But when Challoner had taken it to the works, the authorities refused him permission to use it.
"This here is a real job. We haven't time to monkey with things like that!" they told him with a sneer.
But Challoner was not to be turned aside so easily; and still he persisted:—
"It will do the work of two."
Now it must not be supposed that Challoner was of a particularly inventive nature; not a bit of it. Simply, he was a man of average intelligence, working at a dollar and a half a day. His intelligence, however, was superior to that of the men about him. Moreover, his brain was independently busy, while his hands worked.
So now he rigged himself up a small trial mould, bought some sand and cement and rock, and demonstrated the superiority of his pump-handle contrivance with its strong leverage, its regularity and its strong, steady beat, beat, beat, with two light tampers upon adjacent spots. When they knocked off the mould, these same authorities found that Challoner was right: this bit of concrete wall was as solid as if it had been cut out of smooth azoic rock. So they called out:—
"All right, Challoner—try it on!"
Challoner tried it on the big wall. It worked like a charm.
At the pay-window, at the end of the week Challoner said:—
"I want two dollars and a half—two dollars and a half a day, now."