Preparations for Returning to America. Bright Prospects.
Having but little practical work to occupy me that winter, I devoted
myself to getting out for Elliott Bros. a second edition of my
instruction book to accompany the Richards indicator, and my paper
for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the illustrations and
material for Mr. Colburn’s articles on the Allen engine published in
_Engineering_.
I found in the library of the Manchester Philosophical Society a copy
of the twentieth volume of the “Memoirs of the French Academy of
Sciences,” containing the report of the experiments of M. Regnault to
determine the properties of steam, with the leaves uncut, of which I
was then able to make some use. I was anxious to obtain a copy of this
volume for myself, and also of Volume 21, containing other memoirs by
M. Regnault. This object I succeeded in accomplishing when in Paris
that winter through the kind interest of M. Tresca, the well-known
Sous-Directeur of the Ecole des Arts et Métiers. This was a matter of
so much difficulty, that a letter from M. Tresca to the publisher was
found not to be sufficient. It was necessary that M. Tresca should
personally identify me as the “savant” to whom he had given the letter.
I was then able to obtain both the volumes, which I brought home with
me on my return to America.
Now was the winter of my discontent made glorious summer, and all
the clouds that lowered about my enterprise in the deep bosom of
the ocean buried, by the receipt of a letter from Mr. Hope, telling
me that Mr. Allen’s report after his visit of inspection was of so
entirely satisfactory a character that, after full consideration,
it had been concluded to write me to leave everything in England in
whatever condition I might be obliged to, and return home and join with
Mr. Allen in the manufacture of the engines, for which ample capital
would be furnished. So in my ecstasy I went about quoting to myself
Shakespeare’s lines and applying them to my reviving fortunes. Mr.
Hoyle congratulated me warmly on this favorable turn in my affairs,
seeing clearly that I would never do anything with Mr. Whitworth,
unless on his own inadmissible terms.
After I had sobered down from my excitement, I began to consider the
matter carefully, and to determine upon the preparations that ought
to be made as a foundation for what, by judicious management, should
grow to be a great and profitable business. I fully realized the
responsibility that was devolved upon me, and determined that both in
foresight and prudence I would prove myself equal to its requirements.
I wrote a glad acceptance of the proposition and expatiated on the
advantage we should enjoy from what I had learned in England. I told
them that the selection of a suitable location was of the first
importance, and suggested that a plot of twenty or thirty acres should
be purchased in the environs of a large manufacturing town, affording
a good labor market and having good railway facilities, and where the
land could be got at farm prices. I would plan shops on a scale large
enough for a great business and of a form adapted for enlargement from
time to time, and build at first a small part, which as the business
grew could be added to without alteration. I asked them to look
about for the best place, but do nothing further until I got home,
when I would have carefully studied plans, embodying the most recent
improvements in building and tools to lay before them.
I then entered with enthusiasm into the preparation of my plans. The
model shop, now in common use, had then lately been designed by the
firm of Smith & Coventry, tool makers of Salford, which is a suburb
of Manchester, separated from it only by a narrow stream, the river
Irwell, and their plan had been at once followed by the firm of Craven
Brothers of Manchester, also tool makers. It was, of course, still
unknown in the United States.
The general idea of this shop was taken from the nave and side aisles
of Gothic cathedrals. The central and wider portion, which we may call
the nave, was one story in height and was commanded by the travelers,
and its floor was occupied by the largest tools only, and for erection.
The side aisles were two stories in height. The smallest work, of
course, was on the upper story, and tools and work of medium size on
the floors below, the latter being transported by carriages suspended
from the floor above. No rails were laid or gangways kept open on any
floor. All transportation of heavy objects was through the air. The
great value of this improvement, made by this firm in shop design, and
which has brought this design into general use, lay in its natural
classification of the work. Travelers were already quite common in
England, but under them large and small tools, often very small ones,
were found mingled quite promiscuously. Their shop had an entire glass
roof, made on the ridge and furrow plan, first used in the Crystal
Palace in Hyde Park for the International Exhibition of 1851. That roof
would not answer, however, in this climate, on account of our snow in
winter, so I had to plan a different one. But in every other respect
their plan was perfect. The columns, of course, at that time were of
cast iron. These were cast in pairs connected by a web, the longer
columns in each pair supporting the roof, the short ones the rails for
the travelers.
In Smith & Coventry’s shop the traveler was operated from the floor by
means of a loop hanging from a wheel on the crab. The arrangement was
exceedingly convenient in every respect.
I obtained full detail drawings of Smith & Coventry’s shop. The
accompanying outline presents a cross-section of this shop, and is
figured to the dimensions I proposed to adopt. I proposed to build
a length of only 75 feet, which by successive additions could be
extended to 500 feet if required. Moreover, at first the office,
drawing-office, pattern shop, and storeroom, besides the machine shop,
in short everything, except only the engine and boiler, smith shop and
foundry, were to be accommodated in this one building. I was greatly
pleased with my plan, and felt sure that it would commend itself to
my associates, as no shop possessing these conveniences then existed
in the United States. I, however, introduced one modification of the
English shops, or rather one addition. I had observed that reliance on
the traveler for local work involved a serious loss of time. I had
seen in various shops men standing idle, sometimes from fifteen to
thirty minutes, waiting for the traveler to be at liberty to come and
give them a lift. It appeared evident to me that the province of the
traveler was to fetch and carry; not to perform local work, unless of
the heaviest class. So for the latter purpose I provided swing cranes,
which could be operated by the workman himself without assistance. This
also enabled one traveler to cover a much longer extent of floor.
[Illustration: Cross-section of Machine Shop Proposed by Mr. Porter in
1868, after the Design of Smith & Coventry.]
Smith & Coventry had made numerous improvements on Mr. Whitworth’s
tools. I have already mentioned their arrangement which made it
possible to take up the wear of the lathe spindle bearings. In the
radial drill, an invention of Mr. Whitworth’s, as made by him, in order
to bring the drill to the right position longitudinally, the workman
was obliged to go to the end of the arm and turn the screw. From
this point he could not see his work, and had to guess at the proper
adjustment. I have seen him in the Whitworth works go back and forth
for this purpose three or four times, and have always doubted if he
got it exactly right after all. Smith & Coventry introduced an elegant
device by which the workman was able to make this adjustment without
moving from his place. They also first made the arm of the radial
drill adjustable vertically by power. By simply reversing the curve
of the brackets under Mr. Whitworth’s shaper tables, they made these
unyielding under the pressure of the cut. This firm also first employed
small cutting tools set in an arm which was secured in the tool-post,
and put an end to tool-dressing by the blacksmith, which had caused
a fearful waste of time, and also encouraged idle habits among the
workmen. This improvement has since come into common use. Their system
of grinding these small tools interested me very much. The workman
never left his machine. He was provided with a number of tools, set in
compartments in a box. When a tool became dull he took it out, set it
in the box upside down, and substituted another. A boy went regularly
through the shop, took up all the upside-down tools, ground them, and
brought them back. The grindstones were provided with tool-holders and
a compound screw feed, by which the tools were always presented to the
stone at the same desired angle, and were prevented from wearing out
the stone by running into grooves or following soft spots. The whole
surface of the stone was used uniformly and kept in perfect condition.
I picked up in that shop the solid wrench made with the elegant
improvement of inclining the handle at the angle of 15 degrees from
the line of the jaws; enabling it, by turning the wrench over, to be
worked within a radial angle of 30 degrees. This adapted it for use in
tight places. I brought the idea home with me and always supplied my
engines with wrenches made in that way. I offered the plan to Billings
& Spencer for nothing, but they did not think it worth making the dies
for. Mr. Williams was more appreciative. I believe it is now in quite
common use.
At that time toolmaking in this country, which has since become so
magnificently developed, was in many important respects in a primitive
condition, and I proposed to introduce into my shop every best tool and
method, adapted to my requirements, that I could find in England. For
this purpose I visited and carefully studied all the tool works of good
standing, and my final conclusion was that the best tools for design,
strength, solidity, facility of operation and truth of work were those
made by Smith & Coventry. This may be guessed from the few examples
I have given of their fertile mindedness and advanced ideas. So I
prepared a careful list of tools that I proposed to order from them
in time to be ready for use as soon as my shop should be completed. I
found also the remarkable fact that I could obtain these tools, duty
and freight paid, decidedly cheaper than corresponding inferior tools
could then be got from American makers.
Before bidding good-by to England, I must tell the luck I had in
endeavoring to introduce Mr. Allen’s double-opening slide valve, shown
in the general view of my London exhibit, now in common use the world
over. No locomotive engineer would even look at it. Finally I got an
order from Mr. Thomas Aveling for one of these valves with single
eccentric valve-gear, to be tried on one of his road locomotives or
traction engines. Mr. Aveling is known to fame as the inventor of the
road locomotive and steam road roller. He once told me how he came to
make this invention. He was a maker of portable engines in Rochester,
which was the center of a wheat-growing district. These engines were
employed universally to drive threshing machines. Horses were used
to draw both the machine and the engine from farm to farm. The idea
occurred to him that this was almost as foolish as was the practice of
the Spanish muleteers, in putting the goods they transported on one
side of the animal and employing a bag of stones on the other side to
balance them. Why not make the engine capable of moving itself and
drawing the threshing machine, and dispense with the horses altogether?
So he applied himself to the job and did it. Then it was found that
the self-propelling threshing-machine engines could draw a great many
other things besides threshing machines, and the business grew to large
proportions.
Mr. Aveling made an engine with valve and valve-gear from my drawings,
and I took a ride with him on it from Rochester to London, the engine
drawing two trucks loaded with the two halves of a fly-wheel. The
performance was entirely satisfactory. He said the engine was handled
more easily than any other he ever made, and it maintained its speed
in going up hill in a manner to astonish him, which was accounted
for by the double valve opening. The little engine ran very rapidly,
about 300 revolutions per minute, being geared down to a slow motion
of the machine, about 4 miles travel per hour. With a single opening
for admission it had admitted only a partial pressure of the steam,
but the double opening valve admitted very nearly the whole pressure
and made a sharp cut-off, all which I showed by the indicator. He
told me that he was then filling a large order for traction engines
for Australia, and this valve and valve-gear were the very thing for
them. I went back to Manchester happy in the satisfaction of having
accomplished one thing in the engine line at any rate.
A few weeks after, being in London, I went to Rochester to see how the
new valve-gear was progressing. The first thing I saw was my valve and
valve-gear hanging up in the storeroom. Mr. Aveling explained to me
that he had been advised by engineers, whose advice by his contract
with his financial partner he was obliged to follow, that the narrow
faces on my valve would wear away faster than the wider faces, and the
valve would come to leak, and if he put it on his engine it would ruin
his business. He did not believe it; it seemed to him absurd, but he
was powerless.
This was the nearest approach I ever made myself towards the
introduction of this valve. In 1875 I seemed to have a promising
opening. I received a note from Mr. M. N. Forney, then editor of
the _Railway Gazette_, calling my attention to this valve and its
description in his “Catechism of the Locomotive,” just published, and
stating that this was the only patented invention in the book.
He added that he had had conferences with Mr. Buchanan, foreman of the
New York Central and Hudson River Railroad repair shops in New York
City, about trying this valve on their locomotives, and Mr. Buchanan
would like to see me.
On my calling, Mr. Buchanan asked me what arrangement I was willing to
make. I replied that they might put the valve on six locomotives free
of royalty. If these valves worked well I would give them a license on
liberal terms. He said he had an express locomotive then in the shop
for which he was making new cylinders; these were already bored and the
valve seats planed, but not yet trimmed, and in this state there was
room to put in these valves, which he would do; they would be ready in
about a fortnight, when he would send me word, and would be glad to
have me go up to Albany and back on the locomotive and indicate the
engines. I have been waiting for that “word” ever since.
A few days after I met in the street an acquaintance, who asked me if
Mr. Buchanan had agreed to put the Allen valve on an engine. I replied
that he had. Why, said he, Buchanan will no more dare put that valve
on unless Commodore Vanderbilt orders him to, than he would to cut his
head off. He will never persuade the old man to give that order, and
you will never hear of it again; and I never did.
The recollection of another experience with Mr. Aveling has often
amused me. He had an order from the Chatham Dock Yard for a stationary
engine of perhaps 100 horse-power. It was to be inspected in operation
before its acceptance by the government. He wrote me to come down and
bring my indicator and assist him in exhibiting it running under a
friction brake in his shop.
At the hour appointed the inspector appeared, accompanied by
half-a-dozen young officers. He spoke to no one, observed the engine
in operation, took the diagrams from my hand, asked no question, but
proceeded to discourse to his followers on the engine. I could hardly
believe my senses as I listened to the absurdities that he gravely
got off; not a sentence was intelligible. I can see Mr. Aveling now
quietly winking at me, as we stood with respectful gravity till he had
finished, when he turned and marched off without noticing anybody. This
was my only personal encounter with the English official mind.