THE CRADLE OF THE MODERN NAVY. 17 



at a specified hour on a certain day every week, had to be prompt to the minute, 

 and at the end of the allotted time Captain Ericsson would rise and say: — "I am 

 sorry you cannot stay any longer," and the conference would end. 



In 1 87 1 John T. Waring conceived the idea of a rock drill operated by steam 

 power and came to the works to have it developed. Almost simultaneously, by one 

 of those curious coincidences which frequently show that a common need causes 

 minds who feel it to develop similar projects, Simon Ingersoll and Addison C. Rand 

 brought in their more completely developed plans for manufacture. These were 

 adopted and a considerable business in them was developed. In open work steam 

 power was attended by little inconvenience, but in confined work in mines and tun- 

 nels the difficulties were great and a substitute for steam was sought. Ericsson 

 was consulted and over night he produced drawings for an air compressor, and the 

 works built many of them from this design for years. One order was for a large 

 number of these rock drills and eight compressors cut up into parts of less than 

 300 pounds each for transportation on mule back and to be bolted together at the 

 site, for Henry Meiggs, an American engineer who was then building his rail- 

 road and tunnel through the Andes Mountains above Lima, Peru. A large amount 

 of hoisting machinery was built at this time for the Witherbee-Sherman Iron Mine, 

 near Lake Champlain, and large steam hoisting engines for the Calumet and Hecla 

 and other mining companies in the Lake Superior district ; also gun carriages for the 

 new 12-inch rifles at Sandy Hook, and large fog horns operated calorically for the 

 Atlantic Coast Lighthouse Service and for similar service in England. 



In 1869 there was a contract taken for the steamship City of Merida, or No. 

 183, as she was known in the shop. Tom Rider was delegated to make the drawings 

 under Mr. Reynolds. Reynolds was busy with other work, however, and could not 

 give much time to it and he had finally to go to Havana, so that Rider was left to his 

 own resources. Mr. DeLamater placed the responsibility on him, told him it was a 

 time contract with a forfeiture if not completed in time, and gave him full authority 

 to go ahead. 



Mr. DeLamater had the satisfaction of knowing that there were no mistakes in 

 all the drawings made. The work was finished on time and she was the finest ves- 

 sel running between New York and Havana for years, finally being burned in Ha- 

 vana Harbor. 



Neither of the Riders, father nor son, was directly connected with the De- 

 Lamater Iron Works for some time after 1872. They went to Venezuela to a 

 gold mine, where both caught the malarial fever and dragged themselves home more 

 dead than aliye. 



In 1874 came the "Cuban Scare" and the monitor Dictator was hurried into ac- 

 tive service. The DeLamater works had built both hull and machinery originally, 

 and to them was entrusted her overhaul. She left for the rendezvous in charge of 

 her consort, which lost her during a bad storm ofif Savannah. The consort put into 

 that port, and it was telegraphed from there that the Dictator was lost with all on 

 board. Mr. Robinson was summoned to the Navy Yard and requested to convey the 



