7 6 TOWERS AND TANKS FOR WATER-WORKS. 



nage in the work, instead of entering the service of the engi- 

 neer or architect in charge at a salary. Such men, as they 

 found it impossible to economically perform their duties per- 

 sonally on account of the exqessive expenses of travelling 

 about, adopted the method of reciprocating among them- 

 selves, an inspector in Pittsburg undertaking to do the mill- 

 inspection on one piece of work for another located in Phila- 

 delphia, while the latter attended to shop-inspection at shops 

 in his vicinity for the former. Naturally, from such alliances 

 among inspectors, there has resulted the formation of inspec- 

 tion-bureaus or companies. Such companies employ men 

 permanently at the various mills and shops, and maintain 

 extensive general offices, at which the clerical work of copy- 

 ing and forwarding reports and tests, progress of work, etc., 

 is performed. By securing large quantities of inspection 

 work they are able to keep good men at all the localities 

 necessary, maintaining a perfect system of effective inspection 

 and giving their clients regular reports of the quality of 

 material and workmanship, the progress of the work, and 

 information as to tests, shipments, etc., which, when com- 

 pleted, comprises an accurate record of the structure in 

 question, and surety that it is built as it should be. . . . The 

 employment of competent inspection-bureaus becomes more 

 and more general as the iron and steel industry increases in 

 volume, and competition amongst the manufacturers grows 

 keener. Men are realizing more and more forcibly the neces- 

 sity for such services in order to secure good results. The dry 

 when people thought that because a bridge was built of iron 

 it would stand indefinitely is past and gone. Men are finding 

 that there is good and bad iron and steel, and that there is a 

 great difference between them often the difference between 

 success and failure, between a strong, stiff, and durable struc- 

 ture and an accident costing human life that it pays to spend 

 the small added cost to insure the use of good material and 

 to detect and exclude the bad. 



