The sun., 1902-11-16
LITTLE KNOWN MENOP GENIUS,
JOHN FRITZ. the IRONNASTER,
ByT ONE or 4 GREAT ARMY.
Few outsiders Had Heard Of Him lntil
a Gold Medal Was Given TO Him--Many
Other Gases Like His Alexander
r.. brown and Duane 10. Church.

lifnlt al Only iV MS 1bllilN 10 Keep IllmSeH
before the public. ON ,he other hand.
many oil the achievements that have con-
tributed 20 this nations greatness and the
world'~ progress have been wrought out in
,luir, corner, and byways. and the world
has know n little of their authors until long
after the achievement mad. the world
richer and better. or until after the worker
has been dead long enough to get into the
cyclopRdia..
John Fritz, the ironmaster OF Bethlehem,
lived long in obscurity before. through q
dinner and a medal given To him at the
Waldorf Astoria the other night, the world
learned that il was his genius which prac-
tically rcvohtionized the iron and steel
making of the world. But John Fritz is only
on" Of thousands Of men of genius in this
and other lands who have lived and worked
and achieved great things and the world
has known little or nothing of them and
their work.
Since the dinner al which Mr.. Fritz was
the guest of honor the newspapers have
msd. the Nestor of American rolling mills
fairly well known 10 his fellow citizens out
| side the iron and steel trade. None Of the
| speeches MADE at the dinner, however. gave
| very satisfactory notion Of the kind OF
man this octogenarian really il.
Like many other great men. Mr.. Fritz
had few OF the advantages OF education
| with which to assist him in his work. What
| he was able to accomplish was due largely
| to natural talents and to stick -itiye.
| ness which knew no such thing as failure.
Even with the extensive latter-day ad.
vert ising which Mr.. Fritz has been forced
| TO receive il il quite likely that few outside
| his own trade know just why he is regarded
as SO great a man by those engaged in iron
and steel manufacture. II seems that
| Isaac Holley, dead many years, and John
| Fritz are conceded TO be the greatest iron
| masters the world ever produced.
| What Mr.. Fritz did for the industry was
largely in the way Of inventing rolling
mill machinery. For instance. it vas
supposed for many years that steel beam
two rollers. When the beam or the rail
had passed through these rollers once
| il had to he carted back TO its original posi-
| ton and sent through the rolls again and
| again until it had assumed the required
| form.
Mr.. Fritzmade up his mind that il two rolls
| could be used there was no very good reason
why a third should not be superposed on
the second and some mechanism arranged
| by which the piece OF steel might pass
| through the first two rollers and be passed
back automatically through the second
and third.
The foreign steel makers laughed as such
proposition and said il not only could
not be done, but that it was absurd While
| he foreigners were thus having their fun
with the genius of Bethlehem, Mr.. Fritz
was at work upon the machinery and soon
| had il installed and in running order To-
day his invention is used in every rolling
| mill of any consequence in the world.
| Those who know him best say hat John
| Fritz has owed his success principally to
| the fact that, while he has always recog-
nized his own ability. he has known equally
we'll the limitat ions that have been put
| upon him by his lack OF education Several
wears ago. before he retired from active
business, he was showing some mechanical
| -, oil d,iata M fn
schools through the Bethlehem plant
While the engineers were examining the
great engine in one of the mills, Mr. Fritz
said
I always want to have all the educated
| brains l can get TO help me. You know
what brains I've got are in the rough They
| never had any school polishing,
Il want the best trained draughtsmen
| can get TO draw the plans, and want the
best mathematicians ] can get to cipher
out the stress and strain Of the various
parts. and then l want the best men ! can ,
has been done, take walk around her.
look her all over and say:
Well boys, is she all right?
Then everybody will say that every
. | if they are sure their figures a. to stress
and strain are all right, and they are ab~o-
lutely sure. The drauehtsmen are sure
; that their plans were all right and the fellows
, have been put together properly. Then
i sav;
We'll. lets start her up then and SEQ
why the daned thing, won't work
4 boost along the worlds progress and
} | is comparatively unknown side a VERY
limited circle: l. Alexander, Z, Brown q.
, , Cleveland. There is hardly a mine of
= has not been made possible. or ~ least
much more profitable and easy, because
| | of his inventive genius
=, He has invented and made more heavy
labor saving machinery than any other
man in the world. All Of his invention
| have been wrought out on the principle ~
saving time and saving money in -"
: handling Of materials al mines docks.
| iron and steel plants, shipbuding yards,
: | structural works and railway terminals
OF his inventions il has been said that
they have so reduced tho cost Of transpor'a- :
/ tion in this country by water and rail. and
| furnaces and steel works. shipyards and
bridge works. that Though the rate -
: wages is the highest he cost OF labor ="
| the ton Of product in tn" United States ~
| now the lowest Of any like industry In the
| world.
The only other rival in this or any ot nor
country ia Mr. Brown in he way cf in
! venting and making labor-sayinc ma
mechanician Of tho American Watch Conn
| pany a. Waltham. Mas Probably not a
dozen people outside those engaged in
| the making Of watches had over heard of
Mr.. Church until one hundrrd Captains ~
, American Industry. were invited to meet
Prince Henry Of Prussia al the memoralls
luncheon at Sherry- last February.
, Mr.. Church's inventions, from ~" vary
| nat ure Of the business which tn"v have
revolutionzed. are infinitely more delicats
in ad ment than those Of Mr.. Brown.
. While a piece of Mr.. Browns mechanism
will ft a ton Of coal, piec" Of Mr. tMircA's