Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-23
The Danger of American Competition
TO Euronenn Engine MnLkers.

to European Engine Makers.
That new country, as North America
must still be regarded from many points of
view. says lie Genie Civil of Paris, should
be able to supply its own needs ever, does
not seem to satisfy the activity Of its people,
with which Europe will have to count in
future, on the battle ground of industry.
The news that comes to us from the United
States of an order for forty locomotives for
Russia, placed with an American concern,
will be received with a certain degree of
surprise on this side of the Atlantic, espe-
cially IT, as we are told, this order is to be
followed by more important ones. Already
in the matter of furnishing railroad ma
terial, American constructors had taken pos
session of the South American market and
were carrying on formidable competition
against the English in their own colonies,
especially in New Zealand and Australia,
but 1t was hardly expected that they should
be seen obtaining foothold in Europe Now,
in what concerns more especially the railroad
materials of which we speak here, this sue
cess is not due to the commercial ability
and skill of the Americans 1t depends above
all, on industrial and technical causes, which
it is, perhaps, just as well to recall here.
The types from which modern American
locomotives have grown we're selected from
the point of view Of being suitable TO run
on light roads, often poorly constructed, with
curves of very short radius, in countries
where 1t is difficult to make repairs.
The result was locomotives at once flexible,
rough in form, and extremely strong which
in new countries and in the colonies have
shown themselves to be clearly superior to
European engines in the matters of dura-
tion and cost OF maintenance. Provided with
distributing springs in all parts and resting
on divided trucks, which, while insurins
sufficient stability, give than great nexiblity,
these machines adapt themselves in a wonder
q
and easily pass around curves of very short
radius. The simplicity of their construction
and the solidity Of the parts allow of their
being put in charge of men of little expert
ence and of the employment of persons more
or less rough and clumsy. They are be-
sides very powerful and built on broad lines,
yet not weighing too much on the axles,
thanks to the use Of divided trucks, that do
away with the need of the outsr frame
work. Thsse were reasons more than suffi-
cient to secure the success of these engines
in undeyeloped countries and colonies even
though their cost had not been lsss than
that of European locomotives.
But as matter of fact the American
builders are able to deliver complete locomo
tives with their tenders at from to cents
pound, including packing. Why are our
constructors, who have less to pay for labor
and no more for material, unable to produce
for the same price? The low cost of Ameri
can locomotives, it must not be forgotten,
does not rise from lack of care in construc-
tion, but because they are studied and built
by makers who nsver lose sight of the cost
price and who do not sacrifice the simplicity
of the parts to any scientific consideration.
Advance 10 them means delivering more and
more powerful engines for constantly di-
minishing price; they care little whether or
no they act economically or present certain
guarantees demanded by the great European
companies. Yet the Americans now turn out
great many compound engines of type
that seems hardly logical, but which cost
little to apply and gives satisfactory results.
The low cost of American engines arises
from the fact that all the parts are studied
and drawn with view to their being made
entirely by machinery, and that all the cast
ings are made according to settled models,
are interchangeable, and can be used for any
engine of a particular type, dispensing with
new calculations for each new construction
The wheels are of cast steel, and very strong,
the hearths are of stsel, and the boilers of
iron; the stopcocks are generally castings
and the tube work iron or STEEL neither cop
per nor bronze being used.
American builders do not. make engines
and tenders in one piece, as the axle weight
would be too great for the light roadbeds.
Russia may, from some standpoints, be
looked upon as a new country, and to this
reason doubtless may the success of Amegi-
can engines be attributed. We must not
forget however, that the Americans are i'm
proving their lines year by year, and are now
able to suit their engines TO the new condi-
tions that are growing nearer and nearer to
those existing in Europe, and that their COM
petition as 1t enlarges its sphere of action
becomes daily more formidable.