was not so much my purpose to seek pleasure as the determination to turn
my eight years of experience in the United States to some avenue of
profitable livelihood, that decided me to make the journey, although I
looked forward with no small degree of pleasant anticipation to meeting
some of my fellow students in the Académie des Sciences in Paris, where
I had received five years of excellent training.

My trip across and my subsequent arrival in Paris were without any
events of particular interest, and one bright morning in the early
summer I found myself comfortably lodged in the house where I had
previously boarded while a student. Connected with my rooms, which were
at the top of the house, was one of considerable size that I had
formerly used as a laboratory, and this I now set about fitting up to
serve the same purpose. The daylight found its way into the room through
a skylight, and though admirably suited for an artist's studio, it
answered my purpose equally as well.

I had collected many new instruments and appliances by dint of days
spent in shopping, and was anxious to begin work in earnest, when one
evening, as I glanced through the columns of a newspaper, my attention
was arrested by an article of particular interest. This set forth the
great and increasing demand for a substitute for glass, one which would
answer the purpose in every respect, and at the same time be
indestructible and a good conductor of sound. The article concluded with
an enumeration of the many uses for which such a substitute would be
invaluable, hinting at the enormous financial possibilities which would
be open to the inventor. The more I considered the matter, the more
desirous I became to test several theories which forthwith presented
themselves to my mind, and the next morning found me determined to begin
my experiments at once. In theory, I saw the solution of the problem in