Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the translator, who wrote from Mount Pleasant near Philadelphia on March 7, 1801: “. . . Permit me now to ask a place in your private Library, for the inclosed translations of a System of Artillery and Fortification, which I believe to be the most approved, in a Country where these branches of the Art military are in the highest perfection.--

"You will give me credit, Sir, for great Labour, & (I hope) for tolerable accuracy; but the technical nature of the works forbids any claim to literary honour. If they should tend to establish uniformity among the artists of our Country, they will combine efficacy with Oeconomy, and eventually render us in this respect independent of foreign aid.

"These Translations were gratuitously made at the request of the late Administration, but I have added to the latter one, an appendix of my own, with a model in Wood which I wish to deposit where it can best answer its object. It is, I presume, in compliment for those Services that the late President of the United States has honoured me with a Commission as Major in the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers . . .”

Jefferson replied from Washington on March 14: “ Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to Major Williams for the books he has been so kind as to send him. he will be very happy to see the corps of which he is a member profit by his example and pursue the line of information he has so well pointed out . . . ”

Heinrich Otto von Scheel, 1745-1807, Prussian military officer. The first edition of this work was published in Copenhagen in 1777.

Jonathan Williams, 1750-1815. See no. 649.

Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the author, who wrote him from Kalorama, on February 24, 1810: “So soon as I published my pamphlet on Torpedoes at New York, I sent 12 of them to Mr. Madison, begging of him to forward one to you. I have the pleasure now to send you four copies for yourself and friends, with a copy of my address after a lecture which I delivered on the engines and their utility . . . It will give me great pleasure to hear from you by letter to New York and particularly to know whether my publication has had any tendency to increase your faith in the practicability and utility of torpedoes . . .”

Jefferson replied from Monticello on March 17, 1810: “ I have duly recieved your favor of Feb. 24. covering one of your pamphlets on the Torpedo. I have read it with pleasure. this was not necessary to give them favor in my eye. I am not afraid of new inventions or improvements, nor bigotted to the practices of our forefathers. it is that bigotry which keeps the Indians in a state of barbarism in the midst of the arts, would have kept us in the same state even now, and still keeps ”