Introduction to the Whitworth Works. Sketch of Mr. Whitworth.
Experience in the Whitworth Works. Our Agreement which was never
Executed. First Engine in England Transmitting Power by a Belt.
I was still debating with myself what course to take, when I received
a note from Mr. W. J. Hoyle, secretary of the Whitworth Company,
inquiring if I were free from any entanglement with the affairs of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co., to which I was able to make a satisfactory
reply. Mr. Hoyle was then a stranger to me. It appeared that he was
an accomplished steam engineer, and had been employed as an expert
to test one of my engines in operation, an engine which we had made
for a mill-owner in Bradford. He had been very favorably impressed by
the engine, so much so as to form this scheme. He had been with the
Whitworth Company only a short time, and was struck with the small
amount of work they were doing in their tool department; and after
his observation of the engine at Bradford, learning of the stoppage
of Ormerod, Grierson & Co., it occurred to him that it would be a
good thing for his company to undertake the manufacture of these
engines. After receiving my answer to his preliminary inquiry, having
Mr. Whitworth, as he afterwards told me, where he could not get away,
on a trip from London to Manchester, he laid the plan before him and
talked him into it. I directly after received an invitation to meet Mr.
Whitworth at his office, and here commenced what I verily believed was
one of the most remarkable experiences that any man ever had.
[Illustration: WILLIAM J. HOYLE]
In the course of our pretty long interview, which terminated with
the conclusion of a verbal agreement, Mr. Whitworth talked with me
quite freely, and told me several things that surprised me. One was
the frank statement that he divided all other toolmakers in the world
into two classes, one class who copied him without giving him any
credit, and the other class who had the presumption to imagine that
they could improve on him. His feelings towards both these classes
evidently did not tend to make him happy. Another thing, which I heard
without any sign of my amazement, was that he had long entertained the
purpose of giving to the world the perfect steam-engine. “That is,” he
explained, “an engine embodying all those essential principles to which
steam-engine builders must sooner or later come.” This, he stated,
had been necessarily postponed while he was engaged in developing his
system of artillery, but he was nearing the completion of that work and
should then be able to devote himself to it.
I cannot perhaps do better than stop here and give my impressions of
Mr. Whitworth. He was in all respects a phenomenal man. As an engineer,
or rather a toolmaker, he addressed himself to all fundamental
constructive requirements and problems, and comprehended everything
in his range and grasp of thought, continually seeking new fields to
conquer. Long after the period here referred to he closed his long
and wonderful career by giving to the world the hollow engine shaft
and the system of hydraulic forging. At that time he was confidently
anticipating the adoption by all nations of his system of artillery.
He had made an immense advance, from spherical shot, incapable of
accurate aim and having a high trajectory, to elongated shot, swiftly
rotating in its flight and having a comparatively flat trajectory,
and which could hit the mark and penetrate with destructive effect
at distances of several miles. These fundamental features of modern
artillery thus originated with Mr. Whitworth. All his other features
have been superseded, but his elongated pointed rotating projectile
will remain until nations shall learn war no more; a time which in
the gradual development of humanity cannot be far away. Before I
left England, however, he had abandoned his artillery plans in most
bitter disappointment. He had met the English official mind. By the
authorities of the war and navy departments it had been unanimously
decided that what England wanted was, not accuracy of aim and
penetration at long range, but smashing effects at close quarters.
The record of that is to be found in the proceedings of the House of
Commons in 1868, only thirty-nine years ago. Think of that!
Mr. Whitworth was not only the most original engineering genius
that ever lived. He was also a monumental egotist. His fundamental
idea was always prominent, that he had taught the world not only
all that it knew mechanically, but all it ever could know. His fury
against tool-builders who improved on his plans was most ludicrous.
He drew no distinction between principles and details. He must not
be departed from even in a single line. No one in his works dared
to think. This disposition had a striking illustration only a short
time--less than a year--before I went there. He had no children. His
nearest relatives were two nephews, W. W. and J. E. Hulse. The latter
was a tool-manufacturer in Salford. W. W. Hulse was Mr. Whitworth’s
superintendent, and had been associated with him for twenty-four
years, for a long time as his partner, the firm being Joseph Whitworth
& Company. Lately the business had been taken over by a corporation
formed under the style of the Whitworth Company, and Mr. Hulse became
the general superintendent.
Mr. Whitworth was taken sick, and for a while was not expected to live,
and no one thought, even if he did get better, that he would ever be
able to visit his works again. Mr. Hulse had been chafing under his
restraint, and during Mr. Whitworth’s absence proceeded to make a few
obvious improvements in their tools, such, for example, as supporting
the table of their shaper, so that it would not yield under the cut. To
the surprise of every one, Mr. Whitworth got well, and after more than
six months’ absence, he appeared again at the works. Walking through,
he noted the changes that had been made, sent for Mr. Hulse, discharged
him on the spot, and ordered everything restored to its original form.
To return now to my own experience. Since Mr. Whitworth had been
absorbed in his artillery development he had given only a cursory
oversight to the tool manufacture. Mr. Hulse had been succeeded as
superintendent by a man named Widdowson, whose only qualification for
his position was entire subserviency to Mr. Whitworth.
[Illustration: Sir JOSEPH WHITWORTH]
My drawings and patterns were purchased by the Whitworth Company, and
I was installed with one draftsman in a separate office, and prepared
to put the work in hand at once for a 12×24-inch engine for the Paris
Exposition, where Ormerod, Grierson & Co. had secured the space, and
the drawings for which I had completed. If I remember rightly, the
patterns were finished also. While I was getting things in order, Mr.
Widdowson came into my office, and in a very important manner said
to me: “You must understand, sir, that we work here to the decimal
system and all drawings must be conformed to it.” I received this
order meekly, and we went to work to make our drawings all over, for
the single purpose of changing their dimensions from binary to decimal
divisions of the inch. There was of course quite a body of detail
drawings, and to make these over, with the pains required to make these
changes to an unaccustomed system, and make and mount the tracings,
took us nearly three weeks. When finished I took the roll of tracings
to Mr. Widdowson’s office. He was not in, and I left them for him. An
hour or so later he came puffing and blowing into my office with the
drawings. He was a heavy man, and climbing upstairs exhausted him. When
he got his breath, he broke out: “We can’t do anything with these.
Haven’t got a decimal gauge in the shop.” “You gave me express orders
to make my drawings to the decimal system.” “Damn it, I meant in halves
and quarters and all that, and _write_ them decimals.” So all that work
and time were thrown away, and we had to make a new set of tracings
from the drawings I had brought, in order to figure the dimensions in
decimals. He told me afterwards that when Mr. Whitworth commenced the
manufacture of cylindrical gauges he made them to the decimal divisions
of the inch, imagining that was a better mode of division than that
by continual bisection, and supposing that he had influence enough to
effect the change. But nobody would buy his gauges. He had to call them
in and make what people wanted. “And now,” said Mr. Widdowson, “there
is not a decimal gauge in the world.” He knew, too, for up to that time
they made them all. So Mr. Whitworth could make a mistake, and I found
that this was not the worst one that he had made.
While time was being wasted in this manner, the subject of
manufacturing the governors came up. Mr. Whitworth concluded that he
would first try one on his own shop engine, so one was bought from
Ormerod, Grierson & Co. I had a message from Mr. Widdowson to come to
the shop and see my governor. It was acting in a manner that I had
seen before, the counterpoise rising and dropping to its seat twice
every time the belt lap came around. “Total failure, you see,” said Mr.
Widdowson, “and I got a new belt for it, too.” I saw a chance to make
an interesting observation, and asked him if he would get an old belt
and try that. This he did, lapping the ends as before about 18 inches,
according to the universal English custom, which I had long before
found it necessary carefully to avoid. As I knew would be the case,
the action was not improved at all. I then cut off the lap, butted the
ends of the belt, and laced them in the American style, and lo! the
trouble vanished. The governor stood motionless, only floating up and
down slightly with the more important changes of load. Mr. Whitworth
was greatly pleased, and at once set about their manufacture, in a full
line of sizes.
He made the change, to which I have referred already, from the
urn shape to the semi-spherical form of the counterpoise. In this
connection he laid the law down to me in this dogmatic fashion: “Let no
man show me a mechanical form for which he cannot give me a mechanical
reason.” But Jove sometimes nods. They were to exhibit in Paris a large
slotting-machine. The form of the upright did not suit Mr. Whitworth
exactly. He had the pattern set up in the erecting-shop, and a board
tacked on the side, cut to an outline that he directed. He came to look
at it every day for a week, and ordered some change or other. Finally
it was gotten to his mind, the pattern was altered accordingly, and
a new casting made. This was set up in the shop, and I happened to
be present when he came to see it. “Looks like a horse that has been
taught to hold his head up,” said he. “Mechanical reason,” thought I,
fresh from my lesson. When finished the slotting-machine was tried in
the shop, and found to yield in the back. The tool sprang away from its
work and rounded the corner. Mr. Whitworth had whittled the pattern
away and ruined it. Instead of being sent to Paris, it was broken up.
My experiment with the governor proved the defect in the English system
of lacing belts. Every machine in the land, of whatever kind, tool or
loom or spinning or drawing frame, or whatever it was, driven by a
belt, halted in its motion every time the lap in the belt passed over
a pulley, sufficiently to drop my governor, when the same motion was
given to it, and no one had ever observed this irregularity.
I thought they would never be ready to set about work on the engine.
First, Mr. Widdowson ordered that every casting and forging, large
and small, must be in the shop before one of them was put in hand.
After this was done I found a number of men at work making sheet-iron
templets of everything. I saw one man filing the threads in the edges
of a templet for a ³⁄₈-inch bolt. When these were all finished and
stamped, an operation that took quite a week, a great fuss was made
about commencing work on everything simultaneously.
I went into the shop to see what was going on. The first thing to
attract my attention was the steam-chest, then made separate from the
cylinder. A workman--their best fitter, as I afterwards learned--was
engaged in planing out the cavities in which the exhaust valves worked.
I saw no center line, and asked him where it was. He had never heard
of such a thing. “What do you measure from?” “From the side of the
casting.” I called his attention to the center line on the drawing,
from which all the measurements were taken, and told him all about it.
He seemed very intelligent, and under my direction set the chest up
on a plane table and made a center line around it and another across
it, and set out everything from these lines, and I left him going on
finely. An hour later I looked in again. He was about his job in the
old way. To my question he explained that his foreman had come around
and told him I had no business in the shop, that _he_ gave him his
directions, and he must finish his job just as he began it.
I made no reply but went to Mr. Hoyle’s office, and asked him if he
knew what they were doing in the shop. He smiled and said, “I suppose
they are finally making an engine for you.” “No, they are not.” “What
are they doing?” “Making scrap iron.” “What do you mean?” I told him
the situation. He took his hat and went out, saying, “I must see this
myself.”
A couple of hours later he sent for me, and told me this. “I have been
all around the works and seen all that is doing. It is all of the same
piece. I have had a long interview with Mr. Widdowson, and am sorry to
tell you that we can’t make your engine; we don’t know how. It seems to
be entirely out of our line. The intelligence does not exist in these
works to make a steam-engine. Nobody knows how to set about anything.
I have stopped the work, and want to know what you think had better be
done about it?” I asked him to let me think the matter over till the
next morning. I then went to him and suggested to him to let me find
a skilled locomotive-erecter who was also a trained draftsman, and to
organize a separate department for the engine and governor manufacture,
and put this man at the head of it, to direct it without interference.
This was gladly agreed to. I found a young man, Mr. John Watts, who
proved to be the very man for the place. In a week we were running
under Mr. Watts’ direction, and the engine was saved. But what a time
the poor man had! Everything seemed to be done wrong. It is hardly to
be believed. He could not get a rod turned round, or a hole bored round.
In their toolmaking they relied entirely on grinding with “Turkey
dust.” I once saw a gang of a dozen laborers working a long
grinding-bar, in the bore, 10 inches diameter by 8 feet long, in the
tailstock of an enormous lathe. I peered through this hole when the bar
was withdrawn. It looked like a ploughed field. Scattered over it here
and there were projections which had been ground off by these laborers.
On the other hand, the planing done in these works was magnificent. I
never saw anything to equal it. But circular work beat them entirely.
I found that the lathe hands never thought of such a thing as getting
any truth by the sliding cut. After that they went for the surface with
coarse files, and relied for such approximate truth as they did get
upon grinding with the everlasting Turkey dust.
Mr. Whitworth invented the duplex lathe tool, but I observed that they
never used it. I asked Mr. Widdowson why this was. “Because,” said
he, “the duplex tool will not turn round.” After a while I found out
why. When our engine was finished, Mr. Widdowson set it upon two lathe
beds and ran it. Lucky that he did. The bottom of the engine bed was
planed, and it could be leveled nicely on the flat surfaces of their
lathe beds. The fly-wheel ran nearly a quarter of an inch out of truth.
He set up some tool-boxes on one of the lathe beds, and turned the rim
off in place, both sides and face being out. That, of course, made it
run perfectly true. I asked the lathe hand how he could turn out such
a job. He replied, “Come and see my lathe.” I found the spindle quite
an eighth of an inch loose in the main bearing, the wear of twenty
or thirty years. He told me all of the lathes in the works were in a
similar condition. That explained many things. The mystery of those
gear patterns was solved. Every spindle in the gear-cutting machine
was wabbling loose in its holes. I can’t call them bearings. Now it
appeared why they could not use the duplex tools. With a tool cutting
on one side, they relied on the pressure of the cut to keep the lathe
spindle in contact with the opposite side of its main bearing, and a
poor reliance that was, but with a tool cutting on each side, fancy
the situation. Then boring a true hole was obviously impossible. The
workmen became indifferent; they had no reamers, relied entirely on
grinding. I asked, Why do you not renew these worn-out bushings? but
could never get an answer to the question. Some power evidently forbade
it, and the fact is that no man about the place dared to think of such
a thing as intimating to Mr. Whitworth that one of his lathe bearings
required any fixing up, or that it was or could be anything short of
perfect. He (Mr. Whitworth) had designed it as a perfect thing; ergo,
it was perfect, and no man dared say otherwise.
Our engine work was finally, as a last resort, done by Mr. Watts on new
lathes, made for customers and used for a month or two before they were
sent out. Not only in England, but on the Continent and in America, the
Whitworth Works were regarded as the perfect machine-shop. I remember
a visit I had at the Paris Exposition from Mr. Elwell, of the firm
of Varrell, Elwell & Poulot, proprietors of the largest mechanical
establishment in Paris. After expressing his unbounded admiration of
the running of the engine, he said, “I warrant your fly-wheel runs
true.” After observing it critically, he exclaimed, “Ah, they do those
things at Whitworth’s!”
The fact was Mr. Whitworth had cursed the British nation with the solid
conical lathe-spindle bearing, a perfect bearing for ordinary-sized
lathes and a most captivating thing--_when new_. These hardened steel
cones, in hardened steel seats, ran in the most charming manner. But
they wore more loose in the main bearing every day they ran, and there
were no means for taking up the wear. It came on insensibly, and no
one paid any attention to it. The cream of the joke was that people
were so fascinated with this bearing that at that time no other could
be sold in England, except for very large lathes. All toolmakers had
to make it. I remember afterwards that Mr. Freeland, our best American
toolmaker, who, as I have already mentioned, went to England and worked
for some years as a journeyman in the Whitworth Works for the purpose
of learning everything there that he could, did _not_ bring back to
America the conical bearing.
The firm of Smith & Coventry were the first to fit their lathes with
the means for taking up this wear, which took place only in the main
bearing, where both the force of the cut and the weight of the piece
were received. They made the conical seat for the back end of the
spindle adjustable in the headstock and secured it by a thin nut on
each end. This then could be moved backward sufficiently to let the
forward cone up to its seat. This made it possible to use the solid
bearing, but it involved this error, that after this adjustment the
axis of the spindle did not coincide with the line connecting the lathe
centers; but the two lines formed an angle with each other, which grew
more decided every time the wear was taken up. This, however, was
infinitely better than not to take up the wear at all.
At that time the Whitworth Works were divided into four departments.
These were screwing machinery, gauges, guns and machine tools. The
first three of these were locked. I never entered either of them. The
latter also, like most works in England, was closed to outsiders.
No customer could see his work in progress. This department was
without a head or a drawing-office. It seemed to be running it on its
traditions. I once said to Mr. Hoyle, “There must at some time have
been here mechanical intelligence of the highest order, but where is
it?” They had occasionally an order for something out of their ancient
styles, and their attempts to fill such orders were always ruinous.
The following is a fair illustration. They had an order for a radial
drill to be back-geared and strong enough to bore an 8-inch hole. Mr.
Widdowson had the pattern for the upright fitted with the necessary
brackets, and thought it was such a good thing that he would make two.
The first one finished was tried in the shop, and all the gears in the
arm were stripped. He woke up to the fact that he had forgotten to
strengthen the transmitting parts, and moreover that the construction
would not admit anything stronger. There was nothing to be done but
to decline the order, chip off the brackets, and make these into
single-speed drills. This I saw being done.
Mr. Widdowson told me the following amusing story. The London _Times_
had heard of the wonderful performance of Mr. Hoe’s multiple-cylinder
press, and concluded to have one of them of the largest size, ten
cylinders. But, of course, Mr. Hoe did not know how to make his own
presses. His work would do well enough for ignorant Americans, but
not for an English Journal. The press must be made in England in the
world-renowned Whitworth Works.
Mr. Hoe sent over one of his experts to give them the information they
might need, but they would not let him in the shop. Mr. Hulse told him
they had the drawings and specifications and that was all they needed.
When the press was finished they set it up in the shop and attempted
to run it. The instant it started every tape ran off its pulleys, and
an investigation showed that not a spindle or shaft was parallel with
any other. They had no idea of the method that must be employed to
ensure this universal alignment. After enormous labor they got these
so that they were encouraged to make another trial, when after a few
revolutions every spindle stuck fast in its bearings.
Mr. Whitworth, absorbed in his artillery and spending most of his time
in London, of course had no knowledge of how things were going on in
his shop, of the utter want of ordinary intelligence.
I formed a scheme for an application of Mr. Whitworth’s system of end
measurement to the production of an ideally perfect dividing-wheel. In
this system Mr. Whitworth employed what he termed “the gravity piece.”
This was a small steel plate about ¹⁄₈ of an inch in thickness, the
opposite sides of which were parallel and had the most perfectly true
and smooth surfaces that could be produced by scraping. The ends of
the piece to be tested were perfectly squared, by a method which I
will not stop here to describe, and were finished in the same manner.
The gravity piece was held fast between two such surfaces. None of the
pieces were permitted to be touched by hand while an observation was
being made. If now one of these pieces were loosened the millionth of
an inch, the gravity piece would slide slowly down. If loosened two
millionths of an inch, the gravity piece would descend twice as fast,
and so on. I made a design for the application of this system to the
correction of the dividing-wheel, so that a difference of pitch of one
millionth of an inch could be shown and removed, the gravity piece
being made to descend at the same rate of motion to whatever tooth it
might be applied. I thought Mr. Whitworth would be interested in this
novel and important application of his method, and I showed it to him.
This was the encouraging and patronizing reply I received: “You had
better inform yourself, sir, about what already exists. You will find a
perfect dividing-wheel in my shop. What do you want better than that?”
This wheel had divided my governor gear patterns, but spindles wabbling
loose in their holes accounted for most of their defects.
The above recital is sufficient to show the conditions by which I found
myself surrounded and the kind of man I had to deal with.
It may be supposed that when my agreement with Mr. Whitworth was
concluded, the disappointment I had experienced on the stoppage of
Ormerod, Grierson & Co. was quite relieved. But that does not express
it. In fact, my revulsion of feeling could hardly be described. I
believed that I had met a piece of good fortune that was unparalleled.
I had got into the most famous machine-shop in the world, a shop in
which in years gone by had been originated almost everything then
regarded as most essential in machine construction. No one had ever
before introduced anything into that shop. Its business, in its various
departments, was confined to the manufacture of Mr. Whitworth’s own
creations. I should never have dreamed of such a thing as getting into
it. That I was there, and had been received so cordially, bewildered
me. I could scarcely believe it.
I knew also that Mr. Whitworth’s name was a tower of strength. His
influence with the public at large respecting everything mechanical
seemed really that of a magician. I felt that the fact that the
manufacture of my engine and governor had been taken up by Mr.
Whitworth placed them on an eminence at once.
I was conscious also that I was quite prepared to improve this
opportunity, grand as it seemed to be. The engine had been abundantly
proved. The success of the condenser I felt sure of, a confidence that
was found to have been fully justified. Everything on my part was in
readiness. The drawings and patterns for several sizes of the engines
were complete. I was certainly excusable for anticipating that I should
enter at once upon a rapidly growing and prosperous business.
With my rude awakening from this “dream of bliss” the reader has
already been made acquainted. The causes which had brought these works,
so far as their machine-tool department was concerned, down from such
a height of excellence as they must for a long time have occupied, to
such a depth of ignorance and helplessness as existed on my entrance
into them, I never fully knew. I heard that some years before there
had been an extensive strike in the works, and that Mr. Whitworth
had discharged a large body of skilled workmen and had filled their
places with laborers. They had a pretty large drawing-office--empty.
I was told that until a short time before my coming they had kept one
draftsman employed, but no one paid any attention to his drawings. Mr.
Widdowson regarded them merely as suggestions, and he and the foreman
pattern-maker altered them as they liked, and finally the farce of
having drawings made at all was abandoned. It was not found difficult
to run these closely shut works for a long time on their reputation.
The state of affairs was distressing enough. The few engines that we
could manage to finish we could only build, in many of their parts, on
new lathes, which were used by them as long as they dared to, before
sending them to their owners. But I kept up a brave heart. At any rate
the personal influence of Mr. Whitworth remained. Indeed I already saw
its value in many ways. Then the pattern-shop, foundry and smith-shop
were equal to our requirements, and I felt confident that Mr. Hoyle
could induce Mr. Whitworth to have the improvements and changes made,
especially in the lathes and boring-machines, which would make it
possible for us to do the work. Mr. Hoyle had become famous in the shop
as the only man who had ever been able to influence Mr. Whitworth.
He had lately given a striking example of his power. Mr. Whitworth
was, years before, the designer of the box frame, which gave to many
machine tools a rigidity incomparably superior to that which could be
got by any method of ribbing. This box system was then established in
universal use, both in England and on the Continent. Not long before my
coming Mr. Whitworth had been looking into the cost of the cores that
these box forms required, and concluded that he could not allow such
an expense any longer, and ordered a return to the method of ribbing.
The superintendent and foremen, to whom this order was communicated,
were amazed at so ruinous and indeed insane a step. No one else dared
to open his mouth; but Mr. Hoyle undertook the task of dissuading him
from it, and after a long struggle finally succeeded in inducing him to
rescind his order. So I confidently looked to him for the salvation of
the engine.
Then suddenly a new trouble arose. After a delay of some months, the
agreement between Mr. Whitworth and myself, reduced to writing by
his solicitor, was put into my hands for signature. I found that it
corresponded with our verbal agreement, except that Mr. Whitworth
reserved to himself the right to make alterations in the engine, in
any respect whatever, in his discretion. To say that I hesitated about
signing such an abandonment would not be true; I never thought of such
a thing as signing it. Mr. Whitworth was probably the only man in the
world who would have thought of making such a demand, and was certainly
the last man in the world to whom it should be granted.
The first thing he would probably have done would have been to make
the crank and cross-head pins run in solid bearings. I had regarded
his talk about “the perfect steam-engine” at our first interview as
idle words; but here was the provision for giving these words effect.
Indeed, he now assured me that the opening to his scheme afforded by my
engine formed his inducement for taking it up, and that he expected
me to understand that from what he then said. Here was a situation!
I knew that in the multifarious excursions of his restless mind the
steam-engine had never been included. These excursions seemed to have
led in all directions except that. About the steam-engine and its
“fundamental principles,” except those constructive principles that
it had in common with all machines, I was sure he had not the least
idea. The scheme was childish. I could only think of the little boy
who wanted a penny to go down-town. “What are you going to buy?” said
his amused father. “I don’t know; shall see something I want when I
get there.” This seemed to me, and correctly as I afterwards became
satisfied, to represent Mr. Whitworth’s “open-mindedness” on this
subject.
Now, Mr. Whitworth was the most dangerous man possible to be entrusted
with such a power. He could not work with anybody else. His disposition
was despotic. He looked only for servile obedience to his orders.
Besides this, he had no conception of the law of growth. In his own
mind he had anchored both tool construction and gunnery where they
were to remain forever, and he purposed to do the same thing with the
steam-engine, as soon as he should have time to attend to it.
So our agreement never was executed. I confidently expected him to
yield on this point, which I was settled that I would never do, and I
found in the end that he as confidently expected me to yield, which he
was settled that he would never do. Meanwhile we got along on a _modus
vivendi_ plan, which could only last through an emergency, and during
which, of course, nothing could be done towards settling the business
on a substantial foundation. The emergency in this case was getting
through the Paris Exposition. Before coming to that, however, I have
something else to relate.
We received an order from Pooley & Son, proprietors of the India Mills,
Manchester, for a horizontal condensing engine to drive the machinery
of their blowing-room, that in which the cotton is opened and cleaned
and receives its first carding operations. The growth of their business
had made it necessary for them to increase their power, which they
planned to do by driving this portion of their machinery separately.
This engine was interesting for two reasons. It was the first engine
ordered in England to which my horizontal condenser was applied, and
it was the first mill engine in England from which the power was
transmitted by a belt.
My business was transacted entirely with the younger Mr. Pooley, who
seemed to be the practical head of the concern. Our first meeting
has remained vivid in my recollection, as illustrating the English
brusqueness of manner.
Calling at his office in response to an invitation by post, I was met
on opening the door after the call “come in” by the abrupt question,
“What do you want?” I was not wholly unused to this kind of greeting
and so told him who I was and what I wanted, when of course his manner
changed at once. We became very good friends, and should he be living
and this meet his eye, I send him my salutation.
We had quite a discussion on the question of a belt. I urged it, and he
would not listen to it. My statement that belts were used exclusively
in cotton-mills in America had no influence. I discovered that it makes
all the difference in the world who tells a thing. After he had, as we
both supposed, made his final decision to follow the universal custom
and employ gearing, he happened to meet his friend Mr. Hetherington,
the same man already mentioned in connection with the Harrison boiler.
Mr. Hetherington had just returned from a trip to “the States,” and
had visited the Lowell and Lawrence cotton-mills, and this was part of
their conversation:
“Did you see anywhere power taken from a prime mover by a belt?”
“I did not see anything else.”
“Is that so? This is just what Porter told me, but I could not credit
it. Did they seem to give satisfaction?”
“That is what every one assured me. They would not use anything else.”
And so I received an order for a belt, 24 inches wide, to be imported
from America, with the clamps, rivets, and cement needed to put it on
endless, an operation of which no workman in England had any idea, so
I had to do it myself. I sent the order to Mr. Allen to be placed, and
received quite promptly a carefully selected belt, of hides of uniform
thickness, which gave the highest satisfaction.
The following is a copy of the bill for the first American belt ever
sent to England. I included an order for a side of lace leather, to
enable them to try the American style of lacing belts. This leather is
horse hide, their sheep-skin lacing would not be strong enough.
NEW YORK, December 15, 1866.
Mr. CHAS. POOLEY.
Bought of STEPHEN BALLARD,
(Successor to STEARNS & BALLARD),
Manufacturer of Every Description of Leather Belting,
Also, Dealer in Vulcanized Rubber Belting, Hose and Packing, Belt
Rivets, Belt Hooks, etc.,
Extra Quality Lacing Leather,
No. 333 Pearl Street, Franklin Square (Harpers’ Building).
====+==================================+=========+========
| 51 ft. 24-inch Donb Belt 692 | 352.91 |
| 2 lbs. Rivets 80 | 1.60 |
| 1 „ Cement | 1.00 |
| 1 Side Lacing | 5.00 |
| Cartage | .50 |
| 1 Cask | 1.25 |
| Insurance | 4.15 | 366.52
| Collection 2¹⁄₂% | | 9.16
| | +---------
| | | 375.68
I put this belt on quite loose. The bottom side was the tight one, and
the upper side hung in a loop nearly three feet deep. This exhibited
the uniform running of the engine in a striking manner. As is well
known, variations of speed produce waves in such a loop, the height of
which waves indicates the amount of these variations. This belt hung
motionless. The most careful observations on the loop did not indicate
that it was running at all. The engine had no fly-wheel; the belt drum,
10 feet in diameter, served this purpose also. This showed the value
in this respect of high speed, 150 turns per minute. This _absolute_
uniformity of motion surprised me, I knew nothing about the equalizing
action of the reciprocating parts of the engine, to which this
remarkable result was largely due. I was then absorbed in balancing,
which was as far as I had advanced, and in this case, as previously in
the governor, I “had builded better than I knew.”
The accompanying diagrams are from a duplicate of the Pooley engine
built at the same time for a Mr. Adams, a paper-maker in the north of
England. This engine was directly connected to the line of shaft. I was
called home from Paris to go to Mr. Adams’ mill and start that engine.
Mr. Adams’ mill was not yet connected, and I was obliged to return
to Paris after taking friction diagrams, of which the following are
examples.
[Illustration:
ATMOSPHERE
SCALE, 16 LBS. TO 1 INCH
ATMOSPHERE
SCALE, 16 LBS. TO 1 INCH
Diagrams from Engine Built for Mr. Adams.]