"What did they do with the works when they bought them?"
"They took the brick that was on the cars and hauled them to other places, I suppose, and I don't know where they threw the still. They kept that leased property during the five years for a junk-yard. I went the next day to see him, and pressed him about it the best I could. I could not accomplish anything; he appeared to be busy, or kept out of the way. I kept chasing to his office. I tried to catch him and talk over what I should depend on, where we were going to build; but he kept out of the way. He said he had not seen their folks. In July, 1879, more than three years after our contract in New York, he said they had had a meeting of all their wise-heads, and they had called in chemists, and they all unanimously agreed that oil could not be made by a continuous process, and gave that as a reason for not furnishing the money to build these works. I said, in reply, 'I am not responsible for the knowledge that the "oil combination" has for refining oil; neither would I exchange mine for all they have got combined. You said you would furnish me the money and build these works, and do as you had agreed to do.' I walked out. That was about the last I had to say to him on that subject."
"Did you after that build, or undertake to build, an oil refinery to test your continuous process?"
"Yes, sir; in connection with a German. He was going to build a small refinery. He said he would build it my way, if I would let him use it in the new way. He constructed it on that principle; but he was slow—he was a very slow man to deal with. We ran ... twenty days without stopping" (to clean out the stills).
"And it actually ran that length of time?"
"Yes, sir."
"What became of these works?"
"Hauled off to the junk-yard"—by one of the companies in the combination. It "bought them out after we just got them under way, and then tore them down and hauled them off."
"You then brought them up to Buffalo, and tried to put them into the Solar Works?"
"Yes, sir."