34 ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE ENGINEERING 



and the engineer had been trying all that time to make 

 the pump work. I took the cap off of the horizontal 

 check, just forward of the pump barrel, and took the 

 valve out and discovered that the check was reversed. 1 

 told the engineer that if he would put the check in so 

 that the water could get through, he would have no more 

 trouble. This fellow had lost his head. He was com- 

 pletely rattled. He insisted that "the valve had always 

 been on that way'' although the engine had been run two 

 years. 



Now the facts in this case were as follows : The old 

 check valve in place of the one referred to had been one 

 known as a stem valve, or floating valve. This stem by 

 some means had broken off, but it did not prevent the 

 valve from working. The stem, however, worked for- 

 ward till it reached the hot water check, and lodged under 

 the valve, which prevented this check from w r orking and 

 his pump refused to work ; the engineer soon found where 

 the stem had broken off, and instead of looking for it, 

 sent to town for a new check. After putting this on the 

 pump now refused to work for two reasons. One was, 

 he had not removed the broken stem from the hot water 

 check, and another was, that the new check was in wrong 

 end to. After wasting another hour or two he finally 

 found and removed the stem from the hot water check, 

 but his pump still refused to work. And then as the 



