268 DAY ALLEN WILLEY 



of its coloring has gone. Strike it and no sparks fly off in 

 protest. Thus it is held in the grasp of the chain and moved 

 forward until one end lies upon the ledge of iron below the two 

 great columns. Now the man in the cage becomes a spectator. 

 He looks down upon men with the scrapers and the men with 

 the calipers to measure the casting, and a group of others, each 

 at his place beside his lever. 



The forgemaster resembles the director of an orchestra as 

 he stands where he can see every leverman and the casting as 

 well. He waves his hand to a man on a platform raised above 

 the others, who pulls his bar. Inch b}^ inch the cylinders 

 descend, pushing the jaws of steel to which they are bolted 

 down and down. He motions to another leverman and this 

 one pulls his bar. You cannot see what happens, but a creak- 

 ing and grinding sound shows some other force is at work. 

 Thus he continues, never taking his eye from the mass until 

 all of the machinery is at work. 



The men themselves instinctively realize the hugeness 

 of it all, and though they may have pulled and pushed the 

 levers a thousand times in the year, the tense features and the 

 rapt gaze indicate their interest. Every eye is fastened on 

 the press as the space between the bars and the casting les- 

 sens, then disappears. A hand wave, and one of the levers 

 is reversed — the power lessened a few hundred tons — but the 

 movement decreases only a trifle. 



Tighter and tighter the ponderous jaws grasp the steel. 

 Now turned to a red, it literally flattens and lengthens out. 

 A moment, and the master holds up his hand, all the levermen 

 pull back their handles, and the pressure ceases. The one on 

 the elevated platform has two bars. He moves the left 

 handle and upward rise the cylinders. This is the cue for the 

 man in the cage, and again he takes part in the scene to raise 

 the casting and move it farther into the press, so the jaws can 

 squeeze a thicker part until it is finally pulled from the em- 

 brace of the monster, flattened to only a fraction of its original 

 thickness and ten times its former length. 



Who does not remember the days when school vacation 

 came and with it fishing time — how he took hunks of lead or 

 horse pistol bullets, and with pincers or hammer and stone 



