position for the next tooth, were nine distinct move- 

 ments, requiring certainty and great accuracy, most 

 of them concentrating to a single point. This first 

 machine he ran at a speed of about ioo teeth per 

 minute, or say, 900 distinct operations. 



All these movements he got from cam studs on a 

 brass barrel, not unlike the barrel of a hand organ or 

 musical box. My father explained to him the sepa- 

 rate cams on a single shaft that gave all the motions 

 to our old card tooth-making machines, and showed 

 him that steadier and less jerky motions could be got 

 in that way with increased speed than from his short 

 stud cams on his brass barrel. 



It was proposed that he should go to Philadelphia 

 and see the old card-teeth machines, before commenc- 

 ing others which he had undertaken to make for us. 

 His original machine was purchased, though not ex- 

 pected to be of much use. After making some altera- 

 tions on it he brought it to the city. When he saw 

 the old machines he was struck with their simplicity, 

 and at once proposed radical changes in making new 

 ones. 



He asked to be left alone with the old machine that 

 he might study the cams. Soon after this I found him 

 with an old machine taken to pieces. He was busy 

 with his pocketknife carving out of shingles the forms 

 of the various cams. I offered to make for him draw- 

 ings of any parts he wanted, and then discovered that 

 he did not understand the simplest plain drawings. 

 His pocketknife was his pencil, and his habit was to 

 carve models out of wood, and to adjust parts by 

 trial, a kind of rule of thumb. 



After he had undertaken to build the machines for 

 us, it was decided that my elder brother, Charles, who 

 was a superior worker in metals, should go to Lan- 

 caster and remain there working on the new machines 

 with Mr. Brandt. For this purpose he went to Lancas- 

 ter in 1827. Early in 1828 the first machines were 

 completed, and Mr. Brandt, with his family, removed 

 to Philadelphia, and the firm of Sellers & Brandt was 

 formed for the manufactory of machine cards. 



It was in the winter of that year while Mr. Brandt, 

 with the assistance of my brother and myself, were 

 engaged in constructing more card machines, he mak- 

 ing all the forgings, that he came to me with a propo- 

 sition. He said no man could be a good working 

 mechanic without being able to make his own forgings, 

 at any rate so far as to forge his own tools and temper 

 them. He proposed to take me as a scholar, if I 

 would, in return, give him some instruction in ma- 

 chine drawing. He went on to say, that with proper 



attention and desire on the part of the apprentice to 

 learn, a few weeks would make a better smith than 

 the customary four or five years' apprenticeship. He 

 said he had given over three years of his life to doing 

 the work of the commonest laborer for what little 

 instruction he got. 



He proposed that I should be helper, blow and 

 strike for him, for a week; then take the hand hammer, 

 and he would blow and strike for me the next week; 

 that at the end of two or three such terms he would 

 guarantee that I could handle iron and steel as well 

 as he could. There was something so original and 

 novel in his proposition, that I at once acceded 

 to it. The work to be done was mostly light steel 

 forgings and he had enough of his wooden patterns 

 ready for some six or eight weeks' work. 



The second week, when my turn had come to take 

 the hand-hammer, he handed me a sheet-iron template, 

 giving size and form for a breast-brace of about 3% 

 inches crank, or swing of 7 inches. He wanted me 

 to try my hand at forging one, saying I would always 

 find it a useful tool. With the template he gave me 

 a piece of wire bent to the shape, showing he had 

 marked on it the portions to be forged 8 square, and 

 the round for hand grip; also a wooden model of the 

 socket end. He told me to straighten the wire, and 

 it would help in forging, giving the proper length 

 of each part. Then, to my surprise, he handed me 

 a bar 1% inches square, of charcoal forged hammered 

 iron, to forge a brace whose 8-square portions were 

 but %-inch and the round ^ s -inch, and the spindle 

 end about %-inch diameter. 



I asked why not forge the socket-end, drill and 

 square the taper hole for the bits, and weld this to 

 a bar nearer the size? 



To this he replied that no good smith would drill 

 the socket end, he would punch and work it on a 

 steel mandrel; then for the brace no rolled iron will 

 have sufficient stiffness without making it too heavy. 

 This charcoal iron is free from flaws, is the right 

 size, and when drawn down it will have great stiffness. 



I tried to induce him to take the hand-hammer, 

 but he reminded me that it was my turn, and that I 

 must remember our bargain. If I was afraid to take 

 the "bull by the horns I could never learn how to 

 hold him." Although I expected failure, the brace 

 was forged, and the steel end of spindle successfully 

 welded. 



This was my first job in that line, and now as I 

 write, that brace lies before me, having stood the 

 service of 57 years, and is as good now as the day it 



169 



