March 23 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers

There is a very pleasant American named Wood nibbling at my option [for the Szczepanik loom invention]. Of course he does not know the length of the option nor the price, & he does not expect to get hold of those details at present; all he wants now is a promise that if my New York friends decline to buy my option, the American carpet man whom he represents shall have the next chance to make me a bid. I am to think about it till day after tomorrow & then let him know [MTHHR 334]. Note: see Mar. 18 notebook entry about William M. Wood. The rest of the letter details the interaction with Wood and developments on the Raster machine.

Sam’s Mar. 24 to Rogers relates that Ludwig Kleinberg arrived at Sam’s hotel suite at 8:30 p.m. with an English-speaking secretary. Sam asked questions about the “auxiliary invention,” the improved version of the Raster he called “No. 2”:

It is a machine. It automatically punches the holes in the Jacquard cards, & does it with mathematical accuracy. It will do for $1 what now costs $3. So it has value, but “No. 1” is the great thing—(the designing-invention) It saves $9 out of $10, and the Jacquard looms must have it. …

So then we talked—talked till pretty late. Would Germany & England join the combination? I said the Company would know how to persuade them.

Then I asked for a Supplementary Option, to cover the world, and we parted [MTP; MTHHR 339].