DEDICATION.
To Walter Shanly, M. P.
Indebted to you for the resources which have enabled me to investigate the properties of Nitro-Glycerin, and render its manufacture a commercial success, permit me to dedicate the following pages in token of my appreciation of the indomitable energy, admirable organization, integrity of purpose, and engineering talent which have rescued the Hoosac Tunnel from the mire of politics and rendered it an engineering success; notwithstanding extraordinary impediments of flood, water fissures, strikes, jealousy and indifference on the part of those chiefly interested, that must have been most disheartening to your mind, and challenged a resolution and resources seldom combined with the abilities you have shewn in this work. Our relations during the past three years having been without a ripple, render this, my simple duty, an agreeable task.