40 Matvniih and Their Handling 



the steam valve first, then to close that and turn 

 on the water valve. 



It is said that one boy found this job a nuisance 

 and, knowing why these valves had to be turned 

 regularly, he tried to rig up some way of getting 

 them turned without having to do it himself. He 

 watched the beam of the engine go up and down 

 and saw just when the valves had to be opened 

 and when they had to be shut. He then attached 

 a string to the beam at the right place, tied the 

 ends to the two valves and got the engine to do 

 his work. This was the first time in the use of 

 the Newcomen engine that the valves had been 

 turned by the engine itself. After that all the 

 engines were equipped with valves which were 

 opened and closed by the movement of the engine. 

 That boy saw that the beam of the engine in going 

 up and down could do his work, so he made the 

 improvement. The improvement came, however, 

 after he had seen in his imagination what could 

 be done. His imagination then helped him as the 

 result or reward of studying the machine itself 

 and finding out exactly what it did and why. In 

 this case, as in all other cases of mechanical de- 

 velopment, the thinking came first and the prac- 

 tical result came afterwards. 



Improvements in any industrial operation al- 

 ways come about from the careful observation of 

 what happens and from the understanding of why 

 it happens. But, next, there must be the ability 

 to imagine a way of making it happen more 

 quickly, or with less effort, or more regularly. 



