The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-10-20
BY g. Walter Barr.


BY G. Walter Barr
The village blacksmith under the spreading
chestnut tree may still keep his place in poetry
but he is as far removed from modern facts as
are the pewter dishes and great freplaces of
feudal castle dining halls
Working in iron still holds it's elements of
romance and charm, but today it means deep
chemistry, mysteries Of molecules, measuring
with delicate micrometers, testing tempera-
lures by changing tints in ribbons of fire; it
means accurate science in half dozen fields
Of scientific knowledge
The day is past when the apprentice using
sledge and bellows handle as his textbooks
became an artifcer in iron. Today he studies
in laboratories, uses instruments Of the most
delicate precision, and most important of all
he must attain that Intangible thing called
scientific spirit which really means certain
kind OF mental training.
The Making of Modern Ironsmith.
One Of the most notable successes ever
made in business in Keol1uk has been made
exactly by such modern methods Having
spent years in another line of activity requir
ing the most exact scientific manipulation, and
having acquired that scientific spirit and scien-
tific training, it was as easy for Paul T. Pech-
stein to apply his training by special study to
metallury, as it is for an American right fielder
to throw bombs into trenches in Flanders.
It was truly said recently that energy and
grit produced this success in iron and steel
working; but energy and grit without much
science is as useless in the iron industries to-
day as in the making of dyes, or the building
of astronomical observatories.
Energy, grit knowledge of the needs Of
Others and head full Of facts in chemistry,
physics and all the complex science Of metal
lurgy-it took all these to make a big success
of the Pechstein Iron Works. the latest industry
to attract wide attention to Keokuk.
The Real Way to Build up City
The building up of cities has itself become
science as we'll as art in these latter days
The old, crazy-quilt methods have been super
with solid foundations which easily carry
many other industries.
Underlying all industrialism, from the days
of Tubal Cain to these times of doing all our
living except digestion by machinery is the
iron Industry Today, even the milking of COWS
and the predigestion of breakfast foods require
iron in some form. The center OF manufac-
turing in the United States is far eastward,
because the iron and steel making is chiefly IN
Pennsylvania; the rise Of the new South IS due
to Birmingham and it's iron works more than TO
any other one thing.
Now. the Pechstein Iron Works have brought
to Keokuk a very large and very lmportant
basic industry which by it's own magnetism Will
bring here other industries OF many xmas
What One Company Is Doing Here.
This was explained by Norman l. wilcox
who told what a large factor in the location OF
factories is the presence OF a tnofoughly
confined foundry and machine shop; it was
verified by G. S. Scholl when he told now
important it is to the big pure zinc plant"
The men who have built IN Keokuk thls ols
and complete iron works have done more than
- mt Dl9nf EMPLOYING