Telegram-herald., 1890-03-20
lRlCkS IN ALL TRADES.
A knight Of the Throttls" Tells
4 Good Story.
Nhzt the fdieness OF I10 aandrcd Meu
Meaas - an EmF4oseF-Ao PER
slsEsnt salesliea MORA Purchasers.

A1eans IL &n kmF F4os eE-Aoxs PER
slsIent e4lesalel ~ ora FurcA&seEs.
There are tricks IA az trades. / sup
pose, lat i vac never fooled by = travel
.ng salesman buI oaee," remarked
bt-.d ag.neer, WHO also does TIE bay
ing i h.s department for one OF tie
most prominent institutions IA Grand
Rapids.
'sOf course" he said, "ghere are
agents along every day selling glue,
ySrn.sh, OIL, etc, and each one OF
them has something just little bt bet
tel tnan the man who preceded hlm
aud, although | .ldom buy, some
times get interested IN the fellows
story, and am amused al his persist
enee. Now, Of all the articles man
wants 10 let alone when ne has got 3
1 good article Is oil. and of ali the hard
I workers among the boys on the road
/ the most persistent II the fellow Who
comes In with las little case under his
arm and Nlll stay with you all day or
until YOU agree 10 give his oil a trial,
I b, fore he w.il pass on. During the tour
I years have been here TINS concern has
I never had 10 wait i've minutes for my
/ engine 10 turn. Ia 9th, words 10 keeps
! a moving every minute during work
ing hours, and tins success il que IN d
/ great measure 10 the good OIL | Use.
"One day the proprietor came into
the engine room and ! saw at a glance
IL was al oil man who accompanied
I hlm. He had the identical oil | was
using, he said, which coull be bought
much cheaper than the price had been
paying. Ii was made by hIs house after
learning its process of manufacture
from an Old empioye of the concern
| from whom We had SO loag bought
goods. Ills story was plausible; has
samples was good and the proprietor
was so anxious 10 save few cents on a
gallon that 1t was ageed 10 give the new
oil a trial. The oil came and put II
into my cup and regulated the feed 10
drop the same quantity as before and
started up. In less than ten minutes
the valve gear on that engine grOaned
so that | had TO increase the feed. Ii
continued 10 groan and | continued TO
increase the feed of the oil, and tnen to
cap the climax the PIN got warm q was
using Cylinder Oil on the PM, and I'm
ally | smut down and changed the oil.
That shut down kept 200 men idle ten
minutes, total of 2000 min utes or
thirtv-three aud one-third hours. which
the firm had TO lose, and you can
guess when the proprietor came down
and learned the cause Of the delay, be-
tween us We made that engine room
blue. ] afterwards learned the fellow
who sold the oil had borrowed from one
of my firemen a sample bottle OF my
own oil and came around again III the
afternoon of the same day and sold me
the goods.
"Oh, yes. There is other oil which
will lubrlcate the valve gear Of this big
engine as well as 800 W cylinder oil, if
you used enough of it. For instance, a
local mixer OF oil sent a can of his
cylinder oil down here and gave it 10
me to try. | did not care to Introduce
it ON the main engine, 80 put II on the
pony and the pumps. The valve gear
seemed TO work all right, but then |
had 10 feed twice as much of the
cheaper oil TO obtain anything Ike a
good result, and, another thing, the
sample he sent was made mainly of
tallow oil, which | would not use.
What do mean by mixers of oil? Why,
concerns who buy from manufacturers
and then compound or mix the goods,
put on fancy brand and sell tor a
fancy price. There are, if | am cor
rectly informed, no manufacturers OF
oil west of Cleveland. o course. there
are firms who make lard and tallOw
oil, out of necessity, when working over
rough tallOw or lard, but neither one
~. 4
ders. and good practical engineer
could not be hired TO use tallow OF
. for that purpose. Another great fad
among oil men IS the sale of sO-callec
West Virginia oil, when in fact the wells
in West Virginia r ID up years ago.
''Vacuum oil, tne same as ! use. j
J manufactured from a pure mineral oil
I under what s known as the Vacuum
process, and has, 10y far, the largest sal'
| Of any oil sold IN Grand Rapids
, comes little higher than parafine o
tallOw oils, but goes more than twlce a
far and is consequently cheaper and
being purely of mineral product. j.
better for machinery by great odds
After most practical and searching
test, it has been adopted by this Gov
| eminent and the Government OF Groa
Britain, and IS used by majority o
: the leading railroads and steamship
lines OF both countries. There i on
thing about 1t; man can go about IN
other work content with the fact tina
everything is running smooth and cool
and that's good enough for me-" And
so saying, the knight Of the throttle e1
cused himself and turned TO address a.
y individual with a little case under hi
5 arm, who, for all the reporter knew
: was one of those persistent oil men.