BESSEMER, CREATOR OF CHEAP STEEL. NOBEL, INVENTOR OF NEW EXPLOSIVES
Bessemer a man of golden ignorances . . . His boldness and
versatility . . . The story of his steel process told by himself
. . . Nobel’s heroic courage in failure and adversity . . . His
triumph at last . . . Turns an accidental hint to great profit . . .
Inventors to-day organized for attacks of new breadth and audacity.
Bessemer’s Early Achievements.
In 1855 Henry Bessemer began to change the face of the civilized world
as he perfected his process for steel-making. The story of his
struggles, defeats and eventual triumph is told in his autobiography
published in London by _Engineering_.[35] From that book the publishers
have permitted the following pages to be drawn. As a boy Henry Bessemer
had a strong mechanical turn, amusing himself with a lathe at an age
when lads usually prefer marbles or tag. In his youth there was a clear
promise of inventive faculty, plainly inherited from his father, Anthony
Bessemer, and naturally pursuing the lines of paternal interests. Mr.
Bessemer, senior, manufactured type of particular durability; this
quality his son discovered due to additions of a little tin and copper
to the ordinary alloy. It was in this field of alloying that young
Bessemer took his next step as an inventor, foreshadowing the tremendous
feat he was in due time to accomplish. He busied himself as an engraver
of rollers for embossing paper; in cutting their deeply incised lines
there was a tendency in curves to drag or blur the surface of the metal.
After several unsuccessful attempts he produced an alloy of tin and
bismuth free from this fault.
[35] “Sir Henry Bessemer: an Autobiography.” Offices of
_Engineering_, 36 Bedford St., Strand, London, 1905. 16 shillings.
Soon afterward Bessemer’s attention was directed to the bronze powders
sold at high prices to printers and decorators. These powders were
produced by hand in Germany by processes so laborious as to make the
cost enormous. Examining the material with a powerful microscope
Bessemer was convinced that he could dispense with hand labor, and turn
out a powder of equal quality at nominal expense. His machinery for this
purpose proved a success and laid the foundation of his fortune;
unpatented and worked in secret for thirty-five years, it yielded him a
huge profit indispensable for the costly experiments he had ever in
hand. Naturally enough his fame as a man of ingenuity was promptly
noised abroad, and his talents were next invoked for a much-needed
improvement of sugar-cane milling. The moment that Bessemer saw a
cane-mill at work he placed his finger on the chief cause of its
wastefulness. He noticed that the cane was squeezed between two rollers
for only a second, a period so short that the cane at once re-expanded
and re-absorbed much juice. He forthwith designed a press, on much the
same principle as a hydraulic press, which subjected the cane to severe
pressure for two and a half minutes, until every drop of juice had left
the fibres, almost doubling the output of the old machinery. For success
in this task Bessemer declares himself indebted to a golden ignorance.
He says: “I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the
problem under consideration, inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived
from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not
suffer from the too-general belief that whatever is, is right. Hence I
could, without check or restraint, look the question steadily in the
face, weigh without prejudice or preconceived notions, all the pros and
cons, and strike out fearlessly in an absolutely new direction if
thought desirable.”
But in his case ignorance in one field was joined to knowledge in many
another field, and there he found weapons wherewith to surmount an old
difficulty at a quarter never assaulted before. He continues: “The first
bundle of canes I ever saw had not arrived from Madeira a week before I
had settled in my own mind certain fundamental principles, which I
believed must govern all attempts to get practically the whole juice
from the cane; but, of course, there were many circumstances that
rendered it necessary to modify first principles, having reference to
cost of construction, lightness for easy transit across country, freedom
from necessity for repairs, and the like.”
[Illustration: Copyright, London Stereoscopic Co.
THE LATE SIR HENRY BESSEMER OF LONDON.]
Bessemer’s Steel Process.
In the supreme effort of his life Bessemer once more held himself a
debtor to his ignorance, to the fact that his mind was unworn by routine
and ruttiness. Referring to his attempt to make a cheap metal stronger
than cast iron for guns, he says: “My knowledge of iron metallurgy was
at that time very limited, and consisted only of such facts as an
engineer must necessarily observe in the foundry or smith’s shop; but
this was in one sense an advantage to me, for I had nothing to unlearn.
My mind was open and free to receive any new impressions, without having
to struggle against the bias which a life-long practice of routine
cannot fail more or less to create.”
Now appears the genius of the man, showing that if his brain was
unoccupied by rules-of-thumb it was full to overflowing with original
and sound ideas. He goes on to say: “A little reflection, assisted by a
good deal of practical knowledge of copper and its alloys, made me
reject all these from the first, and look to iron or some of its
combinations, as the only material suitable for heavy ordnance.” Of
fascinating interest is the great inventor’s story of how step by step
he arrived at his final success. After reciting his preliminary
experiments, in an endeavor to remove carbon from pig iron so as to make
malleable iron and steel, he says:
“On my return from the Ruelle gun-foundry I resumed my experiments with
the open-hearth furnace, when some pieces of pig iron on one side of the
bath attracted my attention by remaining unmelted in the great heat of
the furnace, and I turned on a little more air through the fire-bridge
with the intention of increasing the combustion. On again opening the
furnace door, after an interval of half an hour, these two pieces of pig
still remained unfused. I then took an iron bar, with the intention of
pushing them into the bath, when I discovered that they were merely
shells of decarburized iron, showing that atmospheric air alone was
capable of wholly decarburizing grey pig iron, and converting it into
malleable iron without puddling or any other manipulation. Thus a new
direction was given to my thoughts, and after due deliberation I became
convinced that if air could be brought into contact with a sufficiently
extensive surface of molten crude iron, it would rapidly convert it into
malleable iron. Without loss of time I had some fire-clay crucibles made
with dome-shaped perforated covers, and also with some fire-clay
blow-pipes, which I joined on to a three-foot length of one-inch gas
pipe, the opposite end of which was attached by a piece of rubber tubing
to a fixed blast pipe. This elastic connection permitted of the blow
pipe being easily introduced into and withdrawn from the crucible which,
in effect, formed a converter. About ten pounds of molten grey pig iron
half filled the crucible, and thirty minutes’ blowing was found to
convert this metal into soft malleable iron. Here at least one great
fact was demonstrated, namely, the absolute decarburization of molten
crude iron without any manipulation, _but not without fuel_, for had not
a very high temperature been kept up in the air furnace all the time
this quiet blowing for thirty minutes was going on, it would have
resulted in the solidification of the metal in the crucible long before
complete carburization had been effected. Hence arose the all-important
question: Can sufficient internal heat be produced by the introduction
of atmospheric air to retain the fluidity of the metal until it is
wholly carburized in a vessel not externally heated? This I determined
to try without delay, and I fitted up a larger blast-cylinder in
connection with a 20 horse-power engine which I had daily at work. I
also erected an ordinary founder’s cupola, capable of melting half a ton
of pig iron. Then came the question of the best form and size for the
experimental converter. I had very few data to guide me in this, as the
crucible converter was hidden from view in the furnace during the blow.
I found, however, that slag was produced during the process, and escaped
through holes in the lid. Owing to this, I constructed a very simple
form of cylindrical converter, about four feet in interior height,
sufficiently tall and capacious, I believed, to prevent anything but a
few sparks and heated gases from escaping through a central hole made in
the flat top of the vessel for that purpose. This converter had six
horizontal tuyères arranged around the lower part of it; these were
connected by six adjustable branch pipes, deriving their supply of air
from an annular rectangular chamber, extending around the converter.
“All being thus arranged, and a blast of 10 or 15 pounds’ pressure
turned on, about seven hundred-weight of molten pig iron was run into
the hopper provided on one side of the converter for that purpose. All
went on quietly for about ten minutes; sparks such as are commonly seen
when tapping a cupola, accompanied by hot gases, ascended through an
opening on the top of the converter, just as I had supposed would be the
case. But soon after a rapid change took place; in fact, the silicon had
been quietly consumed, and the oxygen, next uniting with the carbon,
sent up an ever-increasing stream of sparks and a voluminous white
flame. Then followed a succession of mild explosions, throwing molten
slags and splashes of metal high up into the air, the apparatus becoming
a veritable volcano in a state of active eruption. No one could approach
the converter to turn off the blast, and some low, flat, zinc-covered
roofs, close at hand, were in danger of being set on fire by the shower
of red-hot matter falling on them. All this was a revelation to me, as I
had in no way anticipated such violent results. However, in ten minutes
more the eruption had ceased, the flame died down, and the process was
complete. On tapping the converter into a shallow pan or ladle, and
forming the metal into an ingot, it was found to be wholly decarburized
malleable iron. Such were the conditions under which the first charge of
pig iron was converted in a vessel neither internally nor externally
heated by fire.”
[Illustration: First Bessemer Converter and Ladle.
A, external elevation. B, vertical section during an in-pour of metal.
C, during a blow. F, E, ladle with discharge valve at bottom. H,
tuyères. G, bottom with tuyères.
From “Sir Henry Bessemer: an Autobiography,” by permission of
_Engineering_, London.]
The narrative continues with details of further masterly experiments
until the new process was turning out steels of excellent quality,
containing any desired fraction of carbon, at a cost of but six to seven
pounds sterling per ton as against fifty to sixty pounds by the methods
which Bessemer laid upon the shelf. His predecessors had made forty to
fifty pounds of steel at a time in small crucibles, he made five tons in
twenty minutes. In his magnificent simplification Bessemer at a stroke
dismissed a long series of troublesome processes long believed to be as
unavoidable as winter’s cold. He did away with the smelting of pig iron,
the rolling, shearing and piling of bars, and the heating furnace. From
the beginning of the Bessemer manufacture to the present hour, its main
output has been rails for railroads. In this single service the debt due
to Bessemer surpasses computation, for his steel has as least six-fold
the durability of the iron it has replaced. A rail laid at Crewe Station
in 1863, weighing twenty pounds to the yard, was turned in 1866 and
taken up in 1875; it was estimated that 72,000,000 tons had passed over
it, while the greatest wear of its tables was but .85 inch.
Bessemer did not at once enter upon success in the practical application
of his process. British pig iron, with which he dealt, abounded in
phosphorus, an element which he could not drive out, and which made his
steels faulty. It was only when, at length, he obtained pure pig iron
from Sweden that he was able to supply the market with pure, soft
malleable iron, and with steels of various degrees of hardness. In a
sequel, full of interest, he sketches the shrewd means by which he
secured a handsome fortune from his great invention, for Bessemer had
remarkable business ability as well as inventive genius. His labors in
steel-making obliged him to neglect his devices in the plate-glass
manufacture which, despite their merit, were also neglected by the
producers of plate-glass. He remarks: “The simple fact is that an
invention must be nursed and tended as a mother nurses her baby, or it
inevitably perishes.”
Bessemer’s Versatility.
So far from finding it gainful to concentrate his mind on a single
problem, ignoring every other, Bessemer delighted in pursuing a wide
variety of experiments, especially before his engrossing
responsibilities in the manufacture of steel. In glass-making he
introduced some notable improvements. He tells us: “In going over a
glass-works I had noticed what I, at the moment, thought was a great
oversight in the mode of proceeding. The materials employed, namely,
sand, lime and soda in ascertained quantities, were laid in heaps upon
the paved floor of the glasshouse, and a laborer proceeded to shovel
them into one large heap, turning over the powdered materials, and
mixing them together; a certain quantity of oxide of manganese was added
during the general mixing operation, for the purpose of neutralizing the
green color given to glass by the small amount of oxide of iron
contained in the sand. The materials were then thrown into the large
glass pots, which were already red-hot inside the furnace. What appeared
to me to be wanting in this rough-and-ready operation was a far more
intimate blending of these dry materials. A grain of sand lying by
itself is infusible at the highest temperature attainable in a glass
pot, and the same may be said of a small lump of lime; but both are
soluble in alkali, if it be within their reach. These dry powders do not
make excursions in a glass pot and look about for each other, and if
they lie separated the time required for the whole to pass into a state
of solution will greatly depend on their mutual contact. In such matters
I always reason by analogy, and look for confirmation of my views to
other manufactures or processes with which I may happen to have become
more or less acquainted. I may here remark that I have always adopted a
different reading of the old proverb, ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous
thing’; this may indeed be true, if your knowledge is equally small on
all subjects; but I have found a little knowledge on a great many
different things of infinite service to me. From my early youth I had a
strong desire to know something of any and all the varied manufactures
to which I have been able to gain access, and I have always felt a sort
of annoyance whenever any subject connected with manufacture was mooted
of which I knew absolutely nothing. The result of this feeling, acting
for a great many years on a powerful memory, has been that I have really
come to know this dangerous little of a great many industrial processes.
I have been led to say this so as to illustrate my observations on the
extreme slowness of the fusion of glass by an analogy in the manufacture
of gunpowder. I have shown it impossible for the dry powdered materials
employed in the manufacture of glass to react chemically upon each other
when they are lying far apart. Now if I take the three substances,
charcoal, nitre and sulphur, of which gunpowder is composed, and break
them into small fragments, then shake them loosely together, and put a
pound or two of this mixture on a stone floor and apply a match, the
nitre will fizzle briskly, the sulphur will burn fitfully or go out, and
the charcoal will last several minutes before it is consumed. If,
instead of this crude and imperfect mixture, we take the trouble to
grind these ingredients under edge-stones into a fine paste with water,
and then dry and granulate it, we have still the precise chemical
elements to deal with which we ignited on the stone floor; but they now
exist in such close and intimate contact as instantly to act upon each
other, and a ton or two of these otherwise slow-burning materials will
be converted into gas in the fraction of a second. The inference was
simple enough, namely, to grind together the materials required to form
glass, and when the heat of the furnace arrives at the point where
decomposition takes place, the whole will pass into the fluid state much
more quickly, and will yield a much more homogeneous glass than is
obtained in the usual manner.”
Improves the Drying of Oils.
Bessemer one day paid a visit to the works of his friends, Hayward and
Company, London, manufacturers of paints and varnishes. He was struck
with the wastefulness and imperfection of the time-honored process of
drying oils in an iron pot over an open fire; a crude method always
attended with danger, and not seldom with a complete loss of the heated
oil. As he walked through the works there occurred to him a much better
plan which he at once embodied in a sketch. His ideas were put into
practice by his friends, to their lasting profit. Instead of a small
charge of two or three gallons heated over an open fire, he suggested
that fifty or sixty gallons should be run into a tank, in the bottom of
which was a pipe terminating in a large rose-head. Connected with this
pipe was a coil that could be heated to any desired temperature, and air
could be forced through this coil, escaping through the rose-head into
the oil. The exact degree of heat required could be thus maintained, and
the process completed with certainty and safety, without waste, and,
above all, with no discoloration of the oil. This method, carried to a
further degree of oxidation, is the foundation of the vast linoleum
industry throughout the world.
Alfred Nobel and His Explosives.
It was in trying to make guns of a new strength that Sir Henry Bessemer
entered the path which enabled him to make steel at little more cost
than cast iron. It was in providing guns with explosives of new power
that Alfred Nobel won both distinction and fortune. As in the case of
Sir Henry Bessemer, his gifts have inured vastly more to the service of
peace than of war. It is estimated that during the Civil War, 1861-65,
more explosives were used in the United States by civil, railroad,
mining and quarrying engineers than in the field of battle. Chief of
these explosives was gunpowder; nitro-glycerine, though well known, had
then little or no acceptance, for good reasons. How its defects were
overcome is told by Mr. Henry de Mosenthal in an article on Alfred
Nobel, in the Nineteenth Century Magazine, London, October, 1898. By the
editor’s kind permission that article is here freely drawn upon.
Nitro-glycerine, discovered by Sobrero in 1847, is made by treating
glycerine with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids; it is poisonous,
very sensitive to a shock, and most dangerous to handle. Being liquid it
runs into the fissures of rock when poured into a bore-hole, and
requires to be carefully confined that it may explode when ignited by
means of a simple fuse. Nobel tried to overcome these deficiencies,
first by mixing the liquid with gunpowder, and then by adding fluids
which rendered it non-explosive, so that it could be safely transported,
the added liquid being removed just before use; he also suggested
confining it in a tube having the shape of a bore-hole, and firing it by
means of a small gunpowder cartridge or primer. But all this did not
avail, and accidents occurred so frequently that the use of the blasting
oil was prohibited in Belgium, in Sweden, and later on in England. A
vessel carrying some cases shipped from Hamburg and bound for Chili was
blown up, and the event caused such a sensation that it seemed as if the
use of nitro-glycerine would be prohibited the world over. In the
meantime, however, Nobel had solved the problem of its safe use, and at
the end of 1866 he had invented a compound, which he called dynamite,
made by mixing the nitro-glycerine oil with porous absorbing material,
thus converting it into a paste. Dynamite proved on experiment to be
comparatively insensitive to a shock or a blow; it burnt when ignited,
and could be properly exploded only by means of a powerful detonator
fixed to the end of the fuse and inserted into the plastic explosive.
The invention of dynamite marks an epoch in the history of civilization.
In judging of the degrees of culture of a people, we are guided to a
great extent by the kind of roads and waterways they have constructed,
and by the facility with which they have obtained metals and applied
them to the arts. The Romans constructed excellent roads on the level,
but in the mountains they could only make narrow and very steep paths.
Canals and cuttings were made with great sacrifice and labor, and only
where the soil was soft. Thus Suetonius states that in order to make a
cutting about three miles long to drain the Lacus Fucinus, the Emperor
Claudius employed 30,000 men for eleven years. In the sixteenth century
road making and mining were scarcely more advanced. It took 150 years,
ending with 1685, to mine five miles of gallery in the Hartz mountains.
Although blasting with gunpowder dates back to the seventeenth century,
it did not come into general use until about the middle of the
eighteenth century, at which time the total cubage mined in Great
Britain amounted to little more than of a large railway cutting at the
present day. The use of gunpowder gave a great impetus to mining and
public works, but it was only the introduction of railways, and the
necessity of laying the lines on easy gradients, which raised blasting
to a science. The introduction of dynamite, thrice as powerful as
gunpowder and much more reliable, entirely revolutionized that science,
and made it possible to execute the gigantic engineering works of our
time, and brought about that prodigious development of the mining
industry of the world which we have witnessed since 1870.
Nobel Profits by an Accident.
Dynamite is combined with twenty-five per cent. of inert matter as an
absorbent; for this large proportion of unexploding substance, Nobel
sought an active substitute. This, he thought, might be a substance
which would dissolve in nitro-glycerine so as to form a homogenous
paste. Now for a sagacious experiment with a liquid brought to his hand
by accident. Whilst experimenting in search of such a material, he one
day cut his finger and sent out for some collodion to form an artificial
skin to protect the wound; having used a few drops for that purpose, it
occurred to him to pour the remainder into some nitro-glycerine, and he
thus discovered blasting glycerine, which he patented in December, 1875.
Collodion is made by dissolving a gun-cotton in a volatile solvent, a
mixture of ether and alcohol, and Nobel suggested that the viscous
substance thus obtained should be mixed with the nitro-glycerine so as
to form a jelly. On further experiment the jelly was dispensed with, and
blasting gelatine was made, as it is now, by warming the
nitro-glycerine, and adding about eight per cent. of a gun-cotton which
was found to be soluble in nitro-glycerine. The new explosive, half as
strong again as dynamite, was too violent to be applicable to any but
the hardest rock. Nobel, however, discovered how to moderate its action,
and gelatine dynamite and gelignite were manufactured by the addition of
saltpetre and wood-meal to a blasting gelatine of less consistency than
that employed without such admixture. Blasting gelatine was used in
large quantities in the piercing of the St. Gothard tunnel, where the
rock was so hard that no satisfactory work could be done without it.
Since then the use of the gelatine explosives has increased more and
more, and in some countries they have entirely superseded dynamite.
Nobel Invents Smokeless Powder.
The smokeless powder which Nobel originated was based on his discovery
that by means of heated rollers he could incorporate with
nitro-glycerine a very high percentage of that soluble nitro-cellulose,
or gun cotton, which his factories were using in the manufacture of
blasting gelatine. Blasting gelatine altered by means of moderating
substances, had been tried in guns and had burst them. Nobel now found
that if the nitrated cotton was increased from eight to about fifty per
cent. he obtained a powder suitable for firearms. The progress in the
construction of weapons, and especially the introduction of quick-firing
guns, made it necessary to have smokeless powder, while higher
velocities demanding straighter paths for projectiles could be attained
with new arms resisting high pressure. Whilst in quest of such a powder,
Nobel perfected several methods for regulating the pressure in guns, and
modifying the recoil. It was in the beginning of 1888 that he invented
his well-known smokeless powder, or ballistite. His discovery that the
two most powerful shattering explosives, nitro-glycerine and gun-cotton,
when mixed in about equal proportions, would form a slow burning powder,
a propulsive agent with pressures which would exceed the resistance of
modern weapons, caused astonishment in technical circles. Nobel
submitted his powder to the British Explosive Committee, which found
that instead of employing the variety of gun-cotton which is soluble in
nitro-glycerine with the aid of heat, the insoluble kind could be used
provided an assistant solvent could be added; and that the manufacture
could be carried on at lower temperatures than those necessary in
producing other explosives. The powder thus obtained was cordite, and
this they recommended for adoption.
Nobel, Bodily Weak, was Strong in Mind and Will.
Physically weak, of nervous, high strung and exceptionally sensitive
disposition, Nobel was endowed with a strong will, unbounded energy, and
wonderful perseverance; he feared no danger and never yielded to
adversity. Many would have succumbed under the misfortunes which befell
him, but the succession of almost insurmountable difficulties, the
explosion of his factory, causing a general scare and dread of the
deadly compound he was making, the loss of his younger brother, to whom
he was devotedly attached, the consequent paralysis of his father, and
his mother’s grief and anxiety, could not deter him from pursuing his
aim. His temerity frequently verged on foolhardiness, as when he was
going to his father’s works one day at St. Petersburg, and finding no
boat to take him across the river, he swam to the opposite bank of the
Neva. The co-existence of impulsive daring with sensitive timidity was a
striking feature in his character. He frequently demonstrated the value
and safety of his explosives with his own hands, although he was
particularly susceptible to headaches caused by bringing nitro-glycerine
in contact with the skin; these headaches affected him so violently that
he was often obliged to lie down on the ground in the mine or quarry in
which he was experimenting. On one occasion when some dynamite could not
be removed from a large cask he crept into it and dug the explosive out
with a knife. Many other incidents could be related of the fearlessness
he displayed when the success of his invention depended entirely upon
his demonstrations of its safety, which in those days had not yet been
thoroughly proved.
Nobel died in 1896, at the age of 63; after providing legacies to
relatives and friends he left about $12,000,000, its income to be
annually divided into fifths, each fifth to be awarded for the most
important discovery or improvement in chemistry, physics, physiology,
or medicine, and for the work in literature highest in the ideal sense.
In distributing these prizes no considerations of nationality prevail.
Invention Organized.
In these days of organization, the career of the inventor takes on a new
breadth. If his ideas are sound, poverty need be no bar to his success.
To-day a man of proved ability who entertains an idea for a new machine,
engine, or process may choose among the great firms or companies
interested in the field he would enter. His plans are then canvassed by
competent critics; if his suggestions harbor a fallacy it is pointed
out; if his aims, though feasible, would be unprofitable, they are left
severely alone. Perhaps in essence his schemes are good, but need
modification; this is duly supplied. Instead of working all alone in
twilight or darkness, the inventor now takes up experiment with the aid
of carefully chosen assistants, with amassed information as to what
others have done in the same path, both at home and abroad.
When an inventor is an Edison, as remarkable in executive ability as in
creative power, it is he who organizes, as a general, the forces which
test his ideas and perfect such of them as prove sound. Let Edison
imagine a new storage battery; forthwith he enlists a corps of chemists
and metallurgists, engineers and mechanics, and keeps them busy
attacking the difficulties of his quest mechanical, chemical,
electrical. What if his mathematics go no further than arithmetic, are
not masters of the calculus to be engaged on moderate terms in every
university town? His personal command of the pencil falls far short of
the facility of professional draftsmen who, at reasonable salaries, will
turn out plans and elevations quickly and accurately. His staff, bound
to him by affection and pride as with hooks of steel, are the fingers of
his hands to win triumphs which neither he alone, nor his men by
themselves, could ever accomplish.
It has been solely by organized ability, unfaltering faith in ultimate
success, and massed capital, that the steam turbine has become the rival
of the steam engine of Watt. A vast sum, expended during nine years, was
required to perfect its delicate and exacting mechanism. One day a young
engineer saw it whirling away at high speed; with the efficiency of the
gas engine in mind, he asked, “Why not drive a turbine by gas instead
of by steam?” He took his idea to a leading manufacturing concern; it
was approved, and now that young inventor is attacking the difficulties,
neither few nor small, which stand in the way of building an effective
gas turbine.
Great Combinations Create New Opportunities.
In these latter days new doors are opened to ingenuity by the
comprehensiveness of great industries, by the huge scale on which they
conduct their business. A country blacksmith is served well enough by a
hand-blown bellows; at the Homestead Steel Works the blowing machinery
has been designed by the best engineering talent in America. When the
output of a trust, or even of a single company, rises to scores of
millions of dollars every year, it is worth while to measure how far
moisture in a blast may do harm, and adopt the elaborate plans of Mr.
James Gayley for drying air before sending it into a furnace. Take an
example of how the United States Steel Company has planned every detail
betwixt mine and mill. Each lake carrier, of immense size, has its hold
so curved that automatic clam-shells lift ten tons of ore at each
descent, shoveler and shovel being dismissed. Vessels and docks dovetail
into one another. The car-lengths, as a freight train stands on its
track, correspond to the distance between one steamer-hoist and the
next. In like fashion every link in the chain is devised to save every
possible foot-pound of energy, every dispensable moment of time.
Capital, always cheaper than labor, is expended with both hands, and in
no direction more liberally than in setting at work the inventor of
economical devices, and his twin brother, the organizer, who deals with
the whole industry as a single mechanism to be reduced to the lowest
working cost and the highest ultimate efficiency.
Team-Work in Research and Invention.
During 1904 the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York,
perfected for the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad an electric
locomotive such as will be used for passenger service between New York
and Croton. That locomotive, far outvying anything else that ever before
moved on wheels, was created by a council of locomotive builders,
electricians, engineers, and mechanics. Some of the plans which they
adopted with success had failed in times past. Each motor was made part
and parcel of the axle it turns, a directness of construction which had
never before proved to be feasible. Usually an electric motor has many
magnetic poles; the motors in this locomotive have each only two poles.
On much the same lines this Company is constantly experimenting with a
view to cheapen and improve electric lighting. Every filament, every
luminous rod or vapor, as newly devised, is tested and modified by as
acute a band of investigators as exist in the world, with all the
benefit of daily conference and mutual aid.
Group Attack.
In such fields as those of the cheapening of light and motive power, the
utilization of electricity, the production of metals, it would seem that
the day of the solitary researcher or inventor is drawing to a close.
To-day the man of original ideas, of combining faculty, of uncommon
deftness, of rare visual accuracy, is mated with his peers for a group
attack on a many-sided problem where each man’s resources will find
their special play. In untiring labor at the bench and lathe, at the
muffle and the test tube, one experiment follows another, all duly
compared, judiciously varied and advanced as indication may suggest.
Thus the fences which extreme specialization have set up are surmounted,
each worker supplements the deficiencies of his fellows, and all join
hands to take by assault a citadel that might forever defy single
attack.