The Head of the American Locomotive
Works Began His Career as a Machinist's
Apprentice.
Albert J. Pitkin, president of the American Locomotive Works, began his
business life as a machinist's apprentice at the age of sixteen. His wages
were sixty cents a day, and the little shop in which he was employed
turned out one small stationary engine each week. He is now the head of
the American Locomotive Company, which manufactures three thousand
locomotives a year, or ten for each working day, and is capitalized at
fifty million dollars. Seven men were employed in the shop where he
learned his trade. He has now control of sixteen thousand men.
Pitkin's father was in poor circumstances, and at twelve years of age the
boy went to live with his grandfather at Granville, Ohio. The grandfather
was a cabinet-maker and wood-turner, and before long he had taught his
grandson many of the secrets of the trade and had developed in the youth
an understanding and appreciation of what machinery could be made to do.
"There is no use using hand tools if you can make a machine do the work,"
said the boy.
Then, from an old spinning-wheel which he found in the attic of the house,
he made a machine that sawed wood and saved labor in the cabinet-shop. He
also constructed other machines out of wood, and the cleverness with which
they were fashioned and adapted to the needs of the little shop enabled
him and his grandfather to turn out an increased amount of work.
At sixteen years of age it became necessary for young Pitkin to choose
some trade, and he selected that of machinist. He was regularly indentured
for three years, and received sixty cents a day for the first year, ninety
cents a day for the second, and one dollar and twenty-five cents a day for
the third. His father was disabled by ill health during this period, and
the greater part of the son's meager earnings went to help support the
family.
Economy and Hard Study.
All this time he was forced to live on a few cents a day, and the only
money he spent besides the cost of his board and clothing was what went
for books on mechanics and material for mechanical drawing. When his
apprenticeship was finished he was not only a thorough machinist, but he
was also a mechanical draftsman.
His next position was in the locomotive repair-shops of the Cleveland,
Akron and Columbus Railroad. The year he spent here was one of hard work
and hard study, for he continued his drawing more assiduously than before.
At the end of the year he obtained a place in the drawing department of
the Baldwin Locomotive Works, having prepared himself for the stiff
examination given there without one bit of outside assistance.
He spent five years with the Baldwin company, worked up from the lowest
position in the drawing department to the highest, and during that five
years he introduced nearly one hundred improvements in locomotive
construction.
The training he had received in a small machine-shop was repaying him with
interest, and his determination to make machines do as much work as
possible was bearing fruit. Wherever he could, he introduced automatic
machines.
He was only twenty-five years old when he was promoted to the position of
chief draftsman in the Rhode Island Locomotive Works.
"Rather a responsible position for a young man," one of his friends
suggested dubiously.
"Not if the young man knows his business," replied Pitkin. "And I think I
do. I've thought of nothing else for the last nine years."
Became Superintendent.
After two years in Providence, he went to the Schenectady Locomotive
Works, and in two years he became superintendent of the shops. Here he was
free to put into operation many of the ideas he could not use before,
while he was working in subordinate positions, and it was largely due to
him that the Schenectady company became one of the most prosperous in the
country.
When the American Locomotive Company was organized, Pitkin was made
vice-president, for it was recognized that he was probably the most
thoroughly equipped man in the business. There was not a department with
which he was not acquainted, nor a mechanical operation in the shops that
he could not perform.
Two years ago Samuel R. Callaway, president of the company, died, and
Pitkin was unanimously chosen as his successor. It took him thirty years
to climb to that height, and the thirty years were marked by hundreds of
improvements in locomotive construction and by wonderful records in
turning out locomotives against time.
There were many mechanics who started with him and had an equal chance,
but they were soon distanced in the race.
"They were content," he said, "with a steady, plodding, uniform way of
doing things, and while they were methodical and obtained good results, I
tried to figure out some way of getting better results and getting them
more easily. I took chances on doing a thing in other than the prescribed
way, but often the new way was the better way."
Little Glimpses of the 19th Century.
The Great Events in the History of the Last One Hundred Years, Assembled
so as to Present a Nutshell Record.
[_Continued from page 260._]