The Press., 1912-03-20

reuuln. rue prUppIng pan was aUan-
doned, and the meeting adjourned with
the understanding that the stack must
| come down.
The next morning Tom SwarIout in
overalls went into the Office of Mr..
Rogers, president of the corporation.
and, leaning his bare arms. black with
coal dust and grease. on a rosewood
railing. said reaectively:
"Mr. Rogers, I've been wondering II
! a way Of strengthening the stack I've
been thinking about wouldn't work.
you've been thinking about it: Do
you know that last night we had the
best engineers in the country here dis
cussing the matter, and they all agreed
| the stack must come down..
Tom was about to take his departure
when the president asked. What's
your plan?"
why, yOu know the base is SQUARE. "
"Well?''
"And the stack leans in perpendic-
ular line with one of the faces Of the
base"
"Yes."
Nov, If a line Of brick on the sides
Of the base other than that in the direc-
ton the stack leans could he removed
the stack would settle on that side.
swinging the top toward the perpen-
dicular."
1.-THE removal of brick under so heavy
a weight would be impracticable."
II was wondering If it couldn't be
done in this way: Remove the brick at
intervals. so as to leave several little
pillars for support. Now, SuppOsing
we wish to take out three inches of
the brick. we begin by removing six
inches on the other three sides. filling
up the spaces with blocks of wood of
equal thickness. leaving three sides
wood instead of brick. Between the
blocks put in brick piers three inches
high. which would leave space of
three inches, the distance required to
right the stack. between the top Of the
piers and the top of the brick piers
This done, burn out the woodwork. and
the upper brick work of your base grad
ually sinks down on to the PIERS
Tom made this suggestion with no
more consciousness of it's Importance
and ingenuity than if be had prepared
plan for mending a broken machine
AS he progressed the president kept his
eyes fixed OH him with growing inter
est mixed with wonder When Tom
had finished Mr. Rogers continued to
stare at him for Il few moments. then
brought his fist down on a bell beside
him. A boy came hurrying in and the
president Numbered out the order:
Send the superintendent here at
once!''
Within an hour Toms plan of right
ing the chimney was begun and with
in eighteen hours had been completed.
The amount of change to swing the
top Of the chimney into position was
matter of brief mathematical cal
culatiOn and was made before the re
mOval Of the brickwork was begun.
When the woodwork had all been re-
moved by fire the settling was found
to be correct and satisfactory, and the
stack stood perpendicular.
Mr. Rogers inspected the work, saw
that it was good. went to his Office
and called for Tom Swartout. When
Tom reported he hadn't the slightest
idea what he was wanted for. The
president handed him a check for $1O.-
600. Tom looked at it. then at Mr..
Rogers for an explanation.
Il would gladly have paid an en-
gineer twice that sum-" said the presi-
dent, for your suggestion. 1t has
saved thousands on the stack-thou-
sands for breach of contracts and
thousands. besides. for contingent loss
Of business
Tom couldn't get it through his stu
pid head how a little matter like that
should be made SO much of.
A few days after this Tom received
a leave Of absence to go home. Mel
ther his father nor his mother knew
him, for he had bought good clothes
and looked PROSPEROUS. They wei
coined him home. and when he set
about supplying their every want they
were thunderstruck.
How ever did you do 1t. Tommy"
asked his mother, beside herself with
wonder.
'Oh, l did a little job on a smoke
stack that any other fellow could have
done as we'll as l, only nobody hap
pened to think Of it,
Tom Swartout was given position
at the factory, which had no name.
His duties were to think out all sorts
Of problems that were impossible to
others. He was never at loss for a
device and invented methods for ex
pediting and lettering work which put
enormous profits into the pockets OF
his employers and made him rich.
All this his father and mother could
never understand.