2o8 ALEXANDER H. FORD 



locomotive, but he knows it thoroughly and understands 

 how to get the utmost work out of the machine he runs, 

 whether it stamps out 100 watch wheels at a stroke or makes 

 but a single cyUnder rod in a day. The British workman 

 might know how to create every part of the whole, but would 

 scarcely become an expert in the making of any one part. 

 As has been already stated, the American manufacturer offers 

 his workmen every inducement to improve the equipment 

 of his plant. In the making of spokes, for instance, the 

 American manufacturer who purchased an English invention 

 for his factory was disappointed with the amount of work 

 it turned out, although four machines managed by one man 

 turned out 3,500 spokes per day. He worked with his men 

 making improvement after improvement until the machine 

 was so perfected that one man could turn out 18,000 spokes 

 a day; still the American is not satisfied, and is offering his 

 men substantial rewards for any new improvement they may 

 suggest, while in England the old machines are still in use, 

 and seem to give satisfaction. 



It is the American idea, however, never to be satisfied. 

 It is the fundamental belief of the Yankee that whatever is 

 good is worth improving. As an illustration, nothing can 

 exceed the care with which locomotives are built in England 

 and on the continent of Europe; every part is designed in 

 accord with the particular work required of that engine. 

 Each workman consumes time inspecting his work and lov- 

 ingly pohshing the parts by hand, until months go by, and 

 finally a magnificent and durable piece of work is turned 

 out. How different in an American shop. The largest of 

 our locomotive works, situated in Philadelphia, keeps 7,000 

 men employed all the time, working them in day and night 

 shifts, the two shifts working in partnership, so that no time 

 is lost in changing the men. Everything seems to be done 

 automatically, the men merely guiding the great machines 

 that really do the work; great electric and pneumatic cranes 

 Hft tons of metal as lightly as a child picks up a straw. Com- 

 pressed air sends great pieces of machinery sailing along 

 trolleys to distant parts of the vast shop. Powerful vises 

 automatically seize uncouth masses of metal, feed them to 



