The electric light at the forge test-house sparkled on polished metal and touched the group by a big machine. Two were dark-skinned foreign navy officers; another was consul for the foreign government. Jasper Carson talked to an English naval architect and a steel inspector; Ledward waited by the clerk’s table, on which were printed forms and measuring tools. In the background a workman turned a wheel.
A weight travelled slowly along a shining beam. The machine’s jaws moved apart and a small bar they gripped got longer; one saw the tough steel stretch. By and by the machine clanged and the bar broke. Jasper pointed to a scale, and taking out the broken pieces, gave them to the clerk.
“Perhaps you would like to check the measurements and calculations, gentlemen. We reckon by decimals,” he said.
The steel inspector and the naval architect went to the table. Jasper gave the party cigars and Ledward lighted a cigarette. The forge was a model forge, and Jasper knew the importance of clever advertisement. He liked to convoy shipbuilders and foreign admiralty officers about his works. They saw all he thought they ought to see, but as a rule he fixed their visits for the evening. Jasper was a first-class showman, and after dark operations at the forge were spectacular.
“Well? I hope the tests are satisfactory,” he said when the clerk gave the others the printed forms.
“Moi, je vous en félicite. C’est une merveille!” a dark-skinned gentleman replied in awkward French.
Jasper bowed. “You are polite, Almirante; but I think the steel is pretty good. Our own stuff, from the beginning!”
“The stuff is first-class,” the English inspector agreed. “In fact, for the high tensile strength the elongation is rather remarkable. The usual plan, however, is perhaps to buy the raw material from the large steelworks.”
“We do buy some soft-steel blooms, but where high tension is required we cast the ingots. Although it’s possible one or two makers could supply us cheaper, our plan gives us exactly the stuff we want.”
“Yours is a rather bold claim,” said the naval architect.