Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1922-02-23
EMMONs COUNTY RECORD

q souvenir II feel like 1t, can't II"
"Oh, h-l!" he gritted, and turning
on his heel went away.
After he had gone / patted myself
on the back bit for not losing my
temper and then, Just to have an ex-
cuse for staying away from the cabin
and the Fullerton vicinity, made fires
under the boilers and got up steam. In
the former pumping spasm Daddy and
] had operated only the two big CEN
trifugals, ignoring the deep-well pumps
designed to lift the water from the
lower levels of the mine.
Just to try something that we hadn't
tried before, l got steam on the deep
wellers, and soon found that the
machinery, which we hadn't taken
down in the general overhauling,
needed tinkering before 1t would be
safe to run It. Banking the boiler
fires, / went at the job single-handed
and managed to wear out the livelong
day at 1t.
It took me all the afternoon and
then some to get the machinery cleaned
and tinkered up and reassembled. In
paving over the supplies in the mine
storerOom-stuff left by the former op-
eratOrs-we had found an acetylene
flare torch and a can Of carbide and I
rugged the torch so that could go on
working after dark. Il
1t was along about nine o'clock when
! got the deep-wells ready to run and
freshened up the fires and turned the
steam on. In curious contrast to the
care which had been taken to provide
discharge outlet for the centrifugals.
the Cornish pumps had merely an iron
trough which ran to ditch leading
down to the bench below the mine
buildings. After few minutes Of the
clanking and banging. the water began
to come. 1t was horribly smelling
stuff, thick and discolored; evidences
sufficient that it was coming from the
bottom Of the mine. The two pumps
together were lifting about an eight
inch stream, and 1t occurred to me at
once that IL could set the centrifu-
gals going at the same time, the mass
attack might accomplish what the
piece-meal assault couldn't.
Throwing in the clutch that drove
the big rotaries, ran up against what
Daddy would have called 'circum-
stance" There wasn't power enough
to drive both sets Of pumps coupled
in together; at least, not with the
steam pressure the boilers were car
rying. Thinking to get more power by
pushing the fires bit harder, went
to the detached boiler room to stoke
up, leaving the deep wells Changing
away In the shafthouse. I had fred
two of the furnaces and was at work
on the third when a series of grind
ing crashes in the machinery sent me
flying to find out what was going
wrong.
What was happening-wha had al
ready happened-was a plenty. AS I
have said, the great Cornish water
lifters were driven through a train
Of gearing. When reached the scene,
the steam engine was still running
smoothly, but the pumps had stopped.
The reason didn't have to be looked
for with microscope. The gear-train
was wreck, with one of the wheels
smashed into bits, and half Of the
cogs stripped fran its mesh-mate, If
that's what you'd call it.
Mechanically stopped the engine
and went to view the remains. The
deep-wells were done for-there was
no question about that; they'd never.
run again until new set of gears
should be installed. That much deter
mined, began to look for the cause
Of the calamity. Naturally, supposed
that cracked cog in one, of the
wheels mad given way, and with this
for starter, the general smash would
follow as matter; of course. But
a careful and even painful scrutiny Of
the wreckage failed to reveal the cog
with the ancient fracture. Each break
was new and fresh and clean; there
wasn't sign Of an old flaw In any
one Of them. III
/ think must have knelt there
under the gear train for q half hour or
more, handling the fragments Of iron
and fitting them together. It was like
a child's broken-block puzzle, and af-
ter a time was able to lay all the
larger bits out upon the floor in their
proper relation to one another. It was
In the ground-up debris remaining that;
p found something which suddenly
made me see red. Battered into shape
5lessness, but still clearly recognizable,
were the crushed disjecta membra Of
our twelve-lnch monkey-wrench!
I tried not to 60 of the handle IN 4
ut of mad rage. With a sort OF forced,
calm ! considered every beam and pro-
jecting timber where might incau-
tiously have left the wrench, and from
which It might have Jared OF to fall
into the gears. There was no such
chance. had used the wrench In re-
assembling the machinery, but now
that / came to recall all the ,circum-
stances, distinctly remembered hav-l
ing put 1t, together with. the other
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