The Irish standard., 1902-11-29
TRULY GREAT MEN.
But Little Known they Have Done
Big Th'nrS.

But Little Known they Have Done
Big Things.
In this age a little mans bigness
often is limited only by his ability to
keep himself before the public. On the
other hand, many of the achievements
that have contributed to this nations
greatness and the worlds progress
have been wrought out in quiet corners
and byways, and the world has known
little Of their authors until long after
the achievements made the world rich
er had been dead long enough to get
into the cyclopedias.
John Fritz, the ironmaster of Beth
lehem, lived long in obscurity before,
through a dinner and medal given
to him at the Waldorf-Astoria the other
night, the world learned that it was
his genius which practically revolu-
tionized the iron and steel making of
the world But John Fritz is only one
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 at which Mr.. Fritz
was the guest of honor the newspapers
have made the Nestor of the American
rolling mills fairly we'll known to his
fellow-ctizens outside the iron and
steel trade. None of the speeches
made at the dinner. however. gave Il
satisfactory notion of the kind of man
this Octogenarian really is.
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 ac-
complish was due largely to natural
talents and to a suck-at-tiveness
which knew no such thing as failure.
Even with the extensive later day
advertising which Mr.. Fritz has been
forced to receive it is quite likely that
few outside of his own trade know
Just why he is regarded as so great a
man by those engaged in iron and steel
manufacture. 1t seems that Isaac
EIollcy, 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 was supposed for many years that
a steel beam or steel rail could be
rolled only through two rollers. When
the beam or rail had passed
through these rollers once it had to be
carried back to it's original position and
sent through the rolls again and again
until it had assumed the required
form.
Mr. Fritz made up his mind that if
two rolls could he used there was no
good reason why a third should not
be superposcd 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 at
such proposition, and said that it not
only could not be done, but that it
was absurd. While the foreigners were
thus having their fun with the genius
of Bethlehem. Mr.. Fritz was at work
upon the machinery, and soon had 1t
installed and in running order. Today
his invention is used in every rolling
mill of any consequence in the world.
Those who know him best say that
John Fritz has owed his success prin-
cipally to the fact that, while he has
always recognized his own ability, he
has known equally we'll the limitations
that have been put upon him by hi.
lack of education. Several years ago
before he retired from active business,
he was showing some mechanical en-
gineers. all graduates of technical
schools, through the Bethlehem plant.
While the engineers were examining
the great engine in one Of the mills,
Mr.. Fritz said:
"When I get contract for a new
engine I always want to have all the
educated brains I can get to help me.
You know what brains I've got are in
the rough. They never had any school
polishing.
81 want the best trained craftsman
I can get to draw the plans, and I want
the best mathematicians I can get to
cipher out the stress and strain on the
various parts, and then want the best
men can get to set it up. Then, at
ter all the work has been done, I take
walk around her, look her all over,
and say:
"'Well. boys. is she all right"
"Then everybody will say that every.
thing is all right. ask the mathemn.
ticians if they are sure their figures
! as to stress and strain are all right,