CHAPTER XXVI

My Downward Progress.

I had now reached the top of my engineering career; I had devoted

myself for twenty years to the development of the high-speed engine

and to the study of the best means and method of its manufacture, and

had introduced into it designs and workmanship of an excellence before

unknown in steam-engine construction. I had solved all the theoretical

problems involved in the running of high-speed engines, and, starting

from Mr. Allen’s inventions of the single eccentric link and the

four-opening balanced valve with the adjustable pressure-plate, and my

governor, had designed every constructive feature and detail of this

engine.

I had been for four years carrying on the business of the manufacture

of these engines in my own name as sole proprietor, but, as already

stated, without a cent of capital. I had in this time built between

forty and fifty engines of every size on my list, from the smallest

to the largest, except two, the 44-inch diameter cylinder having been

added after my time. Considering my business as an organization, I had

been president, secretary, treasurer, general manager, chief engineer,

inspector, and draftsman. At any rate, the duties belonging to all

those positions had been performed by me with satisfactory results. I

made every drawing, both general and detail, with my own hands, having

only the help of a young man who made my tracings, and when he had

time helped me with my section lining. At that time blue-printing had

not come into use; drawings were made on white drawing-paper and were

inked in, and the tracings were made for the shop; I began to use the

blue-print system when I removed to Philadelphia.

Every one was loyal to me, I could always rely upon my instructions

being faithfully followed, so the work ran as smoothly as the engines

themselves; we were, however, much hindered by the poor tools we had to

use. These were a fair average of American tools at that time, but Mr.

Goodfellow and myself estimated their output to average only about one

half that which we expected in our contemplated works. Besides this,

I could not establish piece-work prices or introduce any systematic

methods. I became gradually swamped with orders. These outgrew the

capacity of the Hewes & Phillips Works, or of that portion which I

could use. Before I left there, besides the four large orders already

named, amounting altogether to $48,000 f.o.b., without fly-wheels, and

which could not be handled in these works, I had accepted orders for

smaller engines sufficient to bring the aggregate up to $125,000. These

latter were more than I could manage alone, so I had arranged to have

some of these also made, or partially made, in other shops.

From this point my path sloped steeply downward to the grave of all my

hopes; in about two years and eight months the business had dwindled

to practically nothing, and I, as the party held responsible for this

result, was turned out of the Southwark Foundry into the street. At

the bottom this was entirely my own fault. No one could ask to be

associated with a better body of men than were those who united to sink

their money in the manufacture of the Porter-Allen engines.

My aim had been to reach a point where I could command the capital

necessary to establish my business according to the plan which I had

cherished ever since my return from England, but on a much larger scale

than I then contemplated. I had now reached that point. Parties who

were finding themselves enriched by my engine were ready to pour out

their money like water for my use; but there was something else that I

needed even more than their money, without which indeed, as the event

proved, their money was of no use at all. That was their respect for

me and confidence in me as a strong business man; my record would have

sufficiently justified that confidence, but of this they were ignorant.

They had no means to form a judgment of me except what I did then and

there. I never thought of this supreme requirement, and in response

to their request made them an offer which, regarded from their point

of view, appeared so unbusinesslike that they could form only one

conclusion, that while unquestionably I could make engines all right,

in matters of business I was a mere baby whose opinion on business

matters was not to be regarded seriously.

How came I to do myself, and them also, as the victims of their

mistaken judgment, this injustice? My whole life was bound up in the

engine; I cared nothing for money except to develop its manufacture;

I felt that every dollar paid to myself would leave so much less for

this purpose. I asked nothing for the good-will of my business, for I

was not selling it; they were putting money into my business, which,

of course, I would continue to carry on as I had done. This was my

mistaken view. I consulted fully with Mr. Hope, whose interest was

equal with mine, and he viewed the matter precisely as I did. Although

standing at the head of his profession as a fire underwriter, he had

not the special business training or experience that would enable him

to give me the advice I needed, so I told them that if a company should

be formed to manufacture the engines with $800,000 capital, I would

assign to it my patents for $100,000 of its stock, the value of which

I assumed I would increase several fold in a few years. Beyond this I

assumed everything and made sure of nothing, so our minds never came

together. I did not assert myself because it never occurred to me that

I needed to do so.

They could not understand my position. They could not appreciate

my sentiment. They were business men, and did business on strictly

business principles. What their position was I came to understand

later. From the fact that I did not stipulate for it they concluded

that I did not expect the presidency of the company, but had yielded it

to them, which they accepted, of course, in accordance with the general

usage that capital takes the direction of a business which it knows

nothing about, relying upon skilled experts in its various departments.

Thus by my failure to realize their necessary position and to lay

before them a thoroughly business-like proposition, demanding for

myself the practical direction of the business and a proper sum for the

patents and the good-will of the business, and assuring to them the

safety and disposition of their money the enterprise was doomed from

the start.

An excellent opportunity seemed to offer itself for going right on with

my business without the delay which would be involved in the erection

of new works. The Southwark Foundry was in the market for sale. These

were the old engineering works of the firm of S. V. Merrick & Sons;

they were famous works before the war, when they were largely devoted

to the manufacture of municipal gas and water plants, having, I think,

a monopoly of this class of work, for which they were especially

equipped. During the war they had built engines for some government

vessels. A few years after the war the elder Mr. Merrick died, and his

two sons, J. Vaughan and William H. Merrick, retired from business,

and these works were closed. In company with several of the gentlemen

interested I was shown over the works by William H. Merrick and was

very favorably impressed with them. They covered a large plot of

ground, the front extending from Fourth to Fifth streets on the south

side of Washington Avenue, in Philadelphia; they were favorably located

with respect to transportation facilities, a branch of the Philadelphia

and Baltimore Railroad ran through this avenue to the Delaware River,

and two switches from these tracks entered the works, one going to the

foundry and one to the erecting-floor. This floor was commanded by

three cranes, operated by power, the largest I had ever seen, while

an annex to the foundry was commanded by a steam-crane of equal size,

and the main foundry floor was provided with an overhead traveler, the

only one at that time in the country. The machine-shop was a large

three-story building, the first and second floors of which, as well

as the erecting-shop, were filled with tools, some of them of large

size. I was particularly impressed by the great planer, the largest in

the country, capable of passing objects twelve feet square. The office

was provided with a large fire-proof vault which was carried up to the

second story for the use of the drawing-office.

I expressed myself decidedly in favor of purchasing these works. I

could form no judgment respecting the tools, all their working parts

being coated with a composition of white lead and tallow; but I did not

care much about them, because I should speedily fill the works with the

latest improved tools, most of which I expected to import from England.

A contract was immediately made for the purchase of these works, in

part payment for which the Merrick brothers were to accept stock in the

proposed company. Thus they became numbered among our stockholders.

I was next invited to attend a meeting of a few gentlemen held at the

office of the Cambria Company to arrange a slate for the action of the

subscribers at a meeting which had been called for organization. This

first meeting was full of surprises to me. I went into it expecting the

gentlemen to say to me: “Of course, Mr. Porter, you will accept the

office of president?” quite unconscious that I had made it impossible

for them to think of such a thing, but quite conscious that no amateur

in that position could by any possibility make the business successful,

unless he should commit the management entirely to my hands and content

himself with being a mere figurehead.

Mr. Townsend, the president of the Cambria Company and the leading

mover in this enterprise, called the meeting to order and announced

that the first question to be settled would be the name of the company.

I remarked: “There can be but one name for it: the Porter-Allen

Steam-engine Manufacturing Company.” Then Mr. William H. Merrick spoke

up: “I don’t know about that; of course, no one can imagine that the

manufacture of these engines can employ all the resources of these

great works; there is a vast amount of work of the character formerly

carried on in them which will naturally flow back to them, and I think

the door should be left open for its return.” I expressed my amazement

at such a view; I had not come there to revive any old business, but to

make the Porter-Allen engine and nothing else; that it must be obvious

to any observer that my business only required suitable means for

carrying it on to grow to great proportions, and the resources of these

works, whatever they were, would need to be greatly enlarged for its

use, and besides the name ought to describe and advertise the business.

When a vote was taken every man voted for the historic Philadelphia

name of the “Southwark Foundry,” to which they added “and Machine

Company,” and I discovered that my views had no weight at all. I had

afterwards the pleasure of being asked by my friends occasionally what

good I supposed that name would do my business.

The next subject was the selection of a president, and my next

discovery was that I was not even thought of. If any one had been asked

why he had not thought of me he would, from his point of view, very

properly have replied that “to commit the interests of this company to

a man who had shown so little ability to look out for his own interests

did not impress him favorably.” Every vote was cast for William H.

Merrick, and I was selected as vice-president, with charge of the

manufacturing.

A day or two after, the meeting was held which had been called for the

purpose of hearing the report of the patent expert and organizing the

company. At this meeting the expert was not prepared to report, as an

application for the reissue of an important patent was still pending.

Mr. Merrick moved that a temporary organization be then effected, so

that we might proceed at once with work on pressing orders. On my

assurance that this reissue was certain to be allowed, the motion was

adopted and a temporary board of directors was elected. Mr. Merrick

and myself were elected president and vice-president respectively. Mr.

Merrick told me afterwards that he made the motion because he knew that

those twenty-one gentlemen there assembled could never be got together

again if this meeting should prove fruitless.

The directors held a meeting immediately after, and at this meeting I

presented a letter which I had written to the chairman of the meeting

called for organization, setting forth the requirements of the engine

for the latest and most improved tools and asking for an immediate

appropriation of $100,000 for their purchase, as time was of the utmost

consequence. To this Mr. Merrick replied that such action would be

entirely unnecessary, saying: “I assure you gentlemen, and I assure

Mr. Porter, that for a long time to come he will find in these works

everything he can possibly desire.” Of course I could make no reply to

this positive statement, and the matter was dropped. We immediately

took possession of the works, and a large force of men were put at

work cleaning the tools and getting them in working order; I also had

my drawings, patterns, and all work in progress brought from Newark

and from all shops where it had been commenced. Prominent among these

latter were the bed, cylinder and shaft of the first of the 40×48-inch

engines which were then ready for finishing.

In about two weeks from the date of this meeting Mr. Goodfellow came

into the office pale and trembling with excitement, and addressing

himself to me, Mr. Merrick sitting on the opposite side of the table,

said: “Mr. Porter, I give it up; we might just as well be set down

in a cotton-mill to make steam-engines; there is not a tool in the

place that has not spoiled every job that has been put in it, from the

day we came here. I don’t believe another such lot of antiquated and

worn-out rubbish exists on the face of the earth.” This was not news

to me, as I had spent much of my time in the shop. Our most serious

disappointment was the condition of their great planer; we had hurried

the above-mentioned engine bed on it as soon as it arrived, and when

it had been planed the surface plate was laid on the guide-bars, which

were 7 feet 6 inches long, and it was found to rock on two diagonal

corners more than an eighth of an inch, showing a cross-wind of over

half an inch in the whole length of the planer bed; this of course

rendered the tool useless in its present condition. I had found that

the means for boring the 40-inch cylinder and for finishing the shaft,

as well as for doing the other work for this engine, were all equally

useless, and I proposed to Mr. Merrick that these parts should all be

sent back to the shops from which they had been brought and finished

there, and the engine altogether built in outside shops, just as I had

built the first one. This he flatly refused to do, saying he would not

make such an exposure of our condition. Our plight may be understood

when I state that it was over a year before we could deliver that

first large engine, although every effort was made to complete it, the

castings and forgings waiting for many months.

“But,” exclaims the reader, “why, when this state of affairs was

first discovered, were not steps instantly taken to remedy it?” The

answer to this question involves a very different subject. When I had

received in Newark a letter from Mr. Merrick requesting me to send on

my patents for examination by an expert, I was suddenly reminded that

I had omitted to obtain the reissue of the latest patent which Mr.

Allen had obtained, namely, the one for his adjustable pressure-plate,

which had been so shockingly muddled by the Washington agent of the

patent solicitors that when we received it we could not understand the

specification, and the claims were absolutely meaningless. However, I

had said to myself, there will be time enough to have it reissued when

it becomes necessary, as applications for reissue are always passed

upon immediately. But before sending the patents on, I prepared myself

a new and clear specification for that patent and put it in my pocket.

In two or three days I followed the patents to Philadelphia and met

the patent solicitor; he told me all the patents seemed to be well

enough except this one, and this he could make nothing out of. I told

him how that came to be such a muddle, that I always intended to get

it reissued and now would employ him to do it. I produced the amended

specification I had prepared for that reissue; he read it and handed it

back to me, saying it would be of no use to him. I instantly thought of

the protest of Mr. Perker: “Really, Mr. Pickwick, really, my dear sir,

when one places a matter in the hands of a professional man he must not

be interfered with; indeed, he must not, my dear sir, really.” I made

an humble apology for my presumption, but asked him if he would get

the application in the next day at farthest, that the reissue might be

received in time for him to report on it at the meeting called for the

organization of the company, then some days distant. He made no reply.

I soon found that I had fallen into the hands of a traitor who intended

to use his professional power to strangle my enterprise in its birth,

and who never did give up his prey until it was torn from his fangs.

Not hearing from him for a day or two, I called to see what was the

matter, and was stunned by his telling me that he had determined not

to apply for a reissue, but to report against me on the patent as it

stood, saying that a reissue could not be got, and if it was it would

be good for nothing. I attempted to argue the matter with him, but

found him firm. I then went directly to the office of Morgan & Lewis,

the attorneys for the company, and told the story. Mr. Morgan said, “I

will go and see him at once;” so we went together. The expert repeated

his determination to Mr. Morgan, and, anxious that the latter should

understand the merits of the case, I presented it to the expert as

plainly as I knew how, Mr. Morgan being an attentive listener. Many

months afterwards I realized the vital importance of the lesson I then

gave to Mr. Morgan. The expert persisted in his determination, but

consented to see Mr. Morgan again the next day. On our way back I said

to Mr. Morgan: “It seems to me that this man does not see the point of

the application because he won’t see it; he doesn’t want to see it.”

Mr. Morgan made the rather enigmatical reply: “It seems very plain to

me.”

The next day Mr. Morgan made the point to the expert that he could not

afford to take such a position as that--he could not sustain it. He

then consented to make the application, but added what he had already

said to me, that he had no idea it would be granted, and if it was,

it would be good for nothing. It will hardly be credited that he was

over two months in preparing this application, getting it into a form

in which he was sure it could not be allowed. When it was finally

shown to me I could not understand it. It contained two references,

the pertinence of which I could not see; he assured me, however, that

it was the very best that could be done, although he said he had very

little hopes that it would be allowed. Sure enough, in a few days the

rejection was received from Washington and a meeting was called to

hear his report. He used very strong language in making this report,

saying: “This rejection is final and the case is hopeless,” and walking

over to where I was sitting, he shook a paper in my face with an air

as if I had been a detected felon and he held in his hand the proof

of my rascality, saying: “This is a paper I received from Washington

this morning that settles your hash, sir.” When he sat down the silence

might have been felt. Every one shrank from what appeared to them the

inevitable and final step, the adoption of a resolution to the effect:

“Whereas Mr. Porter has failed to keep his agreement with us, the whole

matter be now dismissed from our further consideration.”

I did not allow them much time for reflection, but rose and made a

little speech as follows: “Mr. Chairman, I have but a single word to

say. I have taken this case out of the expert’s hands; I expect to

go to Washington to-morrow morning and return in the afternoon, and

when I come back I shall bring this reissue with me.” No one said a

word, but I knew what was in every man’s mind: “What a fool, when our

great Philadelphian authority has spoken, to imagine that _he_ can do

anything to change the result!” However, there was no disposition to

cut me off by any precipitate action, and the meeting adjourned subject

to the call of the chair, every one feeling that it was a mere waste of

time.

The next morning I was received by Mr. Fowler, the accomplished

chief examiner in the class of steam-engines, with his usual extreme

courtesy. He told me that he felt very sorry at finding himself

obliged to reject my application, but the very precedents cited in

the application itself left him no alternative. “However,” he added,

“if you have anything new to present I shall be most happy to receive

it.” In reply I handed to him the specification which had already

done duty so ineffectively with the expert and in which I had not

changed a syllable. He read it through with fixed attention, and the

instant he finished he exclaimed: “Why, Mr. Porter, it is perfectly

obvious that you are entitled to this reissue, and the cases cited

in the application have nothing to do with it; but why was not this

presented to me in the first place?” I told him I had prepared it for

that purpose and placed it in the hands of the expert, who, after

reading it, returned it to me, saying it would be of no use to him.

Mr. Fowler instantly asked me if I had prepared any claims. I told him

I had, because I could not get any one to prepare them for me; but it

was a new business to me, and I had asked the advice of the expert

about them, who, after reading them, returned them to me without any

suggestion, merely remarking: “If you get these allowed you will be

doing very well.” The moment Mr. Fowler glanced at them he exclaimed:

“Oh, Mr. Porter, we cannot allow any such claims as these; they are

functional claims, which the Patent Office never allows.” Then,

evidently seeing my helpless condition in the hands of a traitor, he

instantly added: “I shall be occupied this morning, but if you will

call at three o’clock I will have two claims prepared for you which

will be allowed.” So the expert had let me go to Washington with claims

that he knew could not be allowed, and sure that my errand would be

fruitless. But he did not imagine that the examiner would see through

his treachery and thwart it. At three o’clock our interview was brief;

as I entered Mr. Fowler’s room he handed me a paper, saying: “These

have been allowed; you will receive the reissue in the course of

three or four days, and it will appear in next week’s _Gazette_. Good

afternoon.”

I suppose that I never looked on a countenance expressing more

amazement than did that of Mr. Merrick when next morning I handed

him the copy of the claims and told him my brief story. He said he

could hardly believe his senses. Taking the paper, he started for Mr.

Townsend’s office, and in the course of an hour all the parties in

interest had been apprised of my easy triumph. The reissue arrived as

promised, was placed in the expert’s hands, and a meeting was called

to receive his report. I thought my troubles were all over; the case

was an absolutely simple one, there was no pretense that the invention

was not new, and he _must_ report in its favor, no matter how reluctant

he might be to do so. What was my amazement and fury when he quietly

stated to the meeting that he had no report to make; that the case

involved very serious questions which would require much time for their

consideration; that the granting of the patent was nothing--it was the

business of the Patent Office to grant patents, not to refuse them,

but whether or not they would be sustained by the courts was entirely

another matter, about which in this case he had very grave doubts.

I now did what I never did before or since, and what no good business

man, who is accustomed to accomplish his purposes, ever allows himself

to do: I, who always prided myself on being destitute of such a thing,

lost my temper. And not only my temper, but, like Tam O’Shanter, I

lost my reason altogether. Already driven frantic by the frightful

condition of affairs at the works, which had been protracted over three

months by this man’s machinations, and which he threatened to continue

indefinitely while he should endeavor to find some means to accomplish

his purpose of wrecking my business, without an instant for reflection

I shouted, regardless of all proprieties: “You rascal! What was the

Patent Office doing a week ago when you reported to these gentlemen

that this reissue had been refused, that the decision was final and

the case was hopeless; what were they doing then, I would like to

know? Were they granting patents or refusing them? The fact is, you

are either a traitor or know nothing about your business, and you may

hang on either horn of the dilemma you like,” and I sat down, having

in these few seconds done myself and my case more harm than anybody

else could have done in a lifetime. I did not reflect that I could not

have the sympathy of my audience; they knew nothing of the state of

affairs at the works--this they had been kept in ignorance of,--nor of

the consistent course of treachery which this man had been following.

All they could see was that I had used outrageous language, for which

they could not imagine any justification, toward an eminent patent

lawyer who enjoyed their confidence, and they naturally supposed that

was my usual way of doing business. The chairman coldly informed me

that the lawyer was their patent adviser and nothing whatever could be

done until his report on the reissue should be received. I had entered

the room expecting to receive the congratulations of every one on the

bold coup by which I had saved my business. I left it unnoticed by any

one. The reader will not be much surprised to learn that it was months

before we heard from him again--months more of frantic helplessness.

About the first of August I called at the expert’s office and was

informed that he had gone on his vacation and would be absent about

six weeks, and the case could not be taken up until his return. In my

desperation I called upon Mr. Townsend and made to him a clean breast

of our helpless condition, and offered to pledge all our stock as

security for a loan of the money necessary to buy a few of the most

indispensable tools. He replied to me: “Suppose the report of the

expert shall be adverse and the enterprise be abandoned, what do you

think your security will be worth?”

I succeeded in saving one order from the wreck in rather a singular

manner. This was an order from Mr. Lewis, of Cincinnati, the projector

of the cottonseed-oil business, for an 18×30-inch engine to drive

the machinery of their first oil-mill at Houston, Texas. I had built

in Newark an engine of the same size for Senator Jones of Nevada, to

drive an ice-making plant which he was establishing in the city of New

Orleans. Word came to me sometime that spring that this enterprise had

proved a failure, the work had been abandoned, and the engine, their

only asset of value, was for sale. I instantly bought it and sent a man

down to transport it to Houston and erect it there. Mr. Lewis wrote me

from Cincinnati an indignant letter at my sending him a second-hand

engine. I replied to him, stating first it was my only possible way

of filling his order at all, as I did not know when we should be

able to build an engine in our new works, and, second, that it was

a new engine, having been run only a few weeks, long enough to show

its excellent condition and not so long as engines are often run in

public exhibitions, from which they are always sold as new. Mr. Lewis

gracefully accepted my explanation, and the engine was in readiness

for them to grind the coming cottonseed crop. The next summer we had

a call from the agent of that mill, who had come North during their

idle interval, while they were waiting for their next crop, to make his

report at Cincinnati, and had come out of his way to tell us of the

wonderful manner in which that engine had carried them through their

first season, which he concluded by saying: “That is the engine for

the cottonseed-oil business.” After he had gone I said to Mr. Merrick:

“That is an old story to me; everybody says that is the engine for

their business, whatever their business may happen to be.”

What did I do with myself during that six months? Well, I was not

altogether idle. First I found all the drawers in the drawing-office

filled with piles of old drawings which Mr. Merrick ordered to be

preserved and which we piled up on the floor of the unoccupied third

story. Out of the contemplation of that confused heap I evolved a new

system of making and keeping mechanical drawings, which I described in

the following paper, read the next year before the American Society of

Mechanical Engineers:

“The system of making and keeping drawings now in use at the works of

the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company in Philadelphia has been

found so satisfactory in its operation that it seems worthy of being

communicated to the profession.

“The method in common use is to devote a separate drawer to the

drawings of each machine or each group or class of machines. The idea

of this system is keeping together all drawings relating to the same

subject-matter. Every draftsman is acquainted with its practical

working. It is necessary to make the drawing of a machine and of its

separate parts on sheets of different sizes. The drawer in which all

these are kept must be large enough to accommodate the largest sheets.

The smaller ones cannot be located in the drawer, and as these find

their way to one side or to the back, and several of the smallest lie

side by side in one course, any arrangement of the sheets in the drawer

is out of the question.

“The operation of finding a drawing consists in turning the contents

of the drawer all up until it is discovered. In this way the smaller

sheets get out of sight or doubled up, and the larger ones are torn. No

amount of care can prevent confusion.

“In the system now proposed the idea of keeping together drawings

relating to the same machine, or of classifying them according to

subjects in any way, is abandoned, and in place of it is substituted

the plan of keeping together all drawings that are made on sheets of

the same size, without regard to the subject of them. Nine sizes of

sheets were settled upon as sufficient to meet our requirements, and

on a sheet that will trim to one of these sizes every drawing must be

made. They are distinguished by the first nine letters of the alphabet.

Size A is the antiquarian sheet trimmed, and the smaller sizes will cut

from this sheet, without waste, as follows:

“A, 51″×30″; B, 37″×30″; C, 25″×30″; D, 17″×30″; E, 12¹⁄₂″×30″; F,

8¹⁄₂″×30″; G, 17″×15″; H, 8¹⁄₂″×15″; I, 14″×25″.

“The drawers for the different sizes are made 1 inch longer and wider

than the sheets they are to contain, and are lettered as above. The

drawers of the same size are distinguished by a numeral prefixed to the

letter. The back part of each drawer is covered for a width of from

6 to 10 inches, to prevent drawings, and especially tracings, from

slipping over at the back.

“The introduction of the blue-printing process has revolutionized the

drawing-office. Our drawings now are studies, left in pencil. When

we can find nothing more to alter, tracings are made on cloth. These

become our originals and are kept in a fire-proof vault. _This system

is found admirably adapted to the plan of making a separate drawing for

each piece._ The whole combined drawing is not generally traced, but

the separate pieces are picked out from it. _All our working drawings

are blue-prints of separate pieces._

“Each drawer contains fifty tracings. They are 2¹⁄₂ inches deep, which

is enough to hold several times as many, but this number is all that is

convenient to keep together. Each drawing is marked in stencil on the

margin in the lower right-hand corner, and also with inverted plates

in the upper left-hand corner, with the letter of the drawer and the

number of the drawing, as, for example, 3F-31; so that whichever way

the sheet is put in the drawer, this appears at the front right-hand

corner. The drawings in each drawer are numbered separately, fifty

being thus the highest number used.

“For reference we depend on our indices. Each tracing when completed is

entered under its letter in the numerical index, and is given the next

consecutive number. From this index the title and the number are copied

into other indices, under as many different headings as possible.

Thus all the drawings of any engine, or tool, or machine whatever,

become assembled in the index by their titles under the heading of

such particular engine or tool or machine. So also the drawings of any

particular piece, of all sizes and styles, become assembled by their

titles under the name of such piece. However numerous the drawings,

and however great the variety of their subjects, the location of any

one is, by this means, found as readily as a word in a dictionary. The

stencil marks copy, of course, on the blue-prints, and these, when not

in use, are kept in the same manner as the tracings, except that only

twenty-five are placed in one drawer.

“We employ printed classified lists of the separate pieces constituting

every steam-engine, the manufacture of which is the sole business of

these works, and on these, against the name of every piece, is given

the drawer and number of the drawing on which it is represented. The

office copies of these lists afford an additional mode of reference,

and a very convenient one, used in practice almost exclusively. The

foreman sends for the prints by the stencil marks, and these are thus

got directly without reference to any index. They are charged in the

same way, and reference to the numerical index gives the title of any

missing print.

“We find the different sizes to be used quite unequally. The method

of making a separate tracing of each piece, which we carry to a great

extent, causes the smaller sizes to multiply quite rapidly. We are

also marking our patterns with the stencil of the drawings, as well as

gauges, templets, and jigs.

“It is found best to permit the sheets to be put away by one person

only, who also writes up the indices, which are kept in the fire-proof

vault.

“We have ourselves been surprised at the saving of room which this

system has effected. Probably less than one fourth the space is

occupied that the same drawings would require if classified according

to subjects. The system is completely elastic. Work of the most diverse

character might be undertaken every day, and the drawings of each

article would find places ready to receive them.”

It will be observed that in planning the sizes of sheets I was limited

to antiquarian paper. Now no limitation exists. I should to-day

increase the number of sizes.

The whole summer passed, many had taken trips to Europe and back, when

about the middle of September Mr. Morgan notified the chairman that he

had received the expert’s report and requested him to call a meeting of

the subscribers to hear it. I went to the meeting with mingled hope and

apprehension. Mr. Morgan read a long letter from the expert containing

an elaborate argument against the patent which he concluded by saying

that he could not recommend its acceptance. When Mr. Morgan had

finished reading the letter he continued: “Mr. Chairman, I am tired of

this man’s delays and quibbling, and I now advise you that Mr. Porter

has performed his contract, and it only remains for you to perform

yours.” This was the harvest from the seed I had sown six months before.

The following is the Reissue on which the patent expert hung up our

business for six months. The specification was written by me, the

disclaimer and claims were written by Chief Examiner Fowler.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

JOHN F. ALLEN OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE T. HOPE, OF BAY RIDGE,

N. Y., AND CHARLES T. PORTER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.

_Balanced Valve._

SPECIFICATION forming part of Reissued Letters Patent No. 9303, dated

July 20, 1880.

Original No. 167865, dated September 21, 1875. Application for

reissue filed June 2, 1880.

_To all whom it may concern:_

Be it known that I, JOHN F. ALLEN, formerly of the city, county,

and State of New York, but now of Brooklyn, New York, have invented

certain new and useful Improvements in Balanced Slide Valves, of

which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of balanced slide-valves in which

the valve is practically relieved from the pressure of the steam,

this pressure being sustained by a plate supported above the valve,

but so nearly in contact with it that the space between them will not

admit steam enough to affect the valve. Such plates are designated as

“pressure” plates, and have been made in some instances adjustable,

in order that they may be closed up to the valve as the faces of the

valve and its seat become worn. Heretofore such adjustments have been

affected by different mechanical devices, among which there was, in

one instance, a spring to move the plate laterally or crosswise of

the valve while the pressure of the steam held the plate down; and in

other instances screws were used to move the plate in two directions,

both in line with the movement of the valve, and to hold the plate in

its adjusted position. All of these devices, however, are liable to

objections well understood by engineers.

It is the object of my invention to obviate these objections in

a balanced slide-valve; and to this end my improvements consist

in utilizing the pressure of the steam for giving motion to the

pressure-plate down inclined supports and toward the valve; in

employing supports inclined to the face of the valve at a steep

angle, considerably exceeding the angle of repose of the metal,

so that the pressure of the steam on the upper surface of the

pressure-plate may be relied on for giving to it the above-described

motion, and in employing an adjustable stop to prevent the pressure

of the steam from forcing the pressure-plate into too close contact

with the valve.

In the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a transverse section through a steam-chest in which my

improved balanced slide-valve is applied, the section being on the

line _x x_ of Fig. 2, and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section on the

line _y y_ of Fig. 1.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The valve A is fitted upon its seat in the steam-chest B, and moved

to and fro over the ports in the usual manner. The back of the valve

is a plane surface, parallel with its face. Along the sides of the

steam-chest I provide two parallel guides--one, _b_, inclined

downward and outward, and the other, _b¹_, inclined upward and

outward, as shown in Fig. 1, from a point in the same plane with

the back of the valve and at an angle considerably greater than the

angle of repose of the metal. Theoretically, the plate should move

down its inclined supports if the angle of inclination exceeds at

all the angle of repose; but practically, under conditions, often

unfavorable, existing in the steam-chest to render the action

certain, this angle should be largely in excess, as shown in the

model and drawings. In the instance shown I have provided chambers G

at the ends of the steam-chest, through which the steam may pass over

the ends of the pressure-plate to the ports; but any other approved

passage for the steam may be provided.

The pressure-plate C fits snugly in the steam-chest lengthwise, and

moves freely in it crosswise. This plate has an opening in the top

and a hollow center, so that the steam entering at the top passes

through the center and into the chambers G, at the ends of the

steam-chest. The bottom of this plate has a plane surface, parallel

with the back of the valve A, and beyond this plane surface it has

lateral inclines _c c¹_, parallel with the lateral inclines _b b¹_

on the sides of the steam-chest, so that when the plate is in place

its lateral inclines rest upon and fit closely to the inclines on the

chest, thus supporting the plane surface of the bottom of the plate

close to the top of the valve.

The width of the plate being less than that of the chest B, it will

be seen that the plate in this position would have a certain range of

movement upon the inclines crosswise of the steam-chest.

A screw-stop, H, passes through the steam-chest, and bears upon the

adjacent side of the pressure-plate, which will still be free to be

moved crosswise of the valve.

The operation is as follows: The stop H being adjusted to the point

at which it is desired to maintain the pressure-plate, the pressure

of the steam will act upon the plate and tend to force it down the

inclines _b b¹_ crosswise of the valve and against the stop, which

will thus determine the range of movement of the plate and the

relation between its plane surface and the back of the valve. At the

same time the stop, being entirely independent of or disconnected

from the plate, can be readjusted as required to compensate for

any wear upon the surfaces of the valve or its seat, and the steam

will at all times maintain the plate at the point determined by the

adjustment of the stop. This adjustment is, of course, made without

opening the steam-chest.

I do not claim the employment of inclined supports by a movement

along which the pressure-plate is caused to approach or to recede

from the valve, since this device has been already the subject of

patent; but

I claim as my own invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent--

1. A balance-valve provided with a pressure-plate acted upon by

steam-pressure and having a downward and lateral movement through

means of steep inclines, as shown, as and for the purpose set forth.

2. A balance-valve provided with a pressure-plate reposing upon steep

inclines, as shown, and suitable means for limiting its movement upon

the inclines, the said plate being held down by steam-pressure, as

and for the purpose set forth.

JOHN F. ALLEN.

Witnesses:

DE WITT BOGARDUS,

J. W. DURBROW.

Mr. Morgan’s advice was received by the meeting with a feeling of

relief from a long suspense; it was at once accepted unanimously,

and the temporary organization was made permanent. The directors

immediately convened. Before proceeding to the transaction of business

one of the directors said to me: “Mr. Porter, you have now been in the

Southwark Foundry for six months, and I understand that not a single

engine has been sent out from that place in all that time; will you

tell us why this is so?” I had then an opportunity of witnessing a

nobility of soul such as few persons meet with in the whole course of

their lives. Mr. Merrick rose and said: “I will save Mr. Porter the

trouble of answering that question. Mr. Porter has not sent a single

engine out of these works because he has not had a single tool with

which he could make an engine. I thought I knew all about those tools

when, last March, I assured you and Mr. Porter he would find everything

he could possibly desire, when the fact was I knew nothing about them.

I have been through those tools carefully with Mr. Goodfellow and

have seen for myself that not one of them could produce work fit to

be put in these engines. While I am about it I wish to make another

confession: I said then, and you all agreed with me, that it could not

be expected that the manufacture of these engines could employ all the

resources of that great establishment, and so we left the door open for

the return to it of the class of work which had formerly occupied it;

but from what I have myself seen in the six months I have been there

I am able to say to you that if the works had possessed the resources

which I really believed they did possess, these would have been

insufficient to meet the demand for these engines which has come to us

from all parts of the country and for many different kinds of business.

Mr. Porter knew what he wanted and the demand that might reasonably be

expected; I had no conception of the one or the other. It is a great

pity that we did not then give him the means he asked for, and I hope

this will be done now.”

Mr. Henry Lewis spoke up and said: “What did Mr. Porter ask for? I

have no recollection of his asking us for anything at all.” None of

the directors could remember anything about it; the letter which I had

addressed to the chairman had even disappeared. Luckily, however, I

had made a copy of it, and I produced the letter-book, in which it was

the first letter copied, and read them this copy. I should say here

that I have inquired at the works for this letter-book, but have been

told by Mr. Brooks, the president, that all correspondence more than

twenty years old having no legal value had been destroyed. When I had

finished, Mr. Lewis exclaimed: “Did you write that letter?” “I did,

sir,” I replied. “Well,” he said, “I suppose I must have heard it, but

I have not the faintest recollection of it.” All said the same thing

except Mr. Merrick, as it had brought out his reply.

This illustrates the indifference of the directors at that time to

anything that came from me. An earnest disposition was now manifested

to make all the amends possible; the $100,000 which I had asked for was

immediately appropriated. In view of the utter barrenness of the works

I was asked if it had not better be made $200,000, but this I did not

favor. I told them I would rather proceed more slowly, especially as

many of the old tools might be made serviceable when we should have

perfect tools with which to refit them. So at last I had triumphed at

every point, but at what a cost, O, what a cost!

With a number of other engineers I attended, by invitation, a meeting

held at the office of the _American Machinist_, February 16, 1880,

which determined upon the organization of the American Society of

Mechanical Engineers, and soon after I had the honor of being invited

to read a paper at the first regular meeting of this society, held in

the auditorium of the Stevens Institute at Hoboken, N. J., on the 7th

of April following. The date of this meeting, it will be observed, fell

during the time when the Philadelphia expert was racking his brains to

concoct for me an application for a patent reissue which he felt sure

could not be allowed.

I read the following paper:

“This association can vindicate its right to exist only by exerting

a constant beneficial influence upon engineering practice in all its

departments. At the outset of its career it should take a progressive

attitude, planting itself upon sound principles of construction, aiming

to inspire the engineers of our country with the highest conception of

mechanical truth, and to diffuse a correct understanding of the means

and methods by which this truth is to be attained.

“As one subject of primary importance, I wish to present that of

strength in machine tools. Truth of construction, facility of

operation, and range of application are all, in one sense, subordinate

to this fundamental quality of strength; for they are in a greater or

less degree impaired where adequate strength is not provided.

“But what _is_ adequate strength? On this point there exists among the

makers and users of tools a wide diversity of opinion. On examination

it will be found that this diversity coincides with the diversity in

mechanical sensibility. As the mechanical sense is developed, there

arises in just the same degree the demand for greater strength in

machine tools.

“To the mechanic who has never formed a notion of a division of an inch

more exact than ‘a bare 32d,’ one tool, if it can in any way be kept

from chattering, is as good as another, and better if it is cheaper.

“To those, on the other hand, who demand in every piece, as it comes

from the tool, the closest approach to perfection, both in form and

finish, a degree of strength in the tool appears, and is demonstrated,

to be indispensable that to the former class seems as absurd as the

results attained by means of it appear incredible.

“In this country, as indeed all over the world, the standard of

mechanical truth has been very low. It is here, however, as everywhere,

rapidly rising. The multitude are being educated up to the standard

of the few. In this work members of this association have borne and

now bear an honorable part. Just in the degree that the standard of

mechanical excellence is raised must the demand become more general for

greater strength in machine tools, as indispensable to its attainment.

“But what is the standard of strength? The anvil affords perhaps its

best illustration. It is a strength enormously beyond that which

prevents a tendency to chatter, a strength that under even the heaviest

labor prevents the least vibration of any part of the tool, or any

indication of effort more than if the object being cut were a mass of

butter.

“It will be seen that this absolute solidity in machine tools, while

truth cannot be attained without it, enables also mechanical operations

generally to be performed with far greater expedition, and the

subsequent work of the finisher to be in any case much diminished and

often dispensed with entirely.

“We are enabled in most cases to come at once to the form desired,

whatever may be the quantity of material to be removed, and always

to finish the surface with a degree of truth and polish otherwise

unattainable, dispensing in a great measure with the use of that

abomination, the file.

“Now, with this standard in our minds we look over the face of the land

and behold it covered with rubbish.

“It is curious to observe how ingenious toolmakers have generally been

in trying to avoid this quality of strength, and how deceptive an

appearance in this respect many tools present.

“It is interesting also to note how little this quality of solidity

adds to the cost of castings. The addition is merely so much more

pig-iron and really not that, because in the stove-plate style the

forms are more complicated, the patterns more expensive and frail, and

the cost of molding is greater. But what signifies even a considerable

increase in the first cost of a tool that in daily use is to perform

the work of many and is to place its possessor on a mechanical eminence?

“It is not the purpose of this paper to enter into details,

interesting and important as these are, but to draw attention to the

subject in a general way. The improvement observed quite recently in

this respect, as well as in other points of tool construction, is

highly gratifying and encourages the expectation of still further and

more general progress.”

The following summer I employed some of my leisure time in making the

plans for a couple of machine tools. One of these was a double-drilling

machine for boring the boxes of connecting-rods, there being then

no such machine in existence to my knowledge. I had been planning

such a machine in my mind as long ago as when I was in the works of

Ormerod, Grierson & Co., in Manchester, England, in 1864-5. This

tool was designed first to bore the two boxes simultaneously and

rapidly, and, secondly, to bore them with absolute accuracy in their

distance apart and in the intersection by their axes of the axis

of the rod at right angles in the same plane, and all this without

measurement or setting out or the possibility of error. The other tool

was comparatively a small affair. I utilized an old milling-machine

for facing simultaneously the opposite sides of nuts and taking the

roughing and finishing cuts at the same time. The ends of the nuts were

first faced on a special mandrel which insured their being normal to

the axis of the thread. A string of these nuts was then threaded on a

mandrel fitting the top of their threads and some 15 or 18 inches long,

on which they were held against a hardened collar, the diameter of

which was equal to the distance between their opposite finished faces.

The cutting tools were set in two disks about 12 inches in diameter;

they were set about an inch apart alternately in two circles, one about

one eighth of an inch inside the other, and were held in position by

set-screws in the periphery. The cutters in the outer circles did the

roughing; those in the inner circles were set projecting about 0.001

of an inch beyond the roughing tools and finished the surfaces. The

mandrel was set between centers, and the string of nuts was supported

from the table at the middle of its length. The nuts were secured in

position by a dividing plate on the forward center-bearing. What was

done with the two drawings I will state presently.

My success, as already related, came so swiftly and completely after

six months of anxiety as to be almost overwhelming. The more I thought

about it the more ecstatic I became; all my disasters had been of a

nature the effect of which time would soon efface. I was full of high

anticipations, I could see no cloud in the sky; I awakened to my old

zeal and energy and set myself eagerly to the work of providing new

equipment, unable to realize the real helplessness of my position.

Little did I dream that I was already doomed to drink to its dregs the

bitter cup of responsibility without authority. That story will come

soon enough; now I will ask the reader to accompany me in my work of

filling the shop with new tools.

My principal orders were sent to my old friends, Smith & Coventry,

in England. Among others I sent one for my double-drilling machine

with the drawings. I received a reply from them stating that they had

just furnished a similar machine to the firm of Hick, Hargreaves &

Company, the eminent engine-builders of Bolton, and that they thought

I would prefer their design for this machine, of which they sent a

blue print, to my own. I should think I did prefer it; it was simply

wonderful. It presented one feature of especial interest, which was

that the two drills were driven independently and when not employed

on connecting-rods could be applied to any other drilling work. So I

ordered that tool, and its work fully justified my expectations. I

ordered from them several planers, the largest one passing a body five

feet square. The planers they sent me had two novel features which

filled me with admiration. The tables were provided with broad, flat

shoes running on corresponding flat guides, the sideways wear being

taken up by an adjustable gib on one side. This construction enables

the bearing surfaces to be made one true plane from end to end, making

cross-wind impossible. The next feature by which these planers were

distinguished was the mode of lubricating these surfaces. Each guide

was provided in the middle of its length with an oil-well which was a

large square box, formed in the casting. In the middle of this box was

a small rod on which two levers were pivoted, the arms of which were

of equal length. At one end these arms carried a roller, and at the

other end a weight considerably heavier than the roller. The roller was

thus kept up against the under side of the shoe, while its lower side

ran in the oil; thus the lubrication was effected by the revolution of

this roller, which needed to be only one half the width of the face

lubricated; this was found to be the perfection of lubrication. The

tables were very stiff and were provided only with T slots from end to

end for holding the work.

I built a one-story addition to the erecting-floor, about 40×100 feet,

occupying a space which had before been used mostly as a stable. I

divided this into two bays by columns, and provided each bay with an

overhead traveler of about five tons capacity, worked by rope loops

hanging to the floor. These were also made for me by Smith & Coventry.

I ordered from Mr. Moore, of Philadelphia, one or two of the heavy

and powerful lathes built by him for turning chilled rolls. I also

ordered a six-foot square planer from the Hewes & Phillips Iron Works

in Newark, which they made expressly heavy, having become infected with

my ideas on that subject. From Pratt & Whitney I ordered one large

lathe and one or two small planers, and other tools from several other

American makers.

In one instance only I was disappointed; that was the case of a 12-foot

horizontal turning and boring machine. On examining the blue-prints

which were sent me at my request, I was struck with the lightness of

the table, and conditioned my order on this being made twice as heavy,

which was done. If I had made the same requirement for every other part

of the machine, I should have done a good thing for both the builders

and myself. The table ran on a circular track, which was superbly

designed. This track consisted of a circular trough perhaps 8 or 10

inches wide, and in the middle of it a bearing surface for the table,

raised perhaps half an inch above the bottom of the trough and half

an inch lower than its sides. This bearing surface was about 6 inches

wide and was intersected by diagonal grooves about a foot apart. Oil

could stand in this trough above the level of the bearing surfaces. I

made a little improvement on the method of supplying the oil. As sent,

a dose of oil was poured through a hole in the table, which was filled

with a screw plug when not required to be used. I screwed a plug into

that hole to stay, and drilled a hole in the bottom of the trough, in

which I screwed a ³⁄₈-inch pipe that I carried under the bottom of

the machine, and up behind one of the uprights to a higher level, and

in the end of this pipe I screwed a sight-feed oil-cup. I provided a

drain-pipe, which would maintain the oil in the trough at the desired

level, while it was fed to the trough continually, drop by drop, as

required. This table came with an imperfectly finished bearing surface.

I set several men at work to bed these surfaces properly, and did a

fine job of scraping on them. When it was finished, I pulled the table

around with one hand, it floating dry on the air caught between the two

surfaces. When we came to use the tool it chattered, and would do so

however light the cut we were taking; every part of it was too light

and vibrated, except the table. After all, it was the best tool of this

kind and size that I could have got in this country. If made of proper

strength I should have been able to use four cutting tools in the work,

each leaving a perfectly smooth surface; but that was a degree of

strength and usefulness that builders at that time had not dreamed of.

One of the first of our smaller engines, 10×20 inches, I built for

ourselves, setting it in a location convenient for transmitting power

to both the machine- and erecting-shops.

The job of taking the cross-wind out of the great planer interested

me perhaps more than anything else, on account of its difficulty. It

was a long time before I could decide how to go about it; besides the

cross-wind, the guides were not parallel; at one end the V’s on the

table bore on one side, and at the other end on the opposite side. I

finally made an apparatus consisting of two V’s about three feet long,

and connected by a cross-bar on which was set a spirit-level having

a ground bubble. Another similar level was set on top of one of the

V’s. With this apparatus, which was strong enough and was finished in

the most perfect manner, and a brass wire, I was able to determine

beforehand what was necessary to be done at every point in the guides.

To finish this job on the bed, and afterwards on the V’s under the

table, required fully three months’ work, including the time spent in

preparing the apparatus, a job I could not begin until I had our new

planers. When it was done I was able to make a perfect job of the great

engine beds already mentioned, and other work which was waiting for it.

Among the old tools was one large drilling-machine, the size of which

and the strength of its framing impressed me very favorably; but when

we came to use it we found it would not drill a round hole. This defect

could doubtless have been remedied by grinding the spindle, when we got

a tool in which to do it, and fitting new boxes. It was determined,

however, by Mr. Goodfellow and myself, that it would not be worth while

to bother with it, because it had been so badly designed that the two

traversing screws for the compound table, with which it was furnished,

were located centrally, and so crossed each other exactly under the

spindle. It was therefore impossible to use a boring-bar in this tool,

and its usefulness was ridiculously disproportioned to its size. The

contrast between it and the Smith & Coventry drill, which was set in

its place, was really wonderful. We had no trouble in disposing of

this and all other rejected tools to parties who were delighted to get

them cheap. It took us about six months to get rid of all the rubbish

and fill the works with the best tools then obtainable, though still

deficient in many respects, as, for instance, the great planer, which

had only one cutting tool on the cross-slide, whereas a planer of that

size should be provided with four cutting tools--two on the cross-slide

and one on each upright, and should be twice as heavy.

One of the first engines we sold was to D. M. Osborne & Co., the

celebrated makers of mowers and reapers in Auburn, for driving their

rolling mill. This was 18×30-inch engine, making 150 revolutions

per minute, and was the fifth engine I had furnished to different

industries in my native town.

Twenty-five years afterwards I saw this engine running. They had

increased its speed. By means of a large ball on projections of the

forked lever they were able to vary the speed from 200 revolutions to

250 revolutions per minute, according to the sizes they were rolling.

I observed that, as our facilities for doing work were increased, the

belief that I was unable to execute orders became general through

the country, and applications, at first numerous, dwindled to almost

nothing. United and well-directed action would soon have put a new face

on matters, but now I was to meet with obstacles that time could not

overcome.

Mr. Merrick was an amiable and high-toned gentleman, whose sole aim

was to do his duty; but he was exactly the wrong man for the place.

He was not an engineer or mechanic. In the firm of S. V. Merrick &

Sons he had been the office man. He was entirely a man of routine. He

seemed obtuse to a mechanical reason for doing or not doing anything.

Of course he knew nothing about my business. He was impressed with the

idea of the omnipotence of the president, which in his case was true,

as the directors would unanimously approve of whatever he might do. He

at once deprived me of the power of appointment and discharge in my own

department, arrogating all authority to himself. In addition he was

naturally a very reserved man, I may say secretive. He consulted me

about nothing. I never knew what he proposed to do or was doing until I

found out afterwards. He had grandly confessed his first two blunders,

but unfortunately he continued to make mistakes equally serious to the

end of the chapter.

About the first order we had was from a company formed for lighting

the streets in Philadelphia with arc lights, of which Thomas Dolan, a

prominent manufacturer in Philadelphia, was president. Our order was

for eight engines, 8×16 inches, to drive eight Brush dynamos each of

40-light power. The order was given to Mr. Merrick. I never saw Mr.

Dolan; his own mill was at the northern end of the city, and he met

Mr. Merrick by appointment at lunch in the business center, to which

conferences I was never invited. When the plant was in operation I

heard incidentally that they had a new engineer at the electric-light

works, and I thought I would go up and make his acquaintance. I went

the same evening. I was met at the door by a stranger who politely

showed me the plant. I did not introduce myself. He asked me if I were

interested in electric lighting. I told him I was not but might be. He

said it was his duty to warn me against the use of high-speed engines;

he should not have advised these, but found them already installed

when he took charge of the place, and he was doing the best he could

to make them answer for the present, but the works would be greatly

enlarged after a while, when these engines would be gotten rid of and

proper engines substituted in place of them. He called his assistant

to corroborate his statement of the difficulty they had in getting

along with them. I listened to these outrageous falsehoods and looked

around and saw the eight engines running smoothly and silently at 280

revolutions per minute, each engine exerting the power of four engines

of the same size, at the old maximum speed of 70 revolutions per

minute, and giving absolutely uniform motion without a fly-wheel, and

said nothing.

The next morning I made an early call on Mr. Dolan at his office. I

introduced myself to him, although I think he knew me by sight. I told

him the state of affairs I found at the electric-light station and

received from him in reply the following astounding statement. He said:

“Mr. Porter, when this company was formed I selected the Southwark

Foundry as our engineers. I had previously become acquainted with the

running of some of your engines and had come to the conclusion that

they were just what we needed; accordingly I ordered our first engines

from you. I assumed the engineering department of this enterprise to be

in your hands, and that you would be represented here by an engineer

selected by yourselves and devoted to your interest. Accordingly, when

your men had finished their job I applied to your president to send me

an engineer. He sent me a workman. That was not the kind of man I asked

him for; the engines were in charge of workmen already from your own

works. I wanted an educated man who could represent us in the courts

and before the city councils--in short, an engineering head for this

business, now in its infancy, but which was expected to grow to large

proportions. He ought to have known what I wanted, or if he did not he

should have asked me; his whole manner was entirely indifferent, he

seemed to take no interest in the enterprise.

“Seeing I could get no help from Mr. Merrick, I applied to

William Sellers for an engineer. He sent me a young man from his

drawing-office, and I soon found out he was not the man I wanted;

he knew nothing about a steam-engine--was merely a machine-tool

draftsman--so I found I must rely upon myself. The only man I could

think of was this man I have. He had done some good work for me two

or three years ago in repairing one of my engines, so I offered him

the position, which he accepted. I knew nothing of his engineering

preferences; he seems to be doing very well, and I am afraid he will

have to stay;” and stay he did.

The result was most remarkable. A demand for electric-lighting plants

was springing up in all parts of the country. This became widely

known as a pioneer plant, and was visited daily by parties who were

interested in such projects. These visitors were met at the door by

the engineer and his assistant and were warned, just as I was, to have

nothing to do with a high-speed engine. They were always business

men, quite ignorant of machinery, and with whom the testimony of two

practical men who had experience with the engines and were actuated in

their advice by a sense of duty was conclusive. The result was that we

never had a single application to supply engines for electric lighting.

Yes, we did have one application; a man came into the office when I

was there alone and gave me an order for his mill and apologized to me

for giving it. He said the place where he was obliged to locate his

lighting plant was so limited, he found he could not get in the engine

he wanted.

This result I felt especially exasperated at when a year afterwards the

secretary of the lighting company, who had his office at the station,

told me that he had done something of which he knew his directors would

not approve; he had sold every light they were able to furnish. He

had felt safe in doing this, because no one of the engines had failed

them for an instant. For his part he could not see what those men were

there for--they had absolutely nothing to do except to start and stop

the engines as required and attend to the oiling. Their principal

occupation seemed to be waiting on visitors.

This great disaster would have been avoided if Mr. Merrick had

conferred with me with respect to Mr. Dolan’s most important request.

We should have had a man there who would have told the truth about

the engines, and would have impressed every visitor with the enormous

advantage of the high-speed engine, not only for that service, but also

for every use to which steam power can be applied.

It will be observed that this disaster was widespread and continuous.

It not only caused a great immediate loss, but its ultimate injury was

beyond all computation. Its effect was that the Porter-Allen engine was

shut out of the boundless field of generating electricity for light

and power purposes, a field which was naturally its own.

The following story is too good to keep, although the incident had no

effect that I am aware of to accelerate my downward progress. While

in Newark I had built for Mr. Edison an engine for his experimental

plant at Menlo Park. The satisfaction this engine gave may be judged

by what follows: One day I had a call from Mr. Edison, accompanied by

Charles L. Clarke, his engineer. They had been walking very rapidly,

and Mr. Edison, who was rather stout, was quite out of breath. As soon

as they were seated, without waiting to recover his wind Mr. Edison

began, ejaculating each sentence while catching his breath: “Want a

thousand engines.” “Thousand engines.” “Want you to make the plans for

them.” “Have all the shops in New England working on the parts.” “Bring

them here to be assembled.” “Thousand engines.” In the conversation

that followed I gently let Mr. Edison down, not to the earth, but in

sight of it. The result was that two or three weeks afterwards I was

injudicious enough to accept from him an order for twenty-four engines,

luckily all of one size and type. This was to be a rush order, but it

called for new drawings and patterns, as he wanted a special proportion

of diameter and stroke, larger diameter and shorter stroke than those

in my table. Before the drawings and patterns were completed, Mr.

Edison, or the people associated with him, discovered that they had no

place to put more than six of these engines, so the order was reduced

to six. These were for a station which was being prepared on the west

side of Pearl Street, a few doors south of Fulton, New York City. Three

of these engines were finished first. After they had been running a

few days a defect of some kind, the nature of which I never knew, was

discovered, and Mr. Edison’s attention was called to it. He charged it

to the engine, and exclaimed impetuously, “Turn them out, turn them

out!” It was represented to him, however, that they could hardly do

this, as they were under contract for a considerable amount of light

and power, and the current was being furnished satisfactorily. “Well,”

said he, “we’ll have no more of them at any rate,” so the order for

the remaining three engines was countermanded, and three Armington &

Sims engines were ordered in place of them. When these were started

the same difficulty appeared with them also. A fresh investigation

disclosed the fact that the difficulty was entirely an electrical one,

and the engines had nothing to do with it. Mr. Clarke claimed that had

been his belief from the beginning. So the thousand engines dwindled to

three engines sold and three thrown back on our hands. The two triplets

ran together harmoniously until in the development of the electrical

business that station was abandoned.

Directly after we began to do work, Mr. E. D. Leavitt brought us the

business of the Calumet and Hecla mine. This was then the largest

copper mine in the country, owned by a Boston company of which Mr.

Agassiz, son of the great naturalist, was president. He brought it to

me personally on account of his admiration for the engine, and also

for the character of work which I had inaugurated. His first order was

for an engine of moderate size. While that was building he brought

us a small order for a repair job, amounting perhaps to a couple of

hundred dollars. That work was spoiled in the shop by some blunder and

had to be thrown away and made over again. By accident I saw the bill

for that job; a green boy brought it from the treasurer’s desk for Mr.

Merrick’s approval. We both happened to be out, and by mistake he laid

it on my side of the table. I came in first, picked it up and read it,

and saw that it was for the full amount of the material and work that

had been put on the job. It seemed to me quite double what it ought to

be. I laid it on Mr. Merrick’s side and, when he came in, told him how

I came to see it, and I thought it should not be sent, being so greatly

increased by our own fault. “Oh,” said he, “they are rich; they won’t

mind it.” I said: “That is not the question with me; I don’t think it

is just to charge our customers for our own blunders.” He smiled at

my innocence, saying: “If a machine-shop does not make its customers

pay for its blunders, it will soon find itself in the poorhouse.”

“Well,” said I, “I protest against this bill being sent.” However, it

was sent, and in the course of a few days a check came for the full

amount, and Mr. Merrick laughed at me. Weeks and months passed away and

we had heard no more from Mr. Leavitt, when I met him in New York at

a meeting of the council of the Society of Mechanical Engineers. When

the meeting was over he invited me to walk with him, and said to me: “I

suppose you have observed that I have not visited the Southwark Foundry

lately.” I told him I had observed it. He then said: “Do you remember

that bill?” I told him I did very well, and how vainly I had protested

against its being sent. He said: “When that bill was brought to me for

approval, I hesitated about putting my initials to it until I had shown

it to Mr. Agassiz. I told him what the job was and the bill was quite

twice as large as I had expected. He replied, ‘Pay it, but don’t go to

them any more,’ and I have taken our work to the Dickson Manufacturing

Company at Scranton.” I realized that I had lost the most influential

engineering friend I had since the death of Mr. Holley. I heard some

years after, and believe it, though I do not vouch for its correctness,

that the work sent to the Dickson Manufacturing Company through Mr.

Leavitt had in one year exceeded one hundred thousand dollars.

[Illustration: E. D. LEAVITT]

Some time previous to these events, Mr. Merrick had done a very

high-handed thing. Assuming supreme power as president of the company,

he had invaded my department, and, without a word to me, had appointed

over Mr. Goodfellow a superintendent to suit himself, reducing Mr.

Goodfellow to be general foreman of the machine-shop, to take his

orders from the new superintendent and not from me, whereupon Mr.

Goodfellow resigned, and accepted a position as master mechanic in

the Pennsylvania Steel Works, and by his advice the engine ordered by

them from me was taken from the Southwark Foundry in its incomplete

condition and finished by themselves under Mr. Goodfellow’s direction.

Mr. Merrick then filled Mr. Goodfellow’s place with another friend of

his own as general foreman, a man who would have been as valuable as

a stick of wood but for his incessant blunders. I was fully alive to

the arbitrary nature of this usurpation, but was entirely helpless,

knowing perfectly well that the directors would sustain the president

in whatever he did.

With the coming of the new superintendent, the fatal change took

place. He came, first of all, full of the superiority of Philadelphia

mechanics, and, second, feeling that in the nature of things I must

be entirely ignorant of anything mechanical. I was nothing but a New

York lawyer; never did a day’s work in a shop in my life; had gone into

a business I was not educated to and knew nothing about. My presuming

to give orders to mechanics, and Philadelphia mechanics too, filled

him with indignation. He would not take an order from me--perish the

thought--and as for my drawings, he would depart from them as much as

he liked.

All this appeared by degrees. I observed on the floor several cylinders

fitted up, in which the followers for the piston-rod stuffing-boxes

were made sliding fits on the rods. I asked him why he had made them in

this way when they were drawn and figured to be bored ¹⁄₃₂ inch larger

than the rod. He replied, “Because this is the way they ought to be.”

I told him every one of them would be fired before the engine had run

an hour; that I wanted him to bore those followers to the drawings,

as well as the cylinder heads back of the stuffing-boxes. “It shall

be done, sir,” said he. On examining them after this had been done, I

found he had turned as much off from the outside of the followers as he

had bored out of the hole. I asked him why he had done that. He said he

supposed if I wanted the inside to be loose, I wanted the outside to

be loose too. I told him I did not. He asked me why. I told him he was

not there to argue with me; I wanted him to throw those followers away

and make new ones precisely to the drawings, and I saw to it myself

that it was done. I went to Mr. Merrick about this matter, and can

the reader imagine what his reply was? “My advice to you, Mr. Porter,

is to leave all such matters to the superintendent.” Think of it; an

amateur president assuming the direction of my business, and giving

such advice to me, who never had left the least thing to anybody, and

without considering the fact that the action of his superintendent

would be ruinous, except for my interference. I realized that I was

absolutely alone, but I felt very much like fighting the whole world.

The above incident is a fair sample of my constant experience. I was on

the watch all the time. Many times I required the work to be done over

when the superintendent departed from my drawings, and in doing it over

he generally contrived to ruin the job, and would say, “Just according

to your orders, sir.” I was reminded of a story told of Dr. Beman, a

minister of Troy, N. Y., whose wife was peculiar, to say the least.

On a certain occasion the presbytery met in Troy, and one evening he

invited its members to his house, and told his wife to provide just a

light supper. When they were ushered into the supper-room there was

nothing on the table but lighted candles. “A light supper,” said she,

“just as you ordered, sir.”

[Illustration: SAMUEL T. WELLMAN]

I proposed to appoint an inspector to represent me. The general foreman

said if an inspector were appointed he should resign, and Mr. Merrick

forbade it. Was ever a man in so helpless and ridiculous a position?

[Illustration:

February 2nd

Porter-Allen Engine--40×48

Otis Iron and Steel Co.

93 Rev. } Cleveland,

84 Lbs. } April 14, 1882]

The second of the large engines which I finished was for the Otis Steel

Works. I went to Cleveland myself to start the engine and found that

Mr. Wellman, the general manager, had it running already. Mr. Otis, the

president, was very much pleased with it, and well he might be. This

was the first mill to roll plates from the ingot to the finish without

reheating. These were the kind of diagrams it made. It will be observed

that these were taken at different times and under different pressures.

Unfortunately the right hand one is the only diagram I have from the

crank end of the cylinder. In rolling these heavy plates the changes

were made instantaneously from full load to nothing and from nothing to

full load. The engine made 93 revolutions per minute, and it will be

seen that the changes were made by the governor in a third of a second

or less, the speed not varying sensibly. Mr. Otis said to me: “Oh, Mr.

Porter, what shall I do with you? You cannot imagine the loss I have

suffered from your delay in furnishing this engine.” I said: “Mr. Otis,

you know the terrible time I have had, and that I have done the very

best I could.” “Yes,” he said, “I know all about it.” He had, in fact,

been to Philadelphia and seen for himself. He added: “You make a small

engine suitable for electric lights; what is the price of an engine

maintaining twenty-five arc lights?” I told him $1050. “Well,” said

he, “you strike off the odd fifty and let me have one for a thousand

dollars, and we will call it square,” so I had some sunshine on my way.

I present a portrait of this just man. The engine is now running as

good as new after twenty-five years, and the company five or six years

afterwards put in another 48×66-inch to drive a still larger train.

I had a funny experience at the Cambria Works which has always

seemed to me to have been prophetic. In August, 1881, the Society of

Mechanical Engineers held a meeting in Altoona, and the Pennsylvania

Railroad Company gave us an excursion to Johnstown to visit the works

of the Cambria Company. The anticipations of the members were expressed

by Jackson Bailey, then the editor of the _American Machinist_. As

I was going through a car in which he was seated he called out to

me, “This is your day, Porter.” The party was taken in charge by

Mr. Morrell, the general manager. Our route took us first to their

new blast-furnaces, where considerable time was spent in examining

their new and interesting features. Next we came to my second engine,

started some two months before. The engine was just being slowed down;

we were told there were not yet furnaces enough to keep the train

running continuously, so they were shut down from half an hour to an

hour between heats, and a heat had just been run off. We went next to

see my rail-mill engine, which had raised the output of that mill 150

per cent. That too had been shut down. They had just broken a roll, a

most rare accident and one which I had never before seen or heard of

there. “Well, gentlemen,” said I, “at any rate I can show you my engine

driving a cold saw.” Arrived at the spot, we found that all still, and

were told that sawing cold rails was not a continuous operation, we had

hit upon the noon hour, and the men had gone to their dinner. That was

the end of the show, as far as I was concerned. The Gautier Works were

a mile away and were not included in our visit, so we were entertained

with the great blooming-mill in operation and the casting of the

enormous ingots for it, and after the customary luncheon and speeches

we returned to Altoona.

[Illustration: CHARLES A. OTIS]

One day the superintendent came into the office and told me he had

tried my machine for facing nuts and it would not work. I felt

disappointed, because I had confidence in it. I went out to see what

the matter was, and at a glance I saw that it had been ingeniously

arranged not to work. The feed had been made rapid and the cutting

motion very slow, so that the tools could not take their cuts and the

slow-moving belt ran off the pulleys. I did not reduce the feed-motion,

but increased the speed of the cutters and the belt some eight or

ten-fold, when the trouble vanished. I never knew anything to work

better than that tool did.

[Illustration: Porter-Allen Engine 40″×48″ #207

Dash pot for Governor.]

The burning anxiety of the superintendent was to show up my ignorance.

A first-rate chance to do so soon seemed to present itself. The

counterpoise of the governor of the Otis engine dropped instantly to

its seat when a plate struck the rolls and as instantly rose to the top

of its range of action when it left them. This made a noisy blow which

was disagreeable and might in time cause an accident. Mr. Wellman sent

me a sketch of a device he had thought of for arresting this motion by

air-cushions. I told the superintendent to have that apparatus made

and make the air-cushions four inches in diameter. He said four inches

diameter would not answer; they must be eight inches. “No,” said I,

“four inches diameter is ample; make them four inches.” A few days

after he called me into the shop to try my four-inch air-cushions. I

found the apparatus secured in a vise in a vertical position. I took

hold of the lever and lifted the piston; it met with no resistance

until it struck sharply against the end of the chamber. For a moment

I was stunned by the man’s audacity, and threw the piston up and down

again to make sure it was not a dream. I then turned my back on the

superintendent and called to a boy to find Mr. Fulmer, the foreman

of the second floor, and tell him I wanted him here. In a moment he

appeared, and I said to him: “Mr. Fulmer, I want you to make a new

piston for this apparatus and make it a proper fit; you understand.”

Mr. Fulmer bowed assent. I added: “There will be time to-day to get it

into the sand, and it can be finished early to-morrow. When it is ready

for my inspection come yourself to the office and let me know.” About

the middle of the next forenoon Mr. Fulmer called for me. I went in

and found the piston arrested at each end of its motion by a perfect

air-cushion. “All right,” said I, “see that it is shipped to-day.”

Mr. Fulmer was an excellent mechanic and a man of good general

intelligence; he would have made the piston a proper fit in the first

place if he had not been expressly ordered to make it loose and

useless. The superintendent, on his persistent assumption that I was

a fool, had actually expected me to say when I tried the apparatus:

“Oh, I see, four inches diameter will not do. You will have to make it

eight.”

Some time in 1881 or 1882 I had a queer experience with an engine for

the New York Post Office. It was to take the place of an engine then

running. The engineer of the Post Office informed me that this engine

had a cylinder twelve inches in diameter. I told him it looked to me

from the external dimensions that the diameter must be fourteen inches

and asked him to take off the back head and measure it for me. He wrote

me a few days after that he found that he could not get the back head

off, but I might rely upon it being twelve inches. So I did rely upon

it being fourteen inches, furnished an engine accordingly, and found it

to be the size needed.

[Illustration: DANIEL J. MORRELL]

Some time after the engine was started I received a line from the

Postmaster saying they were much disappointed in it. They expected a

gain in economy, but they were burning more coal than before, also that

the engine pounded badly. I went to New York to see what the matter

was. The engine seemed to be working all right except for the knock, so

I made my way down to the sub-cellar. There was nothing there but the

boilers and the engineer’s desk. On the cellar stairs, after I had shut

the door behind me, I heard a loud sound of escaping steam. The boilers

were under the middle of the building; a four-inch steam-pipe ran from

them a distance of about eighty feet, suspended from the ceiling, to a

point under the engine, then turned up through the floor to the under

side of the steam-chest. The exhaust pipe, of the same size, came

from the engine through the floor and was carried parallel with the

steam-pipe to the middle of the building and upward through the roof.

The two pipes were about eighteen inches apart, and in the vertical

portions under the ceiling they had been connected by a half-inch pipe

having a globe valve in the middle of its length. The valve-stem was

downward and the valve set wide open. The noise I heard was caused by

the steam rushing through this pipe. I computed that about as much

steam was being thus blown away as was used by the engine. My first

impulse was to call upon the Postmaster and tell him what I had found,

but I decided not to bother him. I could not reach the valve to close

it, but discovered a box used for a step to an opening in the wall, so

I brought that out and standing upon it was able to close the valve;

then the noise ceased and I put the box back.

There was no one in the cellar but a boy firing the boilers. I asked

him if he knew who put that pipe there. He knew nothing about it, but

supposed our men put it there when they set up the engine. I hunted

up the engineer and asked him the same question, and got the same

answer. I went to the people who did the engineering work for the Post

Office and who had put in the pipes; they knew nothing about it. I

could find out nothing, but had to content myself with telling the

engineer that I had closed the valve and relied upon him to keep it

closed. I asked him what he thought caused the thump in the engine;

he said he had not the slightest idea, but he would try to cure it.

I contented myself with writing to the Postmaster that I had removed

the cause of the waste of steam and hoped he would now find the engine

satisfactory. Soon after Mr. Merrick was in New York for two or three

days. When he came home he said: “I have cured the thump in that Post

Office engine.” “How did you do it?” I asked. He replied: “I gave the

engineer a twenty-dollar gold piece, and when I went to see it the next

morning the thump was gone.” I should add that when the old engine was

taken down I had the back cylinder head removed, which was done without

difficulty, and found the diameter fourteen inches. “For ways that

are dark and tricks that are vain” this engineer was “peculiar” in my

experience.

I had brought with me from Newark an order from the Willimantic Linen

Company, who were manufacturers of cotton thread, for two engines

for quite an interesting application. They were building a new mill

entirely unique in its design, which has never been repeated, being an

ignorant freak. It was a one-story mill 800 feet long and 250 or 300

feet wide, intended to contain five lines of shafting. Each line was

independent and drove the machinery for all the successive operations

from opening the cotton bales to packing the spools of thread. These

lines of shafting 800 feet long were to be in the basement and to drive

these machines by belts through the floor, the engine to be in the

middle of each line. For this purpose I supplied a pair of condensing

engines, 11 inches diameter of cylinder and 16 inches stroke, making

350 revolutions per minute, with their cranks set at right angles

with each other in the line of shafting. These required no fly-wheel

and would start from any position. I had a great deal of trouble with

this order on account of the delay in its execution, so much so that

before the first engine was finished the order for the second one was

countermanded, and this order was placed with the Hartford Engineering

Company, a new concern which was foolish enough to undertake the same

speed. However, after my first engine was started they found themselves

face to face with an impossibility and had to throw up their contract,

whereupon the president of the company became very civil and asked me

to be kind enough to make the second engine for them, which I was quite

happy to do, as I had on hand the peculiar bed for these engines, which

I did not break up after the order was countermanded, but had it set up

against the wall of the shop in readiness for what might happen. These

two engines were both in successful operation when my own operations

ceased; the remaining three engines were to be added as their business

required.

The engineer of that company was an original investigator. He had a

battery of return-tubular boilers, each one crammed full of tubes

according to the usual methods of boiler-makers. He provided himself

with pieces of lath one inch wide, one eighth of an inch thick, and

four inches long, and laid one in the front end of each tube in one

of his boilers and left them there for twenty-four hours. He had made

a diagram of his boiler on which he numbered every tube and put a

corresponding number on every piece of lath. In taking them out they

presented an astonishing revelation, which he showed me. Some of the

pieces were burned almost to a coal and some were scarcely discolored,

while the great body of them presented various effects of heat between

these extremes. These showed distinctly the enormous differences in

the temperature of the gases passing through the different tubes, and

that fully one half of the tubes did little or no work in evaporating

the water. They taught a lesson which boiler-makers, who count every

additional tube they can get into a boiler as so much added heating

surface and rate their boilers accordingly, have no anxiety to learn,

but which I afterwards turned to good account, as will be seen.

About the last and the most interesting engine that I built

while in Philadelphia was one for the firm of Cheney Brothers,

silk-manufacturers, of South Manchester, Conn. This was a

cross-compound, the first and the last compound engine that I ever

built, and it is the only engine in this country to which I applied

my condenser. The cylinders were 12 and 21 inches in diameter, the

stroke 24 inches, and the shaft made 180 revolutions per minute. The

condenser presented a new design in one respect; the air-pump was

double-acting and made only 45 double strokes per minute, being driven

by a belt from the engine shaft and the motion reduced by gears 1 to

4. This engine ran perfectly from the start, and I looked forward with

confidence to a demand for many more of the same type. The diagrams

made by it are here reproduced.

[Illustration:

Scale, 1″ = 32 Lbs.

Atmosphere

Scale, 1″ = 16 Lbs.

Atmosphere

Diagrams from my First and Only Compound Engine.]

I have a pleasant memory connected with this engine. The silk-mill is

located in a very large park, scattered about which are the residences

of different members of the family. About twelve years after the

engine was built, in company with my wife, I was visiting relatives in

Hartford, from which South Manchester is about twelve miles distant.

One day we were driven over there with our friends to make a social

call. On our arrival I left the party to make a visit to my old engine.

The mill seemed to have been changed very much, and I lost my way.

Finally I recognized, as I thought, the old engine-room and went in.

My engine was not there, but in its place stood another engine, a pair

of tandem compounds of much larger dimensions. These had evidently

just been erected, as they stood idle. “Oh, dear,” said I to myself,

“my engines have been superseded for some reason or other.” While I was

indulging in that reflection the engineer came in. I introduced myself

and said to him: “I see that my old engines have been supplanted.” “Oh,

no,” said he, “your engines are all right; they are running just where

they always have been. They have built a new mill twice as large as the

old one, and your engines have been giving such satisfaction they have

ordered another pair of compounds from the Southwark Foundry, and these

are the engines; they have not been started yet, as the mill is not

ready for them and won’t be for a month.”

He directed me to the old engine-room, where I found my engines gliding

away as though they had been erected yesterday. At that time I regarded

these engines as only a stepping-stone to far higher things. I was

engaged on a plan for a great development of the high speed system,

but which has not materialized. I still consider it as on the whole

superior to the turbine, a superiority, however, which may never be

established.

In the spring of 1881, in our anxiety to revive the manufacture of the

engine, we were foolish enough to send one to the Atlanta exhibition.

We eagerly believed the promises of the agent that we should find all

the machinery that we wanted to drive, and sent an engine finished with

great care, and a skillful man to erect and run it. We also printed the

heading of a lot of diagrams, to be given to visitors. The facts were

found to be that we had nothing to drive but an idle line of shafting

and one Clark’s spool-winder, while the exhaust main was so small and

choked with the exhausts from other engines that we had a back pressure

of ten pounds above the atmosphere; so we could take no diagrams; and

the fact that we did not take any was used as a conclusive argument

against high-speed engines; so the exhibition did us harm instead of

good.

I pass over other distressing experiences at the works, and come at

once to the final catastrophy in the late fall of 1882.

Another exhibition opened in the fall of 1882, for which I made great

preparations, and from which I anticipated important results. This

was the exhibition of the New England Manufacturers’ and Mechanics’

Institute, held in Boston. I obtained an important allotment of space

with plenty of machinery to drive, and, besides a fine engine, sent

a large exhibit of our finished work, in the parts of several sizes

of engines, expecting to attract the attention of all New England

manufacturers. I prepared for a regular campaign. I rented an office

and engaged a young man to represent us in Boston as our agent, and

another, Mr. Edwin F. Williams, to travel and solicit orders and

take the charge of erecting engines. Our engine arrived without a

piston. Mr. Merrick had thought he had found a defect in the piston,

and ordered another one to be made. When we came to put the engine

together in the exhibition, this piston would not enter the cylinder.

On examination it was found to have been turned conical, the bases

of the two cones meeting in the middle, so the middle was one eighth

of an inch larger in diameter than the faces. We had to get a coarse

file and file down the middle of the piston all around until it would

enter the cylinder. Then I had a great disappointment--the greatest I

ever experienced--the engine thumped badly on both centers. The only

way in which we could stop the thumping was by shutting off the steam

until the initial pressure was brought down to the height reached by

the compression of the exhaust. In this plight we had to run through

the exhibition. We could not take a diagram and had to watch the engine

constantly, for whenever the pressure rose ever so little too high in

the cylinder it would begin to thump. I attributed this to the shocking

condition of the surface of the piston. I could not comprehend how this

should cause the thump, but it must be that, for I could conceive of

nothing else that could produce it. This thump made my exhibition a

total failure, and necessitated the abandonment of all my plans.

At the close of the exhibition I went home utterly discouraged. When I

went into the shop the first person I met was the foreman of the lower

floor, where the engine had been built. I told him of the plight in

which I found myself placed and to which I attributed my failure. The

fellow gave me the lie direct, saying with a conceited smirk: “It is

impossible, Mr. Porter, that any such work as you have described can

have gone out of this establishment.” I turned on my heel and left him,

and in less than half a minute I saw at a distance of fifty feet a

22-inch piston being finished for an engine we were building for the

Tremont and Suffolk Mill. The workman had finished turning the piston

and was then cutting the grooves for the rings. The reflection from

the surface showed me the same two cones meeting in the middle. I went

up to the lathe, the back side of which was toward me, and told the

workman to stop his lathe and bring me a straight-edge. This rocked on

the edge in the middle of the piston, opening nearly one eighth of an

inch on each face alternately. I sent a boy to find the foreman and

asked him what he thought of that and left him. I had influence enough

to have both the foreman and the workman discharged that night. Think

of it; superintendent, general foreman, the foreman of the floor, and

workman, altogether, never saw what I detected at a glance from the

opposite side of the shop.

I want to stop here to express my disgust with the American system of

making the tailstock of a lathe adjustable, which enables either an

ignorant, careless or malicious workman to ruin his work after this

fashion. To their credit, English tools have no such feature.

The very next day we received a call from Mr. Bishop, the engineer of

the works of Russell & Irwin at New Britain, Conn., to tell us that

their engine just put in by us had a very bad thump which he was afraid

could not be cured as it was evidently caused by the piston projecting

over the admission ports when at the end of its stroke. “Impossible,”

I exclaimed; “I never made such an engine in my life.” I should here

state that in experimenting with the first little engine that I made

before I went to England, I at first made the piston project over the

port one quarter of an inch, and the engine thumped. I satisfied myself

that this was caused by the impact of the entering steam against the

projecting surface of the piston, driving it against the opposite side

of the cylinder; this was aggravated in high-speed engines. In this

case the engine made 160 revolutions per minute and the steam was

admitted through four simultaneous openings, so it entered the cylinder

with great velocity. I turned a quarter of an inch off from each face

of the piston, and the thump disappeared. I then made it a law from

which I never varied, that the piston should come to the admission

port and not project over it at all, and this feature was shown in

every drawing.

Mr. Bishop replied to me: “It does project, Mr. Porter; it projects

seven eighths of an inch over the port at each end of its stroke, for

I have measured it.” I rushed up to the drawing-office and called for

the horizontal sectional drawing of that cylinder, and there I saw the

piston not only drawn, but figured--projecting seven eighths of an inch

over the port. I felt as though I were sinking through the floor. That

was what had ruined my Boston exhibition and sent me home disgraced and

broken-hearted and the badly fitting piston, shameful as that was, had

nothing to do with it. The first question that occurred to me was: “How

came this drawing to exist and I to know nothing about it?” The answer

to this question was simple.

When the first pair of Willimantic engines was started I was

disappointed in their economy, and made up my mind that the excessive

waste room was accountable for it. The proportion of cross-section

area to the stroke being fifty per cent. greater than in my table of

sizes increased in the same degree the proportion of waste room to the

piston displacement. I felt that there was need here for improvement.

By far the greatest amount of waste room was in the exhaust ports. I

accepted a modification of the exhaust valves by which this item of the

waste room was reduced fully one half and made a new pair of cylinders

for this engine. The improvement in the economy was so marked that I

determined to change the exhaust valves of all the engines. Only the

exhaust valves and ports needed to be changed. These were drawn anew in

pencil and carefully studied and approved of by me. It was necessary

that the entire combined cylinder drawing should be retraced, but this,

except only the exhaust ports and valves, was to be copied over the

existing tracings. This did not require my attention, and I gave no

thought to it. Here was the superintendent’s opportunity. In copying

these tracings he had only to move the straight line representing

each face of the piston on the longitudinal section of the cylinder

seven eighths of an inch, thus adding this amount to the piston at

each end, and shorten the cylinder heads to correspond, and the job

was done; and there did not exist among the large number of persons in

the drawing-office and shop who must have been aware of this change,

loyalty enough to let me know anything about it.

We had also recently finished two engines for the Cocheco Mill at

Dover, N. H., and about this time we received a letter from the

superintendent of that mill expressing his admiration of the engines in

every other respect, but complaining of a bad thump in the cylinders.

He said he would be glad to invite the superintendents of other mills

to see them, but he could not show the engines to anybody until that

thump was cured.

I went directly to the president and demanded authority to change the

pistons and heads of these engines. To my astonishment he refused

point-blank, saying he had spent money enough on these alterations, and

he would not spend another cent. I replied to him that there was one

other alternative and that was to abandon the business, to which he

made no reply. But why did I need to go to the president; why not make

these changes myself? The answer to this question is very humiliating

to me. An account had been made up of the cost of the alterations here

described and presented to the board of directors, showing this to

amount to $20,000. I was aghast at this statement; I had never seen

a figure pertaining to the business, except the single bill already

mentioned. I told the directors that any good pattern-maker would have

taken the contract to alter those exhaust valves and ports on our

twenty sizes of cylinders for an average price of fifty dollars each,

and made a profit of fifty per cent. in doing it. The cost of the new

drawings and the price of cylinders for the Willimantic engine could

not more than double this sum, and by some hocus-pocus this $2000

had been changed to $20,000; probably by transfer from other losing

accounts. The president replied that was the cost of the alterations

as it appeared on the books, and the directors, without making any

investigation, adopted a resolution that no further alterations should

be made unless expressly ordered by the president.

I did not believe that in making this addition to the length of the

piston the superintendent had any intention to wreck the business. He

could have had no idea of its fatal nature; his only thought was to

make a considerable further reduction of waste room and gratify his

itching to change my drawings. But of course doing this without my

knowledge was criminal, and should have caused his instant discharge;

but his whole conduct from the beginning had been the same and the

president had sustained him. I had no opportunity to pursue this matter

further.

On receiving the president’s refusal I determined to appeal to the

directors, but first I thought I would lay the matter before Mr. Henry

Lewis, whom I regarded as the most open-minded of all. What was my

amazement when, after listening to my statement, he replied: “We shall

sustain the president, Mr. Porter.” Then I knew the end had come. It

was idle for me to butt against the Philadelphia phalanx. A day or two

after a committee of the directors headed by Mr. Shortridge, called at

the office and asked to see our order book. This showed that in more

than a month preceding we had not received a single order. On this

state of affairs it was evident to the directors that a change must be

made in the management. I had long realized that the great gulf that

I had dug between the stockholders and myself, as already described,

had never been filled. Neither the directors as a body, except on the

single occasion already mentioned, nor any director individually, had

ever conferred with me on any subject whatever. They knew nothing,

except what they might have learned from the president; he had no

mechanical knowledge or ability to form a mechanical judgment,

and the superintendent influenced him in a degree which to me was

unaccountable. His want of comprehension of the business was shown in

his answer to the life-or-death question which I had presented to him.

The next day I received a communication from the directors requesting

me to send in my resignation, which I promptly did. Mr. Merrick was

also requested to resign. This was evidently a put up job, to let

me down easy. Mr. Merrick had for some time expressed a wish to be

relieved from his position which he found very uncomfortable.

The directors elected as president one of their own number, who had

nothing else to do, to sit in the president’s chair and draw his

salary, and committed the practical management of the business to an

oily-tongued man who had never seen a high-speed engine, and whose

qualifications for the position were that he was a friend of one of the

directors and was a Philadelphian, and who I learned received a large

bonus for leaving his own business and accepting the position vacated

by me.

[Illustration: BENJAMIN F. AVERY]