The labor world., 1922-12-09

twigs of trees in India. Brown men
climb up in the trees and break off
the twigs, then scrape off the shell
lac, which in the United States is
dissolved in grain alcohol denatured
with wood alcohol from Michigan.
Then the iron and steel.
The iron in the motor was made
from Minnesota ore, smelted in
South Chicago with Michigan lime
stone and coke made from Pennsyl-
vania Or West Virginia coal.
The round steel shaft was once
iron, but in roaring Bessemer con-
verters or in white hot open hearth
furnaces, the iron was changed into
steel, poured into ingot moulds and
rolled time AMI again until it be-
came a red, from which the shaft
was cut and sized in the electric
works at Schenectady, N. Y.
Now we will have to take an ocean
steamer half way round the world,
in order to obtain metals for the
bearings in which the motor shaft
rotates. We must get the tin from
Singapore, antimony from China and
copper from Montana.
The coils of wire are hidden in
slots in the armature or rotating
part Of the motor. The armature is
made up Of hundreds of sheets Of
special silicon steel, little thicker
than sheet Of heavy butchers
wrapping paper. After the wires are
hidden away the rotating part is
bound with phosphor bronze wire.
Each ounce Of this wire involved the
carrying of its ingredients almost
10000 miles; for the Montana cop
per Travelled 2,745 miles, the zinc
came 1900 miles from Oklahoma,
the tins II, 900 miles from Singapore,
the finished wire was then brought
S14 miles more to the electric
works.
What a remarkable plish-
ment in transportation and manu-
facture; that those Ill, materials are
gathered in the four quarters of the
world by white, black, yellow and
brown toilers; then carried dis
tance equal to a trip to the moon:
then assembled into simple and re-
liable electric moters; and that these
motors are made available to the
public on such favorable terms that
in addition to their universal use in
industry millions of women have
learned to operate them for lessen
6rl16oQrx, in tho 1,nn Dro l.
ly the same materials are required
to make radio apparatus and cleo
trio meters and transformers, even
the complete electric locom olives
that now haul railroad trains across
the Rocky mountains, one mile above
the level of the sea.
Just stop and think a few minutes
about what a wonderful thing mod
ern industry is. Think, not only OF
the Inventions themselves, such as
radio. but think of the scientists who
delved down deep into the electrical
mysteries. Remember that un-
consciously cooperating with them
are thousands of men who work in
distant lands, and who find, box and
carry the raw materials. Picture the
reddish brown Hindu with perhaps
no clothes above the waist except
the turban on his head. He is work
ing today to help insulate the cleo
tric apparatus of 1924. He is a part
ner of the inventor and the engineer
Remember, that $4,000 miles
away brown man in Ceylon, two
or three years ago got out of a tree
the very rubber that now covers the
wire few inches distant from your
hand. Recall that a yellow man made
the silk, and that black man picked
the cotton. And in closing I want
to remind you o: those right here al
home, the thousands who are work.
ing with hand and brain in research
laboratories and in shops. They are
making more electric motors and still
more electric wonders. These mer
help make the world a better, 8
more human and more interesting
place to live.
That ends the story of how, by
means of organization, a vast num-
ber of men Of many, you might say
of all races. cooperate to build that
faithful servant of the twentieth
century, the electric motor.