Passing through the streets of Boston the other day, I made some more enquiries concerning a hot air stove for our Church. On the other page of this sheet you will find a print of the only wood stove I have seen or heard of. The handle at the top moves a damper which is kept open till the fire burns fiercely, then it is closed & the heat is forced to pass through those curved pipes & thus its transferred to a large volume of air. This furnace is to be set in a brick apartment something like one of our old brick ovens. The air in this cell is heated & then passes off by a tin pipe to the room you wish to heat, while the smoke & gases pass off into the outer air by another sheet iron pipe. The price of this stove is $65.00 here. I do not like this pattern for our case. I do not think that the foundation of our wall ought to be disturbed lest we get a crack. Many of the coal stoves have a sheet iron cap (instead of a brick one) & such, if I can find one, wd suit us much better, as it might be introduced into a pit & trenches dug under the floor of the Church, thro a hole cut into the floor in one of the side closets. Some thought of going through the Pulpit, but then the opening cd not be used for making up the fire. Ought not some repost be had on the suitability of the stove advertised in Greensboro? The ladies offered to put fifty dollars in my hands when I came away, & so anxious are they to have warmth in our Church that I would have their desires gratified if possible.

I was glad to hear of your safe return from a very pleasant trip, & shd have written to you before this had I not been told that you were to write to me right away. I have written however frequently and fully concerning what I have seen & heard while here, & doubtless my correspondents wd show you my letters if you thought them worthy of attention. As to my peculiar businesshere, I have not done very much. The sessions all around were just closing & now they are just beginning. So from inspection I can say but little. But I do believe that we can do really as well at C. Hill as they do anywhere that I have heard of hereabouts, although our pretensions be not so high, & Mr Hedrick thinks so too. President Sparks gave me his views pretty fully entirely in favour of our project, as one needed, likely to be of great utility, and as established at the best point in all the South, but every thing cannot be settled at once, & no intimations given of possible failure. I see that the ex President thinks that there is no harm in managing the public provided the public is so benefited. Don't others practice so too? I am very busy pursuing the applications of my mathematics & do not find such hard work as I feared. The drawing takes up much time. I take lessons in landscape as well as in machinery, & shall also learn to use colours. I can understand the truthfulness of Major Gwynn's complaint that the Schools send out drawing masters but not Engineers, the young men here spend, I shd say, waste a great deal of time at their drawing boards. Handsome pictures look well on the sides of a drawing room, but what if the plans for a bridge, or a factory wheel do have hard lines in them. One of my fellows here showed me a picture which cost him the time of six weeks, & the tedium of applying two hundred coats of India Ink. No wonder that he was slow & bungling in telling about lines of the second order, & although he had been through the Calculus was still in doubt as to du/dx. Yet such attainments are showy, & attract attention, & Pres. Sparks says we mustn't be as nice at first as we may afterwards when students are plenty. But I shd greatly prefer having at first a few first rate fellows who will work & won't grumble, & by them get a reputation for correct mathematical teaching & a sufficiency of neat & accurate drawing. I wish that R. Battle & Alexander wd study with me. I hope that you will write to me often, fully & freely, suggesting points for enquire here & elsewhere. I shall visit Yale & Brown in Septr or Octr

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