Samuel Brown to Thomas Jefferson, 10 November 1805
From Samuel Brown
Lexington Novr. 10th 1805
Sir,
I ought, perhaps, to apologise for the liberty I have taken in enclosing to you the Memoir on Nitre & Gun Powder at a time when the important concerns of Government are likely to engage so much of your attention. As the Secretary of the Navy, however, did me the honor to ask my opinion concerning the probable causes of the defects of those articles I was desirous of evincing my readiness to comply with his request & have therefore to beg that you will submit the sheets to his inspection & if you think them deserving the notice of the Philosophical Society, I am confident they would be read with much endulgence after having passed through your hands.
With sentiments of the highest esteem I have the honor to be Yours.
Sam Brown
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Mr Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 30 Nov. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: “A Description of a Cave on Crooked Creek, with Remarks and Observations on Nitre and Gun-Powder,” which was subsequently published in , Transactions, 6 (1809), 235-47.
TJ sent copies of Brown’s Memoir to Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours and to the American Philosophical Society in January 1806 (TJ to du Pont, 17 Jan. 1806; TJ to Thomas T. Hewson, 21 Jan. 1806; , Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884-85], 382).
ask my opinion: Robert Smith wrote to Brown on 2 Mch. 1805 regarding a possible gunpowder contract with the navy. The powder generally used tended to absorb moisture at sea, Smith explained, which destroyed “all its active & efficient qualities.” Informed that poor-quality saltpeter was the likely culprit and understanding that saltpeter from Kentucky was of “very superior quality,” Smith hoped that Brown could help to “remedy the defect which we have heretofore experienced” (Tr in Lb in DNA: RG 45, MLS).