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 Eeynolds, 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 



