NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION IN AMERICAN INDUSTRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 848, 24 March 1903, Page 2

NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION IN AMERICAN INDUSTRY.

The old adage has had another illustration recently in a speech made by George Westinghouso at a dinner given by him in London to a large company of British railway managers, financiers, and scientists. According to Mr Westinghou.se, our short-handedness in. this country is responsible for our great- use of labor saving machinery. .We had not cnougli men to do the work, so we had to devise some method of doing it without them. Said Mr .Westinghouse

“ lii America wc have always been shorthandch with regard to labor. Wc have been obliged to find methods whereby one man may accomplish the work of two or three men as compared with your practice here. We nave had the best men from Europe— Englishmen, Germans, French, every- - body—skilled men, highly trained men, as well as laboring men ; we have combined their experience with our own, coupled it with our necessities, and have thus accomplished results unattainable in a country like this, where you have more labor than you can well keep employed. “As an illustration of what has been accomplished by the use of electricity in a great industry, I may cite the Homestead Mills of tlic Carnegie Company s a ....where they produce with about - 1000 men three times as much steel as the Krupp works produce with 15,000 men. The results arc simply wonderful. ... 'You can start there to-day, in a building containing steel-melting furnaces, and you will there see three men mounted on a car with the charging apparatus which is moved and operated by electricity. With ai few movements of this ingenious contrivance, three men charge twenty furnaces, which prior to the use of electricity would have required the labor of over two hundred men. ... ‘‘ I took some English friends to Homestead. Air Schwab, after guiding us through several departments, said : 1 I will now show you where we turn out 750 tons of plate-girders per day.’ The mill was in the shape of an L".' Wc went info the short end of the L, where the furnaces were fed by natural gas. of course requiring no stokers. The end at which wc entered had a rather low roof, and there was in sight a contrivance like a battering-ram in front of the furnaces,; two workmen were sitting down eating llicir dinners near by ; no one else was present. 1 thought —Air Schwab lias made a mistake ; be lias asked us to sec a mill that is not in operation. But wc went through the mill, which was ...about two hundred feet long ; and suddenly we beard a rattle and then saw a truck approaching loaded with a big ingot. No one touched the truck or the ingot. The load came to a platform, the crane overhead dropped a pair of tongs and quickly put, the ingot on (he roller-table, and as it moved to the great rolls it was automatically kept in place. The adjusting screws of the roils were turned by little electric motors, and not a man in that house did ;i hit of work. It was just as easy as what you are doing now—looking on ! ...We went hack to the furnaces. There was a fifteen-ye.d.r-old hoy seated in a little place called the ‘pulpit.’ He was ahle, merely by the movement of let r*yss, to open at' will any of the furI doofs and move the car. along. I And wc . -*,a flip charging maof a furnace „.. ' +cuy, opt of the chine approach, ana "'"eh was open furnace a hot ingot \v.. " dropped on the car and moved on , _ its work. There was this boy doing absolutely no.hard work, and his mill was turning out 750 tons of steelplate each day. Aly English friends said; ‘England has no "chance in competition with such methods.’ “ Now all this sort of tiling came about in America because of our nccessities. hadn’t men enough to do our work. There was a premium in favor of those who could invent machines to work ami thus supply the deficiency.

A 1 meeting of creditors in the estate of Thomas Steele .will be held this

afternoon. Yesterday the transfer of the Telephone Exchange to the new office was completed. The following alteration in the Tele, phone Exchange is notified : Dr Bucke. ridge, formerly No. 210, is now No. 219. Messrs Williams and Kettle have a number of splendid lines of sheep and cattle to offer at their monthly sale at Matawhoro on Thursday next. Mr .J. C. Dale, of Napier, has taken

up the duties of aeting-Postmaster at Gisborne during the absence of the Chief Postmaster, Mr Sampson, on his annual holiday. .Winners at St. Patrick’s sports are requested to call for their prize money before Saturday, and it is also requested that accounts be rendered before that date. An annual holiday for domestic servants, one day, has teen suggested in a Christchurch paper, and some people have taken the sarcasm quite seriously, and express a willingness to give one day’s holiday in the year ! Messrs Dalgety and Co. yesterday received a cable stating that, since tile previous report the price of hides and leather was unchanged, while basils were at par to a farthing lower.” Investors on the look-out for a firstclass property near town should inspect the eighteen acres with house and outbuildings to be offered by Messrs Wyllie and Mason on Saturday next, on account of Mrs Mooney, of Kaiti. The area of the B ection is eighteen acres.

Owing to expiration of lease and dissolution of partnership, Messrs Sandlant and Stevenson have decided to sell by auction, on Wednesday, April Sth, the wholo of their stock of new and second-hand vehicles. Everything is to be disposed of without roserve, and the sale offers an exceptional opportunity to persons requiring vehicles.

The March number of the New Zealand Illustrated Magazine is to hand. It contains a number of interesting stories by colonial authors, and also a number of special articles of more than ordinary merit. Some excellent photographs are reproduced, and the number is most suitable for posting Home.

Madame Melba is said to have netted about £3OOO by her visit to New Zealand. She received a fee of £SOO for each of her concerts in the four chief centres, and £3OO for each of the concerts in Wanganui and New Plymouth. The gross receipts of her New Zealand tour are stated at between

£6OOO and £7OOO, Eleven Angora, goals were' imported to Gisborne on Saturday by Messrs Dalgety and Co. Seven were for Mr Dewing, who intends releasing them at Young Nick’s Head. The other four are for Captain "Tucker, who wili place them on his farm at MaKauri.j Hair from Angora goats is just now bringing from ild to 13d per Ik. If the experiment is successful other pastoralists are likely soon to turn their attention to the mischievous goat as a source of revenue. It will lake something novel 'in the way of fences to hold these active animals.

A lesson against interfering with Hie nighlwalelmian in the execution of his duty was given at the Police Court yesterday, when Harry Willoughby, a recent arrival'in the district, was fined £1 and 17s costs, or in default four days’ hard labor, for using threatening language to the liightwatchniaii. Defendant and some other young men who had been jhaving an over-merry night, thought to have some fun with Mr Morcll, not knowing in the dark that it was the nightwatchman (a special constable) they had selected for their intended dun, and also, unfortunately for the individuals, Constable Hancox .came upon the scene. The chief offender, who had given a wrong name, was proceeded against by summons.

The annual distribution of prizes in connection with the Gisborne High School ia to be held at the Gisborne school on Thursday evening at eight o’clock, and it is intended at the same time to present the prizes to the winners of the Captain Cook essays. In connection with the Gisborne school prize distribution addresses will be given explanatory of the enlarged scopo that the secondary department of the school oilers. Comparatively few in tho district are aware that the school has an alternative course for those wishing a purely commercial education. The Committee are anxious to see a large attendance of parents, as they are convinced that once tho opportunities offered by the school are realised they will be taken more advantage of. An evidence of the prosperity of Gisborne is given by the number of valuable properties changing hands. A recent sale by Mr T. G. Lawless, land and commission agent, is the fine brick building and section situated in Gladstone road, the property of Mr George Williams. The purchaser is Dr Morrison, whose investment is certain to return a large, interest on the outlay, and as the town grows the proporty will increase in value on account of its central situation. The buildiDg being of brick does not deteriorate in value. Mr Lawless, in whom people havo much confidence, is to be congratulated on the numerous sales that he has been making lately on behalf of clients, both sellers and purchasers being well satisfied. Tho bankruptcy examination of David Chenhall, ex-solicitor, of Sydney, was chiefly interesting as showing how a big legal firm may keep its accounts mostly in its head, or on its shirt-cuff, or chalked up behind the door. Chenhall stated quite frankly that, when he was practising on his own account, he didn't even keep a cash-book, let alone a ledger. When he took a partner proper books were started, hut they soon began to fall through from sheer weariness. For the last four years he thought a cash-book was kept inter-

mittingly, but that was about all. The firm sometimes gave receipts for money, and sometimes it didn’t. Even Chen-

hall’s income-tax return was only prepared onco; in other years, apparently, he and

the Commissioners scrambled to a compromise. Ho “ drew what money ho wanted ” from the firm and didn’t know what his partner drew.

Thus the Auckland Herald on the electric cars Electric cars are quite a novelty to the majority of tho citizens of Auckland, and many of us have been somewhat appalled to see the speed with which they can travel on our level streets, and even on our steep streets. We bad become so accustomed to the slow pace of the old ’buses, and the very moderate rate of travel of the horse trams, that we had got to consider that that was the normal condition of affairs, the limit at which street traffic could be allowed or was safe. But it would be a great mistake to cut down the speed of the electric cars to that gauge. Wo ought to have here cardrivers who are as careful as those of any other city, and our citizens oughWo be as alert and wary as those of any other place, so as to do their part in avoiding accidents. The alarm at the pace at which the cars ' sometimes travel is largely a matter of novelty for us, and it would be a pity if, under the influence of that feeling, any unnecessary regulation were to be made. In the course of the discussion in regprd to the site of the proposed infectious diseases hospital in Auckland, Dr Mason (Chief Health Officer ior the colony) said the question of placing the infectious diseases hospital on the present hospital ground had been frequently discussed, and ho told them with all seriousness that if they placed the infectious diseases hospital there they would be making a great mistake. The present infectious diseases 1 hospital was outside the hospital grounds, yet the doctor ip charge of the hospital had told them of a boy who came to the 1 hospital with a broken leg, who, by reason of tfiti jjjjnjieuity of the infectious diseases * —otrabted infectious disease, and hospital, v.. -no death bad occurred died. More than o. ' «w& hospitbrough the contiguity ot w.- ‘ —'as tals. He could honestly tell the delegthat he would do everything in his power to prevent the hospital being erected in the grounds of the general hospital. They could do anything they liked ; he would do all he could to prevent the hospital going there, because he believed it was perpetuating a state of things that was an absolute disgrace to a civilised city.

As showing the necessity for providing for infectious diseases, Dr Mason mentioned that the Auckland district had over 4050 cases of measles and scarlet fever last year.

Sellers of Bank of New Zealand shares are asking 72s fid. There is an impression in the market that the conversion of the Bank of New Zealand into a State Bank i 3 contemplated, but what grounds there are for this impression it is difficult to determine. The firmness of the shares is against- such a view of the position.— Exchange. I think our owners (writes an English racing scribe) need either sorting or licensing, for in a recent small race I noticed as nominators a bookmaker, a financier, a money-lender, two men who have been bankrupt, one who has been “ warned off tho turf,” and another an ex-convict. Truly, a happy medley 1 Mdlle. Dolores, tho famous songstress, was accorded a tremendous reception in Auckland last Thursday evening. So great was tho gathering that the authorities were obliged to use the chorus benches beside tho organ, and many considered themselves fortunate to get standing room, while hundreds could not got into the building at all. Her opening solo was Handel’s famous aria, “ From Mighty Kings.” For the past week or two the police have been enquiring into a discovery made by some lads who were playing together in tho vicinity of Khyber Pass. They found a tin of dynamite caps and some fuse hidden upon the property of Mrs Outhwaite. At first the lads decided to fire a rock at the tin and explode the lot, but fortunately the wiser counsel of one boy prevailed, who thought there would be more fun m firing the caps singly. Accordingly one cap was placed on the ground, and one of the lads threw a big stone at it, turning immediately to run away. Tho result somewhat surprised him, for the cap travelled quicker than he did, and he got wounded in that portion of his anatomy that a soldier is never supposed to turn to his foo. His arm was also badly peppered, and the lad at once concluded it had been blown off. The nearest doctor being interviewed he sent the lad home to have his skin wounds bathed with warm water, and the rest of the find was handed over to the police. Apparently, however, one cap must have been left on the road, for a passing baker was surprised after a sudden explosion under his cart to find his horse bleeding profusely from a fresh wound. It is supposed that the caps and fuse may have formed part of some burglar's plant. Auckland Star.