Engineering in the United States ; a report to the electors to the Gartside scholarships on the results of a tour in the United States in 1904-05

Front matter

LIBRARY

OF THE

GIFT OF

Chapter I. GENERAL ENGINEERING POLICY

Cheap Finish — Organisation — Education — Protection and Free Trade — High Prices — SpeciaUsation — Combined Businesses — Speciahsation and the Workers — " Good Enough is Best" — Apprenticeship — High Wages and Labour-saving Machinery.

Chapter II, RELATIONS BETWEEN ExMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED

General — Employees' Suggestions — Mutual Interest — Welfare Work.

Chapter III. EDUCATION

Attitude of the People — Educational Ladder — Manual Training High Schools — Trade Schools — Technical Colleges — Distinction between the Science and Art of Engineering — Recitation — Attitude of Employers — Workshop Experience — Recreative Education.

Chapter IV. AMERICAN TRAMWAYS

General — Inter-urban Routes — Freight Service — Town Service — Power Brakes — Overhead Trolley— Cable and Horse Cars — Car Speeds — Car Fares — Transfers — Uniform Fare System — Combined System of Fares — Transfers.

X CONTENTS

Chapter V. WAGES AND PRICES

Money Wages — Wages and Hours Compared — Prices — Causes of High Wages : Industry, Organisation, Tariff Policy, and Armaments — -Methods of Paying Wages — Piece Rates — Cutting of Piece Rates — Two Functions of a Wage System — Payment According to Worth — Unemployment.

Chapter VI. AMERICAN ENGINEERING WORKSHOPS

General — Conveniences — Town or Country Site — Industrial Areas — Workshops — Machine Shop : Arrangement, Floors, and Tools — Machine Drives — Pattern Shop and Store — Foundry — Tool Room — Drawing Office — Working Hours.

Chapter VII. ELECTRIC POWER STATIONS

Water Powers — High and Low Heads — -High Voltage Transmissions— Steam Power Stations — Buildings — -Switchboards

— Unit System Auxiliaries — Main Units — Distribution —

High or Low Voltage — Alternating Current Supply — Load Factor and Station Equipment — Batteries — Business Getting.

Engineering in the United States

CHAPTER I. General Engineering Policy

There are some general features of American engineering policy which are worth noting.

Cheap Finish. There is pei-vading most engineering and constructive work a disinclination to make things excessively strong or with an unduly high finish. This feature is undoubtedly in part due to the considerable amount of pioneering work which has been, and still is being, done. Thus, for instance, when it is desired to build a railway in a sparsely-settled district which cannot have a very great deal of traffic, it is imperative that the railway be built cheaply. Otherwise there will be no railway at all. As, however, population increases the amount of traffic justifies a higher standard of construction. The railways of the Eastern States show this raising of the standard of construction very well. To a certain extent, however, this feature of early constructive work has become pai-t of the settled policy of Americans.

Organisation. Another feature which is everywhere apparent is the American love of organisation. The great industrial combines are striking evidence of this fact, and in a less striking manner the same feature shows itself in elaborate workshop organisation.

The accompanying chart (p. 106) gives the organisation of a firm of engineers in the States employed in the manufacture of electrical machinery of all sizes and some small special machines (A.B. on chart) and equipments. The chart is self-explanatory. One or two modifications had been introduced. The post of foundry superintendent had been abolished, each, departmental foreman being under the direct control of the superintendent. It will be noticed that the immediate control of the manufacturing staff and the commercial staff is in different hands. The engineers referred to among the sales agents are technically trained men who are sent out on the road for orders, and particularly when it is thought that technical knowledge will influence the decision of the intending purchaser. The territorial agents referred to are the permanent agents installed in offices in the larger towns and constituting the headquarters for the surrounding territory. The special sales agent is, as the title would imply, sent to any point where his services may be deemed necessary. The order in the columns does not indicate any connection other than being under the same official. Thus under " secretary and treasurer " we have six departments independent of each other except through the above official. The firm employed about 500 men in the works.

Education. In America, too, we find a more persistent attempt to make use of theoretical reasoning in manufacturing operations. The generally friendly attitude of employers towards technical education illustrates this, although it must be remembered that many employers are on the look out, not so much for technical knowledge in their assistants as for special executive and general ability.

It is perhaps in the electrical industry that we find the employers making most use of scientifically trained men, largely no doubt because the electrical industry is to a large extent new and half-developed. There is not that same body of past experience which is at the base of all rule-of-thumb and empirical methods of design, in the electrical industry that there is in many of the others.

Protection. The more strictly national policy of

Protection, and the widespread belief tliat liigli prices are an essential to commercial prosperity need not be discussed here. The United States, with its large population and an area of thirty times that of Great Britain; with climates and soils suitable for the production of almost all kinds of mineral, agricultural and manufactured goods, is less influenced — in a direct manner — either one way or the other than is Great Britain by the nature of its policy with regard to international trade. The worst effects of the policy of Protection in the States are probably the indirect ones; the assistance it gives to industrial monopoly and the serious blow it aims at the purity of political and public life.

It may interest English readers, however, to know that there is a strong sentiment in the States that the Tarfff ouffht to be reformed. The American Tariff Reformers, however, want a reduction in the Customs' duties. Nothing the writer saw or heard in the States impressed him as in any sense making Protection a desirable thing.

Americans as a nation know less about the economic principles which govern trade than even Englishmen, As recently as the presidential election of 1904, Vice- President Fairbanks quoted with approval a speech of Lincoln's to the effect that whereas when they bought twenty dollars' worth of steel abroad they obtained the steel and parted with the dollars, yet by buying the steel in the States they obtained the steel and kept the twenty dollars.

High Prices. The belief that high prices are necessary to industrial prosperity is due, of course, to the fact that brisk trade means, as a rule, a strong demand and consequently has an upward tendency on prices. The Americans mostly imagine that it is the high prices which, make the brisk trade, or, in other words, that the horse goes up hill because the cart pushes it.

Specialisation. America is supposed to be the home of specialisation, and undoubtedly — in the engineering trades at least — it is more so than England.

It is true that there is a strong tendency for a firm, unless very large, to confine itself to one branch of engineering, but the close specialisation which concentrates on one single article is uncommon.

The arguments in favour of specialisation are : — Firstly, that the concentration of thought and attention on one or two specialities results in their highest development; and, secondly, that the manufacturing of great numbers of identical articles enables the manufacture to be systematised and improved, with, consequently, a great reduction in the cost of production.

That there is some truth in these claims will be granted ; but there are some arguments on the other side which require to be noticed.

All branches of trade suffer fluctuations and a fimi engaged in two branches may often reasonably expect that both will seldom be at the extremes of slackness or rush together. Provided then, that these two branches are fairly closely allied in nature so that the men and machines can mostly be employed on either, the chances that a trade depression will seriously affect the firm are reduced.

In order that the full advantages of such an arrangement should be attained, two things should be aimed at.

In the first place, the two branches should not be industrially dependent on each other. That is to say, the state of trade in the one must not be considerably dependent on the state of trade in the other. If this is not attended to the chances are that Avhen one branch is depressed the other will be also, and the advantages of a combined business are missed.

In the second place, the plant required for manufacturing purposes in the two branches should be as nearlysimilar as possible, so that it can be used for either. Thus, the combining of two distinct and different industries under one firm, whilst it may somewhat equalise the dividends, will not do anything towards increasing them.

On the other hand, if the plant and staff — including workmen — can be engaged on either or both, then a considerable saving in machinery, buildings and general expenses can be secured, besides some little saving in the wages bill and a reduction in unemployment.

The importance of this point is not sufficiently understood. As a rule, when a firm engages in two branches of an industry, these branches are closely allied ; as, for instance, the manufacture of steam engines and condensing plant. When one branch is slack the other is likely to be so also.

There are, however, advantages in running closely allied branches, mainly of a commercial character, although also connected with the design.

When a firm engages in two distinct branches it is advisable that the firm be a large one (having regard to the nature of the work, of course, as well). Otherwise there will not be enough specialisation, or partial specialisation, on the designing side to enable the best designers to be obtained, and the character of the work is apt to suffer a little. Few designers and draughtsmen are experts in many things ; a certain amount of specialisation is necessary if the best results are to be obtained.

At the same time, the idea that concentration on one single thing to the exclusion of all others is the best way to develop that thing is, the writer believes, a fallacy.

Development and improvement in manufacture require the annexing of ideas from other fields and the pushing forward into new fields. This requires a considerable general knowledge, particularly of allied subjects, and a keen receptive intellect. Neither of these things is obtained by a too intense concentration. One of the great advantages of technical societies and periodicals is that they widen one's outlook in technical matters.

Extreme specialisation is most suitable where the demand for the product is fairly regular or where considerable stocks can be carried without loss, thus enabling the inequalities of demand to be smoothed out without greatly disturbing the manufacturing itself. In any ease the firm, whilst specialising, must he prepared to make radical alterations in its specialities if it is not going to get " left " some day.

Specialisation and the Worl-ers. Specialisation is interesting when looked at from the workers' point of view, and it is not wholly advantageous.

The greatest argument in its favour is, of course, that it makes for economy of production and that ultimately the working classes receive their share of this improvement. Any improvement which will enable one man to do what required two men before, is a gain to the community, including the workers.

One advantageous feature — which has, however, some drawbacks — is that it opens up a considerable field for unskilled or only semi-skilled workers. Not that all specialised processes require such workers; many indeed call for the highest skill. Still specialisation in general implies two things, viz., (1) repetition by each individual of some short operation, and (2) the extensive use of automatic or semi-automatic machinery.

The first condition (repetition) means that the range of skill required of the worker is less, and hence more easily acquired and in a shorter period.

The second condition (use of machines) means that the quality of tJte skill is reduced because many of the most difficult operations are now performed automatically.

Both these conditions make it easier for an unskilled worker to be draughted into a specialised industry, and for the said unskilled worker the result is practically all gain.

For the skilled worker the gain is more problematical. He may, of course, draught himself into the less specialised branches, in which case he remains pretty much as before. There is a tendency, however, for a considerable number to be drawn into the specialised work.

Often, especially in its earlier development and if on piece-work, his wages will not be lowered ; but he is liable to lose, or fail to acquire, some of his ordinary trade-skill, with the result that he becomes much more vulnerable to depressions in his particular trade, and should he be thrown out of work he is at a serious disadvantage in applying for a new job. From the recreative and intellectual side, too, specialisation is a loss to the worker, as it renders his work monotonous and depressing. It makes a worse man and citizen of him.

What, then, are the remedies for these ill-effects of specialisation ?

One remedy that is often proposed by labour leaders is that only fully-fledged journeymen should be allowed to run "specialised" machinery. In other words, that the competition of the unskilled workers should be rigidly excluded.

The most obvious objection to this is that it is unjust to the man who is most in need of some consideraion, the unskilled worker. Then, too, the gain to the skilled man, even in the matter of wages, is doubtful, and it does not remove the prime objection — that this kind of work virtually makes a skilled into an unskilled, or, at best, semi-skilled, worker; and by their own claims the skilled man should be paid more than the unskilled.

A partial remedy lies with the workers themselves. If a skilled man is content to become a mere machine tender he will become semi-skilled. He may, however, insist upon varying his work. It is no uncommon thing for American mechanics on repetition work to demand a change at the end of two or three years. If the change is refused, they seek a new job. Often they will stay in one shop and go through a series of processes. This feature is not perhaps so marked in ordinary manufacturing as in specialised engineering work.

Another partial remedy lies in the more extensive use of technical literature and technical schools by journeymen as well as youths.

The effect of rigid specialisation on employment is of importance. As we have seen, the low level of skill required is of advantage in allowing a man to be quickly drafted into the trade, and this tends to prevent unemployment, particularly among the semi-skilled.

Unfortunately, it is necessaiy at times not to draft men into the work, but to discharge them, and the worker so discharged is too narrow in his skill to find it an easy matter to get a new job. Hence the necessity for such workers receiving a training in something outside the limits of their immediate occupation.

" Good Enougli is Best." The claim is often made by

Englislimen and accepted by Americans, that as a rule English manufactures are of a more durable character than those of America.

The American defence is that with the rapid changes in industry taking place the useful life of a machine, say, is comparatively short. At the end of a few years something better is on the market which should be adopted if possible. They make their machines, they claim, durable enough to last until something better is to be had. If they made them too durable they would be too expensive to scrap when something better came on the market.

Like many broad generalisations, this one has some strong points in its favour, but it is liable to be abused if used indiscriminately. Indeed, one thing which is noticeable in the States is that there is a distinct tendency towards making machines and other engineering work more durable. To a certain extent this may be accounted for by the heavier duty required of engineering work in these days.

In connection with American machine tools and machinery generally, one finds a most extensive use of a soft grade of iron which is easy to work, but materially shortens the life of the machines where accuracy of adjustment is essential.

In the abstract this ideal of building for the useful life only, is perfect. There can be no justification in putting valuable labour and capital into a machine only to find that in a few years it is a bar to further progress.

Every engineer can call to mind machineiy and plant generally which is out of date, but is kept running because it is still healthy and contains considerable invested capital.

On the other hand, it would be easy for most engineers to call to mind machines and plant — not always built abroad — which have not lasted as they ought, and other instances again of machines kept in use but of which the annual repair bill is the equivalent of a considerable capitalised sum, or in which efficiency has been unduly sacrificed in order to keep down the initial cost.

It is quite true that " good enough is best," but it all depends on what is meant by good enough. The man who imagines that any sort of a steam engine is satisfactory so long as it will perform its appointed task, and that the measure of its perfection is the smallness of its initial cost, is deluding himself.

The fact is that a principle like " good enough is best " requires a clear brain and expert knowledge in order to apply it to practical cases. The trouble is that some men trust it like a fetish. The man who cannot see the limitations which durability and efficiency impose on first cost is just as much in the dark as he who fails to realise the limitations which first cost imposes on durability and efficiency.

The directions in which American engineers attempt to reduce the costliness of their designs — apart from methods of manufacture — vaiy with the character of the work to be done, but a few may be indicated.

So far as is practicable cheap materials are substituted for the more expensive ones. Thus case-hardened bushes and pins in locomotives are comparatively rare, the writer was given to understand. Iron pipes largely replace brass and copper in the smaller engine connections ; cast-steel replaces wrought-steel to a very large extent, and the softer qualities of cast-iron are much used, mainly in order to reduce the cost of machining.

Less machining and polishing is given to machinery.

On the whole, bearings are properly machined and bedded, although the writer saw some serious exceptions to this rule. Other parts which in England would generally be polished, are merely rough-turned or even left painted. There are two objections to this policy. In the first place, machinery attendants, being human, like a nice-looking thing, and will give more care and attention to a goodlooking machine than to a shoddy article. Also machining discovers and exposes hidden flaws, whilst painting and filling do just the opposite. Exactly where the more expensive finish becomes desirable cannot be determined by a broad generalisation.

As a rule Americans make their machinery — and most other things— lighter than we do. They also very frequently pay less attention to the details of construction so far as strength and durability is concerned. Indeed American engineers take more chances in their designs. Some of these risks are taken deliberately, it being held that the extra cost of the superior construction is too big an insurance premium for the risk involved.

Apprenticeship. The old form of apprenticeship so well known in England — although now on the decay — is almost unknown in the States.

Many attempts have been made within recent years to found some satisfactory apprenticeship system, but as a rule with little success.

The age at which a youth leaves school is now two or three years later than it was, say, fifty years ago, so that it is desirable that the old seven-year apprenticeships be shortened. As a matter of fact, four years is about as long as is attempted in the States, even for ordinary apprentices, and this is found to be too long in many cases.

12 ENGINEEiaNG AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS

The root difficulty of founding and maintaining a satisfactory apprenticeship system for engineers is due to the fact that a youth can go into a works and after a fewmonths' experience, get a job as machine hand or fitter's helper at considerably better wages than if he were an apprentice. Apprenticeship doesn't pay, and he knows it. This does not apply so much to college graduates, in whose case, however, the training given is as a rule fairly broad, and often very broad, and covers not more than two or three years.

To return to the ordinaiy apprentice. The writer found that the lure of the dollar, the higher initial wages paid to one not bound to any course of training, was too strong to be resisted by the majority of youths, even though a bonus of £20 or so is often paid at the completion of such a course.

In Milwaukee the writer found that at one shop there was an apprenticeship course for machinists. There were not above half-a-dozen apprentices in the works (employing about 500 men), and none had entered for the year or so previous.

In Cincinnati the writer was told that an apprenticeship system had been in vogue, but that the apprentices found they could earn more as non-apprentices, and not even legal proceedings could keep them to their agreements. Consequently, the scheme was given up.

The Westinghouse Machine Company has an apprenticeship course of three (? four) years for machinists, pay starting at five cents (2^d.) per hour. These youths were said to be very profitable to the company, and when they had finished their course most of them were discharged in order to show them — as it was put — " that they are not the whole show." Certainly a rather strange ending to a trainipg tlie object of wliich ought to be mainly to ensure an adequate supply of skilled men; and particularly so when one remembers that good all-round mechanics who can undertake new jobs are scarce in the States.

When so many able engineers have tried to find a solution of the apprentice problem, and with such indifferent results, it is not to be expected that the writer can present a cut-and-dried scheme to meet all requirements.

A few points, however, stand out very clearly. In the first place, the apprentice is in most cases worth more to an employer than he is paid, and hence the lack of apprentices may be partly overcome by paying an apprentice what he is worth, which, although not equal to a journeyman's wage, certainly in general amounts to more than apprentice pay.

In the second place, apprentice courses should be much shorter than is now usual. They should be as short as is consistent with the amount of training and experience to be acquired.

Also, piecework (except possibly for a few months during the latter part of the course) should be rigidly tabooed. A youth who is learning a mechanic's art cannot do so properly if he is working under pressure with quantity and not quality as his main incentive. When he has acquired sufficient skill to be allowed to race, it is time that he be either put on a fresh job or made a journeyman. A youth who does a journeyman's work ought to receive a journeyman's pay. Until he can do this work it is bad for him, and ultimately for the trade as a whole, to allow him to make quality subservient to quantity.

Undoubtedly, part of a meclianic's training vrill in tlie future be acquired in technical institutions although it is hardly conceivable that the factory training will ever be supplanted.

Probably, too, the old restrictions as to the number of apprentices permitted in a shop of given size will have to be removed, or at least very much relaxed. All that the trade unions ought to demand is that the training shall not fall below some standard. The restriction of the number of apprentices is an injustice to the youths of the nation and therefore to the nation itself.

A good, broad and sound training for the workers is of great importance if a trade is to progress and if the workers themselves are to be rendered less vulnerable to variations of trade.

High Wages and Labour-saving Machinery. It is supposed by many people that the States is the home of the labour-saving machine, and that this is due to the high wages paid.

This is not so, however. As regards labour-saving machines in the engineering trades, the writer thinks that, owing largely to specialisation in manufacture, its use is somewhat more extended than in England, although there is certainly not that enormous difference between the practice of the two countries that is implied by many writers on the subject.

In so far as labour-saving machinery does effect a saving, it increases wages because it produces more to be divided among the people — both workers and employers.

It is not true in general, however, that the use of labour-saving machinery is due to high wages. Tor instance, suppose that all wages in England be doubled. Then prices would also be doubled, and the iiercentage saving effected by a machine would remain unaltered, so that it would be just as profitable as before. It ought to be clear to everyone that if these machines really do save labour they will be adopted whatever the money wages. A reduction of, say, 10 per cent, on the wages bill will always be sought after by the employer.

CHAPTER II. Relations between Employers and Employed

A FEATURE which often strikes a stranger in the States is the freedom with which the average mechanic will express his opinions to his foreman or manager, particularly so in the western and middle-western states. As illustrating this, we may take an incident related to the writer by the works' superintendent (and half owner) of a well-known machine-tool factory.

A superior mechanic was on a new piece of work and the superintendent was surprised to see that the mechanic had not followed his instructions. Being asked why, he replied in effect, " Because you are a duffer and your method is no good." The superintendent asked him to prove this, and the mechanic did so. "Next day," said the superintendent to the writer, " I raised his wages, but had he failed to show that my method was wrong, I would have discharged him."

Not all mechanics would dare to be so independent and probably few superintendents would be so willing to overlook what would usually be considered downright impudence. Still, there is distinctly less of the master and servant feeling in American workshops than with us. Partly it seems to be due to the general spirit of independence which still lives in the States, and partly it is due to the fact that class disinctions are less marked.

To an English manager such freedom of speech may seem like the thin edge of the wedge which will ultimately overthrow his authority. Allowance must, however, be made for the fact that the significance of " back talk " in an American shop is much less than in an English one. The American seems to consider it a necessity of his republican sentiments, but generally speaking he does what he is told just the same.

Employees' Suggestions. A good deal has been written about the ease with which an American workman can obtain access to his "bosses" when he has a grievance, and the eagerness with which the employer welcomes his co-operation in inventing improved methods of manufacture and even of shop organisation. Although the writer visited forty factories and over thirty electricfty stations, besides working in two himself, he did not see a great deal of this latter feature.

As the chief engineer of one firm — a man personally acquainted with English and Continental practice — remarked: "Human nature is pretty much the same here as in England. When a man is responsible for a design or for the running of a shop he doesn't want to have someone else— particularly a subordinate — come and tell him that he could do it better." The same engineer charact-erised most of the suggestion schemes as just paper and talk. At another large engineering shop the superintendent told the writer that his firm welcomed suggesions; but on being pressed for details he stated that these suggestions were not paid for in cash, but that the man who made them would be remembered when promotion time came. This method when applied to the ordinary workmen, most of whom never get any promotion, can hardly be considered either very just or politic.

At one place where the writer worked, he was told by a departmental foreman that suggestions would be welcomed, but when he attempted to make one or two to the general foreman they were simply not listened to. The man with whom the writer was working remarked : " Don't yon say anything ; they don't want to know what you think " ; and it seemed as if the man was right.

The writer's conclusion is that the comparatively small number of men who trouble to make well-considered suggestions, the number of these that are worthless, and the natural objection which foremen and managers feel to being told their business by their industrial inferiors, has prevented the adoption of suggestion schemes on anything like an extended scale.