isited that portion of America known as New England, and the
works he had inspected were among the best in the United States. Among
the many special features he had noticed he mentioned that in a Boston
establishment where milling machine cutters were made he had found
that L1 spent in wages produced as much as L30 to L40 worth of goods,
the cutters being made at the rate of about sixty-four per hour by
about a dozen men. Another noticeable feature was the exceptional care
taken in storing tools in American workshops. These, in fact, were
treated as if they were worth their weight in gold; they were stored
in safes much in the same manner as we in England stored our money. He
was, however, impressed by the fact that the mere understanding of the
method of American working would not enable them to do likewise in
England, because the American workmen had gone through a special
training, and a similar training would be necessary to enable English
workmen to adapt themselves to American machines. One very noticeable
feature in American engineering shops which he visited was that all
the machine men and turners were seated on blocks or stools at their
machines, and the question naturally arose in his mind what would
English engineers say if such a practice were adopted in their shops.
In other ways he was also struck by the special attention devoted to
the comfort of the workmen, and he was much impressed by the healthy
condition of the emery polishing shops as compared with similar shops
in this country. In England these shops in most cases were simply
deathtraps to the workmen, and he urged that the superior method of
ventilation carried out in the States should be adopted in this
country by introducing a fan to each wheel to take away the particles,
etc., which were so injurious. One very special feature in the United
States was that works were devoted to the manufacture of one
particular article to an almost inconceivable extent, and that heavy
machine tools complete and ready to be dispatched were kept in stock
in large numbers. American enterprise was not hampered as it too
frequently was in England by want of capital; while in England we were
ready to put our savings in South American railways or fictitious gold
mines, but very chary about investing capital which would assist an
engineer in bringing out an honest improvement, in America, on the
other hand, it was a common practice among the best firms to invest
their s