The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-17
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BY wALDoN FAwcErr.

America Is pre-eminently the land of the mechanical giant. Here the monster burden n-bearers-the inanimate toilers each of which performs the work of from dozen to one hundred men-have in nine cases out of ten originated. here they thrive as on no other indus trial soil. and here. lastly. they are of late coming to be manufactured in great numbers for use in all quarters of the globe. This last-mentioned new feature of the situation is full of significance for the American wortingmen. who have in not a few instances begun to show alarm over the encroachments of these unfeeling herculean 1aborers.
 In some fields of labor the workmen have rather welcomed the introduction of labor-saving machinery. not so much because there was more work to be done than there were hands to do it as by reason of the fact that experience has proven that as the operator of a time-savng machine an artisan can command higher wages than would be called for by the old-fashioned hand labor, however skilled. Some classes of worlsir .Smen there are. however. who have 7.een " reconciled to the change and Hean n Nng others content for the moment there has of late come ap- prehensions that the mechanical work CTS devised by Yankee ingenuity may yet place well-paid American labor on a level with the more poorly paid Eu- ropean toll.
 The sentiment owes It's origin, no doubt. to the tremendous orders which have of late come from Europe to the American manufacturers who control the patent rights in all countries, and therefore have the exclusive privilege of manufacturing these novel mechanl- cal workers. There is no doubt that British and continental firms are in- stalling these time and labor savers Just about as rapidly as they can be im- ported from America, but persons who have lately investigated the subject de- clare that whatever American labor may suffer by having low-priced foreign CTS operating these machines will be more than compensated for by the in- creased opportunities opened to the clt- izens of the greatest republic in the manufacture of these inanimate toiers for the worlds workshops.
 Assuredly, Uncle Sam's domain has turned out nothing more wonderful than these mechanical giants of the modern manufacturing world. with their fin- gers of steel arms of iron and bodies charged with the energy of steam or electricity, lifting and lowering and carrying tons upon tons of material in every imaginable form and transporting 1t with the speed of the wind. yet with a surehandedness seldom found in their human prototypes. Early and late they work. They never grow tired: they never loiter and they are seldom sick. They have no human failings. these me chanical hodcarriers. They work bet ter and more accurately than hands and arms of flesh and blood can work. and to a hundredfold greater effect.
 The uses of these mechanical helpers nre as varied as their character One picks up a monster locomotive as though it were a toy. Another swings a ponder ous bridge-beam that hundred men could scarcely lift. To third it is as easy to hoist up a ton of rock from a mountain side as for man to lift a pebble in pail. Here we find one carry ing the backbone of a ship clutched fast in huge prongs; there another shifts coal Either and thither in big iron buckets that load and empty themselves at the
 
 long list might be enumerated the tri- umphs of these present-day money-sav- ing machines.
 Among these machines that almost think. as among men. there are champion workers. Prominent among the number are the huge derricks which are found in many manufacturing plants. and the most notable of which is the Atlas. at the Cramp ship yard. in Philadelphia. The Atlas is the largest and most power ful noting derrick in the world. In form 1t is nothing more nor less than a huge cross of steel mounted on a floating platform. The cross bar is equipped with a miniature railway. which enables loads to be shifted up and down it's length at any height from the ground-or. is more often the case. at any desired height above the surface of the water.
 The pontoon. or floating platform. on