August, 14, 1876.

My dear beloved wife, Charlotte.

How I miss you my sweet thing. It has been three months since we last saw each other's faces before my departure to America from St. Nazaire.

How is the family taking my prolonged absence?
As you could tell from the date of this correspondence that my 67'th birthday came and went (and what a melancholy time it was) two days before I put ink to paper here.
I must not dwell on such despondent
things. I have to let you know that there have been wonderful events and spectacles that I have witnessed and even partaken of here in the United States of America.

I am writing to you from the American city of Philadelphia, and what a grand spectacle the Americans have put on to
celebrate the centennial of their Declaration of Independence.
I am flattered that many Americans, both common and well-known have approached me out of recognition to thank me for bringing to pass some of the marvels of science and engineering
on display, or that have been marvelously demonstrated and utilized here in the past few months.

They exaggerate my influence of course.
I do not deserve a fraction of the credit
that deservedly goes to others involved in bringing to pass the many spectacular achievements and artifices
that have been revealed at this Philadelphia Exhibition.
How can they give me credit for that
astonishing 250-meter-long American airship that is capable of crossing over the Atlantic nonstop?
Not one centime of mine was invested
in the planning nor construction of that
aeronautical marvel.
If any Frenchman deserves credit for such a machine coming to pass, it has to go to Baron Giffard. I still clearly remember that September day back in the year 1852 when I witnessed his first effort to conquer the air.

And I certainly don't deserve credit
for inventing or even developing wireless telegraphy. That credit goes to that American dentist, Monsieur Mahlon Loomis, and his British rival, Professeur
Crookes. It was my brother Maurice
who brought Monsieur Loomis' device to the attention of American naval officers; and it
was that circumstance that led wireless telegraphy to become a practical proposition, giving the American navy a brief tactical advantage
over other fleets a few years ago.

Perhaps I can claim credit for the development of sensitive dryplate still-photography and its animated version when I put up prize money in 1867 in the amount of 3,000 francs to anyone who could develop dryplate photographs that
were both durable and sensitive enough to record images taken in a fraction of a second.

When that prize money was claimed by
Monsieur Fry from England, back in 1870, it would be fair to give credit to my
brother Henri for taking that sensitive dryplate invention and process and making a practical photographic Phenakistoscope and Daedalum out of them. Yet I'm sure my brother would
remark, justifiably so, that his accomplishment only combined devices and chemicals and methods already available at that time. And how can any of us take credit for that worm-gear mounted cylindrical version of the photographic Daedalum invented by that American, Monsieur Richard Gatling?
Monsieur Gatling has been so kind as to have imaged? photographed? recorded? my motions and imagery for up to a minute on that revolutionary device of his.

I hope you get a good laugh one day seeing my ridiculous and awkward
gestures, hand waves & hat doffings recorded on the 1,200 glass-plates on one of those devices of his. To be more accurate, the projecting version of his device.

As for those who give me credit for
starting the exploration and penetration
of the aetherous regions above our atmosphere by means of liquid-fueled rocketry? I confess I played a certain
important role in its development over the past 34 years, yet that admission overlooks the brilliance, perseverence, skillfulness, dedication and courage
of more people on both sides of the Atlantic than I could possibly list in this correspondence who truly made it all possible.

Be that as it may, I do wish, my darling that you had been able to share in my awe and delight in those things I have witnessed in the United States of America this summer. For I perceive that
those things have accelerated the efforts of science and engineering in years to come in ways I cannot yet clearly foresee. Who among men can?

God willing, I will be with you my
beloved before the end of September.
Do let my two brothers and three sisters know that I am physically well at this time.

With my exceeding fondness & love for thee.
Your loving husband, Charles-Philippe



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