, the creators and perfectors of the modern loom; of Ruggles, Nourse and Mason, in whose establishment the modern plow was brought to perfection, and a great variety of other agricultural implements invented and improved.

There were many other men whose inventive genius and public usefulness were entitled to rank with these.

The first house-warming furnace was introduced here, and the second cupola furnace was set up near by.
These inventors and mechanics were all men of great public spirit, proud of Worcester, of its great achievements, and its great hope.