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.”
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?
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.
