There are many geniuses and inventors hard at work to-day on devices for saving time and money, and one might say that daily the product of their thought is placed before the world in machines that seem almost human in their workings. The chief essential in saving time is to acquire a system, and operators placed before a new mechanical invention quickly establish a systematic method of working it, and eventually find a way of improving on it. These men seldom profit by such little improvements, but their adopted systems suggest valuable ideas to the outsider, upon which he realizes. This is evidenced by the following:
Years ago, in the cotton-mills, the bobbins of the looms used to catch the filaments of cotton and clog the machinery, necessitating a stoppage of the works to clean up. This was a loss of both time and money. One man, however, a seemingly dull fellow, found a way to keep his bobbin free, and his loom never had to shut down. The owner of the mills, one Mr. Peel, father of Sir Robert Peel, noticed this, and obtained from the man his secret for an agreement which financially, amounted to next to nothing. He simply chalked the bobbin, thus preventing the threads from sticking. Peel adopted the idea, and invented machinery for the sole purpose of chalking the bobbins, and patented it. He realized a fortune from it, and gave the original inventor a handsome pension.
A HICKORY CLUB—POSSIBLY.
"We're getting up a club at our school."
"What for?"
"To hit the janitor with!"