The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-07-26
CHAPTER vi.
The Failure.

The Failure.
In spite of himself and his confluence
In the bridge, Abbott felt a. little IN
aasy the next morning. At bottom ne
had more respect for Meade's tech
uical knowledge than he had dlsplayeu
or even admitted to himself. Ihe
Younger engineers terrified alarm, MS
inter forgetfulness Of the amenities De-
tween them, his frantic but futile ell
forts to telephone, Of which the op-
orator told Abbott in the morning, MS
hurried departure to New York. were'
TO saw the least, somewhat disqu1etlng'
much more so than he was lain 10 au-
NIT to himself.
Although it involved a hard ana
somewhat dangerous climb downward
and took upwards of half hour u his
valuable time, the first thing the erect
Ing engineer did in the morning was TO
20 down to the pier head and make
thorough and careful examination OF
the buckled member. C-1O-R was, OF
course, a part Of the great lower chord
Of the huge diamond-shaped truss
which, with it's parallel sixty feet away
on the other side Of the bridge and It's
two opposites across the river, support
ed the whole structure. If anything
we're wrong, seriously, irreparaoly
wrong, with the member and 1t gave
wav. the whole truss would go. The
other truss would Inevitably follow
suit. and the cantilever would immed1-
ately collapse. Abbott realized that
NJ course. as he climbed carefully
down to the pier head and stood on the
shoe.
Abbott, as he stood by the member
and surveyed it throughout it's length,
rould easily see that it had buckled, al
though the deviation was slight, about
two inches at it's maximum in sixty
feet. He brought with him line and'
with infinite care and pains, ne Grew
It taut across the slight concavlty ike
a bow-string. He had estimated the
Gambler. or the distance between the
center of the bow and the string at
one and a half inches. AS he made
more careful measurements, he discoV-
cred that it was slightly over one and
three-uuarter inches. In seven hum
dred and twenty that was scarcely no.
ticeable, and it did not seem very
much to Abbott. AS he stood there
feeling himself an insignificant figure
amid this great interviewer mass OF
steel, again the sense Of its strength
and stability came to him overpowering-
". so much so that he laughed aloud
n a rather grim fashion at the I'M
Wonted nervousness which had been
Induced in his mind by Meade's words
and actions.
But he was a conscientious man, so
he pursued his investigations further.
He climbed up on top of the member,
which was easy enough by means OF
he criss-crossed lacing, and carefully
inspected the lacings at the center OF
he concavity, or sidewise spring from
he right line.
He noticed, by getting down on his
face and surveying the lacing bars
closely, a number Of fine hair-line
cracks in the paint, surface traceries
apparently, running here and there
from the rivet holes. The rivets them
selves had rather strained look. Some
of the outer rivetS seemed slightly
loose, where before they must have
been tight, for the members, like all
other parts Of the bridge, had been
carefully inspected at the shop ana
any looseness of the rivets would GER
tainly have been noticed there. But
Abbott's obsession as to the strength
of the bridge had grown stronger. Lin
ing it out, crawling over it, feeling Its
rightly, he decided that these evident
strains were to be expected. OF course
the lacings that held the webs together
would have to take up terrific stress.
They had been designed for that pur-
pose. Largely because he did not ma
anything very glazing, and because he
wanted to believe what he believed, the
chief of construction left the pier head
and clambered up to the floor with
more satisfaction in his heart than his
somewhat surprising anticipation,
which had so unwillingly grown under
the stimulus of Meade's persistence,
had led him to expect.
The whistle was just blowing for the
commencement Of work when he got
lex to the bridge floor. He could not
but reflect, as the men came swarming
along the tracks to begin their days
work, that the responsibility for their
lives lay with him. Well, Abbott was
a big man in his way, he had assumed
RESPONSIBILITIES before and was per-