The recollection of another experience with Mr. Aveling has often amused me. He had an order from the Chatham Dock Yard for a stationary engine of perhaps 100 horse-power. It was to be inspected in operation before its acceptance by the government. He wrote me to come down and bring my indicator and assist him in exhibiting it running under a friction brake in his shop.
At the hour appointed the inspector appeared, accompanied by half-a-dozen young officers. He spoke to no one, observed the engine in operation, took the diagrams from my hand, asked no question, but proceeded to discourse to his followers on the engine. I could hardly believe my senses as I listened to the absurdities that he gravely got off; not a sentence was intelligible. I can see Mr. Aveling now quietly winking at me, as we stood with respectful gravity till he had finished, when he turned and marched off without noticing anybody. This was my only personal encounter with the English official mind.
CHAPTER XVI
Return to America. Disappointment. My Shop. The Colt Armory Engine designed by Mr. Richards. Appearance of Mr. Goodfellow. My Surface Plate Work. Formation of a Company.
In June, 1868, having completed my preparations, I bade what has proven to be a long good-by to England, and buoyant with anticipations turned my face homeward. During the voyage my mind dwelt constantly on the bright career for which it clearly appeared that my experience in England was the fit preparation, and on my projected work, every detail of which I revolved over and over in imagination.
The first thing after I got home I made an important discovery, one of that kind which generally men have to make for themselves. My discovery was this: Put not your trust in riches, especially when they belong to another man. Mr. Hope had made the blunder of relying on a single capitalist. I had expected to find at least half-a-dozen subscribers to a capital of not less than $100,000. His single financial associate and reliance was a gentleman of wealth, retired from active business, and whom I introduce to the reader as Mr. Smith. Under his direction Mr. Hope had written to me the invitation and promise to which I have already referred. The wealth and the ideas of Mr. Smith seemed to be in inverse proportion to each other. The greatness of the former was represented by the smallness of the latter. He entered with earnestness and energy into our work—according to his own plans. He paid no regard to my suggestions, and instead of heeding my request to postpone definite action until my return he hurried his scheme to completion so that I would find everything settled beyond the possibility of my interference.
In Harlem, then a somewhat remote and quite dead suburb of New York, on Fourth Avenue between 130th and 131st streets, within a block or two of the termination of the avenue on the Harlem River, he found a little abandoned foundry, about 40 feet square, with a lean-to in the rear, used for cleaning castings. It had been dismantled and idle for several years, never, of course, had a floor, and the windows were broken. This he hailed as the very place he wanted, and at once leased it for five years at a small rent, with the ground belonging to it, extending from 130th to 131st Street, 200 feet front by 100 feet deep, and vacant, except this building and a little office, 10×15 feet, on the upper corner.
He then turned his attention to providing the “ample capital.” My governor shop on West Thirteenth Street had during my long absence been run quite successfully by my faithful foreman, Nelson Aldrich. Mr. Smith planned to remove this shop to Harlem, and to furnish Mr. Allen money enough to enable him to enter into an equal partnership with me, adding the engine business to my governor manufacture. Everything in my shop was appraised at the round sum of $10,000, and this magnificent amount, as he regarded it, he advanced to Mr. Allen as a loan. Mr. Allen had put his savings of several years into a little home in Tremont, a village on the line of the railroad, some three or four miles above the Harlem River. This place had cost him $2500. Mr. Smith told Mr. Allen that he must secure him the repayment of this loan, so far as he could do so, by the mortgage of his house and lot. This demand caused Mr. Allen great distress and half killed his wife. Mr. Smith was inexorable—no mortgage, no money. Mr. Allen thought of a scheme for outwitting him, and the mortgage was executed and the money paid over. He applied this first to making the premises habitable, laying a floor and putting a floor above, which would give a story under the roof, and the beams of which would carry the shafting for driving the tools. He repaired the broken windows and put windows in the front gable to light the new upper story, put on a new roof, installed a portable engine and boiler, and equipped a little smith shop in the lean-to. My tools, etc., were then moved into their new quarters. These tools were all small. In order to make engines some larger ones would be needed. Mr. Allen procured from the firm of Hewes & Phillips, Newark, N. J., a very good planer, large enough to pass work 4 feet wide and high, and a 20-inch lathe. When this installation was completed, Mr. Allen had expended $7500. Then he stopped making purchases and said nothing. The work of my governor manufacture was resumed, and nothing more attempted. This was the state of affairs that stared me in the face on my return. The shop had been running about a fortnight. Mr. Smith told me he had supplied all the money he expected to. Mr. Allen said he had not obliged himself to put all the money loaned him into the business, and the amount for which he had mortgaged his house was in a safe place, where it could be got when wanted to pay off that mortgage.
I was stupefied. As I began to realize my utter helplessness, I broke down entirely. What rational motive could any man have had in getting me home and leaving me powerless to do anything? Had I imagined the character of his plans I should have remained in England, signed anything that Mr. Whitworth wanted me to, and trusted Providence and Mr. Hoyle for the result. The absurdity of the case presented itself to me sometimes in its humiliating and sometimes in its ludicrous aspect, according to my mood. After a while I saw that I must reconcile myself to the situation, and see what could be done under the circumstances. We could only do a little business in making small non-condensing engines. Not more than from 15 to 20 men could work in the shop. As for facilities for handling machinery, there were none. We yet needed several expensive tools. We had to make patterns; we must have money to run the place until returns came in. I laid the matter before Mr. Smith. First of all, that mortgage must be discharged; I would not stir till that was done. He had overreached himself. I rejoiced that Mr. Allen had got the better of him. It would be idle to set about the business without at least $10,000 additional capital; this I finally got, and, with the advance to Mr. Allen, made free from interest, by assigning the entire indicator patents to Mr. Smith and Mr. Hope. As it turned out, we bought that money at an enormous price; but we did not know this at the time. We must have money and this was the only way to get it. We congratulated ourselves that by any sacrifice we had secured the sum of $20,000 and without the burden of interest.