Author: fitz

There are considerations other than merely technical ones which have weight in determining the quality and quantity of a man’s work in the shop. For instance, what is distinctly and, pre-eminently the mark of the superior workman? I would unhesitatingly put it as self-respect. The good workman justly appreciates his abilities; and this self appreciation is as far as can be from unwarranted and inordinate self-conceit.

A man in a machine shop, like a man anywhere else in life, who knows how to do good work, knows well enough when he does good work, knows as well as anyone the value of it, and cannot be got to willingly waste it. Work that is wasted is never good work nor done by a good workman. Work may be like choice butter upon good bread, or it may be like the same butter daubed upon the sleeve of your best coat, and then it is not good work.

Troy is the great laundry city—put tight fits upon work that is to encounter the rust of a wash-room, and it will bring you profanity instead of praise. The most worthless man in the shop is he who is willing to swing his axe all day and see no chips fly. The man who is in earnest makes every motion tell to the accomplishment of his purpose. He is the man whom I may always safely tell when anything about his work is wrong. He will know that he is precisely the one who should know about it, that he may correct it and avoid a like mistake in future.
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The towboat Ida reached New Orleans, out of the Arkansas River, on June 8, with a walnut log raft* of unusual proportions. Additional interest attaches itself to this raft on account of it being part of an order for 10,000,000 feet from a Bridgeport, Conn., sewing machine factory. The growing scarcity of this desirable wood in the Eastern States, and the demand by European furniture makers has developed distant sources of supply.

The raft in question had been ninety days making the trip from the forests along the White and St. Francis rivers, in Arkansas, and in that time drift, five feet deep, had accumulated beneath the logs. Of these the raft contained 2,500, 2,000 being walnut and 500 cypress. The latter are used as buoys for the heavier timber. This log island measured 400 by 208 feet, and many of the walnut logs were over six feet in diameter.

They were cut by a band of 200 Canadians who are adepts at working in hard timber, and can get out 500 logs per day under favorable circumstances. From New Orleans the logs go by rail to New England, this transportation being found to be just $2 per 1,000 less than by steamship. Col. S. M. Markel, of Missouri, has this contract, and has orders for walnut logs from Liverpool parties. The raft in question contained 600,000 feet, and is among the first shipments of the kind to the East.

*Note: There was no photograph included with this article. The above image is a substitute.

Scientific American – July 24, 1880

– Jeff Burks

There was a time when, as a rule, workmen looked upon machinery as being injurious to their interests; and a feeling of antagonism was naturally raised in them against any invention that aimed at rapid production of manufactured goods. This feeling of hostility was quite natural in the uneducated artisan, who fancied he saw in every new invention an implement of oppression.

It must be admitted, however, that in some instances, at any rate, the introduction of labor-saving machinery has been of great benefit to many of the working classes. But while it cannot be denied that the hours of labor have bean shortened, wages advanced, and to some extent necessaries cheapened, it will be found that employees have increased out of all proportions, and that a larger amount of skilled labor remains idle than ever before; and that although some necessaries are cheaper in name than they were fifty years ago, it must be remembered that the purchasing power of a dollar is but little more than half what it was at that period.

The great cry, also, of high wages being given to mechanics, has but little force, when the fact is taken into consideration that the amount paid to-day has but little more purchasing power than one-half the same amount had half a century ago. We are not prepared to say that the introduction and use of labor-saving machinery have not been a benefit to the world at large; but we think we are safe in saying that whatever may be the benefits derived from this source, they are evidently not evenly divided.

Carpentry and Building – July 1879

– Jeff Burks