224 HORSE AND MAN. 



Now, when we have to deal with a machine, we 

 take care that all these conditions shall be fulfilled. 

 In a very interesting work called ' Engine-driving 

 Life,' there is a most' curious history of the ordeals 

 through which a man has to pass even before he 

 gains his certificate as a fireman or ' stoker,' ' an 

 accomplishment that thousands have tried at and 

 failed.' The book is of especial value as having been 

 written by Mr. Michael Beynolds, a man who has 

 gone through the whole of the ordeals himself. 



There we learn how as a small boy he begins by 

 being sent into the fire-box to take out, clean, and 

 replace the bars and polish the tube- plate this work 

 often being done at a temperature of 250. When he 

 is too big to crawl into the fire-box, he is promoted 

 to ' cleaner.' Now, cleaning an engine after a run 

 occupies at least ten hours of steady work, and the 

 boy has to learn not only how to clean, but when to 

 clean each part i.e. which parts must be cleaned 

 while they are hot, and which can wait until they are 

 cold. 



Then he has to pass a time of probation in firing, 

 beginning with shunting engines, and learning all he 

 can, before he can obtain a certificate which enables 

 him to work on a passenger train. So he goes on, 

 always learning, his doings of every day being re- 

 corded, so that the record can be produced against 



