CHAPTER XXVIII
The Fall and Rise of the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company. Popular Appreciation of the High-speed Engine.
The Fall and Rise of the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company. Popular Appreciation of the High-speed Engine.
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The reader may be amused by some examples which came to my knowledge of the achievements of the new management. The expensive new vice president was of course a mere figurehead, as he knew nothing of the engine or the business or my system of work, so Mr. Merrick’s superintendent had a free hand.
He adhered to his long pistons, and obtained silent running by an enormous compression of the exhaust steam, commencing soon after the middle of the return stroke and rising to initial. This involved a corresponding premature release of the steam during the expansion. Between the two, about one-third of the power of the engine was sacrificed, and they were in continual trouble from the failure of the engines to give their guaranteed power.
I had always advocated giving our attention as much as possible to large engines, where all the profit lay. My views had so much weight that, unknown to me, Mr. Merrick and his superintendent were, before I left, planning a smaller engine, to be called the “Southwark Engine,” intended to drive isolated incandescent lighting plants. As soon as I had been gotten rid of the manufacture of this engine proceeded actively. It was largely exhibited and advertised, much to the neglect of anything else. This was pursued persistently until over twenty thousand dollars had been sunk in it, when it was abandoned.
They had an order from the Pennsylvania Steel Company for an engine to drive a rolling mill which they were about to establish at Sparrow’s Point on the Chesapeake Bay below Baltimore,for the manufacture of steel rails from Cuban ores, which were found to be especially adapted to the Bessemer process, and where the then new method of rolling was to be employed, the method by which rails are rolled direct from the ingot without reheating, which is now in universal use. This engine was to be much larger than any previously made, and so requiring new drawings. In making the cylinder drawings the draftsman omitted the internal ribs, which are necessary to connect and stiffen the walls of the square steam chest. The consequence of this almost incredible oversight soon appeared. The engine had been running but a few days when the steam chest blew up.
The Porter-Allen valve-gear required in its joints eleven hardened steel bushings, which had to be finished inside and out. These we had always made from cast steel bars. This process was extremely wasteful of both material and time. Shortly before I left I had ascertained experimentally that I could import from England solid drawn steel tubing of any size and thickness, sufficiently high in carbon to harden perfectly well. The new management undertook to carry out my plans. For this purpose a list was prepared of all sizes that would be required, with the finished dimensions external and internal. From this another list was prepared, giving the additional material required for finishing. A large lot of the tubing was ordered. When it arrived they discovered they had sent the wrong list, the tubes were too thin to be finished and were useless for any purpose.
They had an opportunity to estimate for a pair of very large blowing engines. They got out their estimate for one engine, forgot to multiply the amount by two, and were astonished the morning after they had sent in their tender to receive the acceptance of it by telegraph.
James C. Brooks
James C. Brooks
Performances of this kind were expensive. When their capital was all gone, they borrowed five hundred thousand dollars on their bonds, secured by a blanket mortgage. This did not last a great while. Only five or six years after I left the affairs of the company reached a crisis. They had no money to carry on the business, and no business worth mentioning to carry on, and they owed a floating debt of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. In this emergency the directors invited Mr. James C. Brooks to take the presidency of the company. Mr. Brooks was then a member of the firm of William Sellers and Company. He was already well acquainted with the high character of the engine. He found the works well equipped with tools, nothing wanting but brains. He felt encouraged to make this proposition to the directors, that if they would raise two hundred and fifty thousand dollars by an issue of preferred stock, to pay off the floating debt and give him seventy-five thousand dollars to start with, he would take hold and see what he could do. This proposition was accepted and Mr. Brooks took hold; and by a rare combination of engineering skill and business ability and force of character, having no one to interfere with him, he soon set the business on its feet, and started it on a career of magnificent development, which under his management, has continued for nearly twenty years to the present time.
Of all this, however I was ignorant. I was so situated as not to have any knowledge of the company. I only observed that their advertisements had long ago disappeared from the engineering journals. In the fall of 1905, being in Philadelphia on a social visit, in the course of conversation I asked my host “Is the Southwark Foundry still running?” With a look of amazement he exclaimed, “Running! I should say it was running and is doing a tremendous business.” “Is Mr. Brooks still at the head of it” I asked. “Yes,” he replied, “you will find him at his old post, and no doubt he will be glad to see you.”
The next day I called, and was most cordially received by Mr. Brooks. He said he discontinued advertising a number of years ago, “because the business was not of a nature to be benefited by advertising, it rested entirely upon its reputation.” “Our correspondence,” he added, “is enormous, employing six typewriters.” He took me to the erecting floor of the shop. I was filled with amazement and delight at the sight which met my eyes. This floor, which had been greatly enlarged, was crowded with large engines in process of completion, most of them larger and some a great deal larger, than the largest I hadbuilt. I confess to a feeling bordering on ecstasy, heightened of course by the suddenness of the relevation, when I realized the commanding height to which the Porter-Allen Engine had been raised by this remarkable man. Mr. Brooks offered to take me through the shops; this however I declined, not being willing to trespass further on his time. He showed me the old shop engine which I had not seen for twenty-three years. Everything looked familiar except its speed. He said to me, “we have never done anything to this engine, except to increase its speed from 230 revolutions to 300 revolutions per minute, to supply the additional power required by the growth of the business.” Respecting their system, he mentioned only one feature, which he evidently regarded as of special importance, and which he seemed to suppose would be new to me. It was this: “We make a separate drawing of every piece.”
Under date of Oct. 31, 1907, Mr. Brooks writes me, “the business now employs ten typewriters, and the engine which was started in 1881, and which has run at 300 revolutions per minute for the last seven years, has now been compelled by their increased requirements to give place to a compound condensing engine of more than twice its power.”
Three or four years ago I was spending a few days at the Mohonk Lake Mountain House, Mr. Albert K. Smiley’s famous summer resort, and one day strolled into the power house, where were three dynamos, each driven by a Ball & Wood engine, the latter making, I think, something over 200 revolutions per minute.
I fell into conversation with the engineer, rather an old man and quite communicative. He told me he had been in Mr. Smiley’s employ for seventeen years, and was voluble in his praises; said he was a wonderful man, repeating “wonderful” with emphasis, but he added “he don’t know nothin about machinery, nothin, no more’n you do.” My attention was attracted by the dynamos, which were new to me and the framing of which I thought presented a remarkably well studied design.
I mentioned this to the old man, who replied impatiently: “O, that aint nothin, the engine is the wonder, that’s the wonder; why, when I was a young man we did not suppose an enginecouldbe run more’n about fifty or sixty turns a minute, nobody never thought o’ such a thing; now we can run ’em any speed we like, no poundin, no shakin, no heatin, it’s just wonderful.” I did not respond or show any interest, and the old man did not waste any more enthusiasm on me. Did not say a word when I left directly after, but I fancied him saying to himself: “Another o’ them stuck ups, that don’t know nothin’.”
Transcriber’s NotesThe text of this document follows that of the source; inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained, except as mentioned below.Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, and on their settings, not all elements may display as intended. The scales as provided in the indicator diagrams are, of course, not necessarily correct.Page 93: ... H laid on its side, thus ⌶: the symbol is used to represent the shape of the rotated letter H, not an I or an I-beam.Page 137, bill for American belt: there are some errors in the calculations, these have not been corrected.Page 147, paragraph starting The day after the opening ...: the single and double quote marks do not match.Page 155, ... exposition of the action of the reciprocating parts was given Mr. Edwin Reynolds ...: should possibly read ... exposition of the action of the reciprocating parts was given by Mr. Edwin Reynolds ....Page 202, ... half the distance to the mid-stroke or toE, Fig. 32, ...: presumably this refers to the figure on page 201; there is no figure 32 in the book.Page 217, If I went, that I would be the end of the business: the second I should probably be deleted.Page 293: Presumably the references in the text to Figure 1 and Figure 2 are to the top and bottom illustration respectively; the source document does not provide figure numbers.Page 328-330: The use of quote marks in these letters differs from that in other correspondence; this has not been standardised.Changes madeIllustrations and tables were moved out of text paragraphs.Texts in adashed boxis not present as text in the source document, but has been transcribed from the accompanying illustration. The transcribed texts provide an approximate indication of the positions of the elements relative to each other.Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently.Dimensions m×n and m × n have been standardised to m×n, multiplications x×y and x × y to x × y; cross-head and crosshead were standardised to cross-head.Page xii: illustration numbers have been added; Diagrams from English Locomotive ... has been changed to Diagrams from English Locomotives ... as in the illustration caption.Page 40: a closing single quote mark was inserted after ... do not require any governor,Page 79: pièce de resistance changed to pièce de résistance.Page 91, illustration caption: English Locomtlvoes changed to English Locomotives.Page 175: ... told me had had supplied all the money ... changed to ... told me he had supplied all the money ....Page 287: ... this they had been keen kept in ignorance of ... changed to ... this they had been kept in ignorance of ....Page 294: b′ and c′ in the text changed to b¹ and c¹ as in the illustration.Page 303: ... to very the speed ... changed to ... to vary the speed ....Page 331: ... before I left planning a smaller engine ... changed to ... before I left, planning a smaller engine ....Page 333: closing quote mark inserted after ... employing six typewriters.
The text of this document follows that of the source; inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained, except as mentioned below.
Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text, and on their settings, not all elements may display as intended. The scales as provided in the indicator diagrams are, of course, not necessarily correct.
Page 93: ... H laid on its side, thus ⌶: the symbol is used to represent the shape of the rotated letter H, not an I or an I-beam.
Page 137, bill for American belt: there are some errors in the calculations, these have not been corrected.
Page 147, paragraph starting The day after the opening ...: the single and double quote marks do not match.
Page 155, ... exposition of the action of the reciprocating parts was given Mr. Edwin Reynolds ...: should possibly read ... exposition of the action of the reciprocating parts was given by Mr. Edwin Reynolds ....
Page 202, ... half the distance to the mid-stroke or toE, Fig. 32, ...: presumably this refers to the figure on page 201; there is no figure 32 in the book.
Page 217, If I went, that I would be the end of the business: the second I should probably be deleted.
Page 293: Presumably the references in the text to Figure 1 and Figure 2 are to the top and bottom illustration respectively; the source document does not provide figure numbers.
Page 328-330: The use of quote marks in these letters differs from that in other correspondence; this has not been standardised.
Changes made
Illustrations and tables were moved out of text paragraphs.
Texts in adashed boxis not present as text in the source document, but has been transcribed from the accompanying illustration. The transcribed texts provide an approximate indication of the positions of the elements relative to each other.
Some obvious minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently.
Dimensions m×n and m × n have been standardised to m×n, multiplications x×y and x × y to x × y; cross-head and crosshead were standardised to cross-head.
Page xii: illustration numbers have been added; Diagrams from English Locomotive ... has been changed to Diagrams from English Locomotives ... as in the illustration caption.
Page 40: a closing single quote mark was inserted after ... do not require any governor,
Page 79: pièce de resistance changed to pièce de résistance.
Page 91, illustration caption: English Locomtlvoes changed to English Locomotives.
Page 175: ... told me had had supplied all the money ... changed to ... told me he had supplied all the money ....
Page 287: ... this they had been keen kept in ignorance of ... changed to ... this they had been kept in ignorance of ....
Page 294: b′ and c′ in the text changed to b¹ and c¹ as in the illustration.
Page 303: ... to very the speed ... changed to ... to vary the speed ....
Page 331: ... before I left planning a smaller engine ... changed to ... before I left, planning a smaller engine ....
Page 333: closing quote mark inserted after ... employing six typewriters.