In attempting work in blasting, it should be remembered that the use of new and untried explosives is attended with peculiar dangers. The men are familiar with the use of the standard grades of powder; and while they are ignorant of how dangerous it is to take liberties with dynamite, they are at a great disadvantage when a new explosive is given to them for trial. If it looks like dynamite and is exploded with the ordinary detonating cap, its peculiarities do not receive much attention.
Men in the field are instinctively opposed to new ideas, and it will invariably be found that new methods meet with stubborn opposition. A foreman to whom a new method is suggested will not expect it to be successful, particularly if he has ever heard it condemned; and it always seems as if the thought were father to the wish, for, when ordered to try it in the field, if he can make it fail, he will do so with unerring accuracy. As a general thing, however, when it is successfully demonstrated, he will become a loyal supporter of it. In presenting a new method to a foreman or superintendent, it is well not to encourage the raising of objections. It is better to let the objections raise themselves in the application of the process; and a man who has not gone on record as saying that in his opinion a new scheme is no good, is a much more loyal supporter of the new scheme than when he has committed himself against it.
One of the difficulties in improving the efficiency of work, is the extraordinarily ingenious line of excuses that the men will present for not getting their work done properly. Of these, perhaps the most hard-worked is that of improper and insufficient material. When a man is berated for poor work, and presents the argument that he was unable to do so and so because he ordered material for it several weeks previously and the material has not yet arrived, the situation is embarrassing. The best preventive of this is to have small requisition blanks measuring about 2½ by 4½ inches, made up into pads of about fifty each, and to give each foreman a pad. Each blank should have a space for the date, the articles ordered, the time when the article is needed, the particular part of the work where the article is needed, the class of work for which the article is needed, and the foreman's name. The foreman should then be instructed that material will be purchased through the storekeeper, and that non-delivery of material will not be accepted as an excuse. The storekeeper should then go around a job at least once a day, and get from the foremen their requisition slips; and an intelligent storekeeper will see to it that useless and unnecessary material or superfluous material is not ordered. Material that is ordered on requisition, and is not in the storehouse, should be purchased if necessary on a rush order, because, contrary to the ordinary apparent belief, it is economical to spend a dollar for material in order to save two dollars in labor.
The Field Layout. In laying out the plan of campaign on starting a new piece of work, it is important to consider the proposition from the capitalization end, as well as from that of pure construction. It is usually not appreciated by the engineer or the owner, that the contractor is doing a piece of delicate financiering, for the performance of which his own available money is usually inadequate, and that he is therefore obliged to borrow money on the work as it goes along, and to depend upon his monthly estimates. It is sometimes specified in the contract, that the contractor shall own all of his plant in fee, but it may be said that this arrangement is seldom lived up to. He can in addition nearly always borrow the amount of his pay-roll a month in advance, from his bank. He can also sometimes borrow money, giving as security his interest in the money retained on the contract, which is ordinarily something like 10 per cent. Therefore, provided that all goes well, if he gets his estimates when they are due, if his pay-roll is not more than the amount of his monthly estimate, and if no very large and disastrous contingencies interfere with the progress of the work, the contractor can swing a large piece of work with a comparatively small capital. If, however, things do not go well; if, through the failure of the owner's engineer, or through the insolvency of the owner, or through liens and attachments upon the work brought by dissatisfied creditors, the contractor does not receive his monthly estimates on time; if, in order successfully to prosecute the work, it is necessary for him to buy a large amount of additional machinery at a time when payments on old machinery are due; or if the portion of the work that he is doing is bringing him in less than the amount of his pay-roll and immediate materials and supplies, unless he has a large capital back of him, which capital is at once available, he is liable to be placed in an exceedingly embarrassing position. At such a time, if there should come a period of financial stringency, bankruptcy may stare him in the face, even though he has at the same time a contract on which he can be reasonably sure of making a large profit.
It is therefore of great importance that the work be prosecuted in such a manner as to have a continuous running profit, if possible. A contractor may turn in what is known as an unbalanced bid. In that event it will be very easy for him to start a certain portion of the work upon which he will lose money before he reaches the portion on which he expects to make money. Unless, as above indicated, the contractor is provided with a large fund for contingencies, great care should be taken to avoid this. The nature of unbalanced bids will be explained below.
As a case in point, on a certain contract involving over a million dollars, the company that was organized to conduct the work was provided with a small working capital, bought its plant on a time basis, and proceeded with a small working capital, under the impression that it would not be necessary to borrow any money, that the work immediately commenced would be sufficient to pay all the expenses and leave a profit, which profit would gradually accumulate and enable a running fund to be maintained which would take care of future contingencies. The idea was admirable. It happened that the work was in earth and rock excavation also known as unclassified, and was taken at a price which would admit of a large profit in any event. The rock work, if taken economically, would cost more than the contract price; the earth work, if taken economically, would cost considerably less than the contract price. The original plan contemplated starting the earth excavation at a point to which another contractor was to excavate, and it was not deemed feasible to commence the earth excavation until the other contractor had cut up to the line between the two contracts. Dependence was placed upon the other contractor doing his work on time, which he did not do; and it was then decided that it would be impracticable to commence in the earth, and work was accordingly commenced in rock, which work was conducted at a considerable loss. The strong financial position of the contracting company was the only thing that prevented it from going to the wall with a most excellent contract partly completed and a lot of good money tied up.
A VIEW IN THE STRUCTURAL SHOP OF THE MINNEAPOLIS STEEL & MACHINERY CO., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
We shall assume, for purposes of illustration, that a certain contractor desires to bid on some public work involving the removal of 100,000 cubic yards of earth work and 50,000 cubic yards of rock work. He estimates that he can do the earth work for 30 cents per cubic yard, or $30,000, and rock work for 80 cents per cubic yard, or $40,000, making a total of $70,000 for the entire 150,000 yards, or 46.66 cents per yard for an average of the earth and rock; and he puts in his bid at this figure.