The Portland daily press., 1895-03-30

The turning lathe was soon improved so
that to-day it is quito automatic. Suppose
now that piece of metal mas to be turned.
1T is mounted in lathe; the tool is set and
the lathe is started. Ths tool is automsti-
cally fed up and cuts of uniform chip. AS
the lathe of necessity has to turn very
slowly, it requires Il very long time.for the
lathe to make one cut. In some cases the
person does not have to sharpen or adjust
a tool more than once day, and this only
requires. We will say, about five minutes.
All the rest of the time he has nothing to
do but watch the lathe, anu in many cases
he has all he can do to keep from going to
sleep. The trades unions will not allow the
British workmen to run more than one
lathe, while i'll Germany and France man
runs from four to six, according TO he class
of work on which he is employed. And tie
same is true of planners.
when we first commenced to make Max
i'm guns. and before the strike occurred, 1.-THE
unionists used to take parts of the gun TO a
neighboring grog shop, where they held
nightly meetings for the purpose of what
they called rating the work that is. de-
Gliding how much time should be consumed
in doing a certain amount of work on a
certain part of the gun. / will only speak
of one part. which is called the glib, which
weighs about half ounce. When the
Maxim guns were made by ones and twos
for experimental purposes these pieces we1
first forged, then reughed OFT on shaping
machine, and finally fled into shape This
piece was rated to require a day and a half
to make it. When the guns came to be
made by the hundred these pieces were
milled into shape SO that very little had to
be done on them. Nevertheless no trades
unionists dared to smooth one up with file
after it had been milled in less time than a
day and quarter. If one man was taken
off and another put on, it would always re-
quira a day and a quarter to do the work
One day skilful German mechanic who
did not speak English applied for situa-
tion and was put on to this job. He did
eleven the first day and twelve every day
afterward. instead of doing one in day
and quarter. A good many other parts of
the gun were rated in about the same pro-
portion. While firing Maxim gun in the
States one of these GIBBS was broken, and I
went into a local machine shop to have one
made. From the time the bar of steel was
cut off until the glib was finished and in the
gun was exactly two and a hal. hours.
This was making it from a bar of steel.
Gin regard to the industries that have
left England, l would say that it would re-
quire considerable time to give anything
like full account of them.
Regarding the comparative skill of me-
chanicians- American. French, British,
Spanish, German it would be impossible for
me to mention one nation that excels in
everything. Each nation has it's own pecu-
liarities and its own specialties. So far as
my experience goes, and have had great
deal of it, l should say that the New Eng
landers are the finest mechanics in the
world. l think any one who has investi-
gated the subject will have to admit this.
The tools which are designed and made in
New England are incomparatively ahead of
those made in any other country. There
is nothing in Europe that can at all COM
pare, for instance, with the tools made by
Brown s. Sharp of Providence r. l., Pratt
& Whitney of Hartford, Conn, and the
American Tool Company of Boston. The
Americans also excel in the manufacture
of revolvers and sporting rifles, while for
woodworking tools and machinery they are
far ahead of all other nations. They are
also ahead in automatic machinery for