The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-01-01
HE SAVED THE SCOW
s CLEVER BIT OF STRATEGY IN AN
ENGINEERING JOB.

How Young American Engineer
Brought His Spirit OF Invention to
Aid In Solving q Wreck Problem IN
South America.
1t is easy enough for an engineer to
show ability in New York or in other
big towns where he can get about all
the tools and convenienccs ever devils
ed. 1t is when an engineer finds him"
self in the wilds of a jungle or up III
the mountains, hundreds Of miles frcm
civilization, that his own natural i'll
genuity and invention count. SAID
veteran engineer to 4 younSster who
had been admitted to the ranks of tie
Engineers club.
"Down ir Surinam, Dutch Guiana,
where the arrival OF 4 sailing schooner
causes sensation, where 4 mail
steamer enters the muddy harbor once
in two weeks to tarry two hours to set
rid of its mail and to take on a few
passengers, there was once q young
American engineer who showed that
he had the proper spirit Of invention to
advance him to the front ranks of the
profession. Like ali the best inven-
tions. his was the simplest one. and 1t
was one that was widely talked about
among the profession to the credit Of
the inventor.
ITO understand the story properly
you need q trifing insight into Surf
nam and it's habits. Here Indians may
be seen on the streets wearing only a
breechcloth. The white population is
so scarce that all are thrown together
as if in one large family, Englishmen,
Americans, Germans, Dutchmen and
Frenchmen all combining together and
forming clubs and society to keep
themselves from dying of sheer lone
SomeneSS.
"In this primitive town there was a
man who held the splendid monopoly
of owning large scow. That. up
there, seems g remarkably small thing
to be proud of, but the value Of even
scow depends entirely upon where the
scow is and what it will cost to replace
it. This particular scow had been built
by American ship carpenters sent es-
pecially from the United States at
great expense. There was not another
scow in the entire harbor. and about
all Of the heavy river work to be done
for the city and plantations and min
ing companies was done by this one
vessel. Its loss. therefore, would have
been not only a severe one for the own
er, who had a monopoly of the busi-
ness in those days. but it would have
been little short Of national calam-
ity.
"One day, while the scow was an
chored in midstream, one OF those
smashing black squalls for which the
tropics are famous broke over the rW-
er, and for twenty minutes you could
not see ten feet away or hear man
shouting ut your elbow. When the
storm finally abated, the scow was not
to be seer. and it was found she had
gone down, deck load and all. To most
Of US there seemed about as much
chance of raising the vessel as there
would be to raise an ocean steamer
sunk in the middle Of the Atlantic.
at was about this time that the
Young engineer took hand in the
problem. He asked the dimensions or
the scow and was told that it was -
by 60 feet. and then he announced that
if the owne. would provide him with
four men he would raise the scow for
a certain sum of money. The bargain
was made, though the contractor re-
fused to say how he would go about
: the job.
"Now, you must know that ASIDE
from the ebb and food tide, which al
ternate every six hours, there is also
what is known as a spring tide. Ihls
comes with the full Of the nm.
has the effect Of making
tide than any during the unu.l. .-e
opposite to the spring tide is the neap
tide. and that happens at the dark OF
the moon. with the effect that at no
other tide during the month is the eDo
tide 50 low as It is at that time. The
difference in the height of water be-
tween the ebb at neap tide ana the
flood at spring tide is considerable.
The engineer waited until ncap tide.
On that day he towed 4 number of logs
down the river. These be anchored
over the scow and sent men below to
fasten chains to one side of tie scoW.
and these he fastened to the logs on
the surface. Then he waited patiently.
As the spriu" tide approached he tow
ed other logs down the river until he
had enough to make quite raft. ana
on the day Of the highest tide all the
LOGS we're tied together and fastened.
The tide rose steadily. and the more it
rose the more the raft went down un-
der the strain Of the pull Oh the chains.
At last, just as it seemed that the ratr
was unequal to the occasion. It was
seen to bob up violently. and moment
later there was 4 commotion in the
water, and the scow appeared. What
had happened. of course, was this: Inc
chains pulling upward on one side OF
the scow tilted it more and more until
the deck load began to slide off. ana
finally, when all the stones had Slid in
to the river. the scow came up under
its own buoyancy. The remainder was
simple. The vessel was towed to the