James H. Maggard

“ A locomotive engineer makes a run for a hill in order that the momentum of his train will help carry him over. It is not so with a traction and its load; the momentum that you get don't push very hard.
The engineer who don't know how to throttle his engine never knows what it will do, and therefore has but little confidence in it; while the engineer who has a thorough knowledge of the throttle and uses it, always has power to spare and has perfect confidence in his engine. He knows exactly what he can do and what he cannot do. ”

“ It is a fact that some men never can become good operators of a traction engine, and I can't give you the reason why any more than you can tell why one man can handle a pair of horses better than another man who has had the same advantages. And yet if you do ditch your engine a few times, don't conclude that you can never handle a traction.
If you are going to run a traction engine I would advise you to use your best efforts to become an expert at it. For the expert will hook up to his load and get out of the neighborhood while the awkward fellow is getting his engine around ready to hook up. ”

“ Has discovered that the engineer is not expected to build an engine, or to improve it after it has been built. Has recognized the fact that the principle thing is to attend to his own business and let other people attend to theirs. That a monkey wrench is a tool to be left in the tool box till he knows he needs it. That muscle is a good thing to have but not necessary to the successful engineer. That an engineer with a bunch of waste in his hand is a better recommendation than an "engineer license." ”

“ PART SIX ________ Any young engineer who will make use of what he has read will never get his engine into much trouble. Manufacturers of farm engines to-day make a specialty of this class of goods, as they endeavor to build them as simple and of as few parts as possible. They do this well knowing that, as a rule, they must be run by men who cannot take a course in practical engineering. If each one of the many thousands of engines that are turned out every year had to have a practical engineer to run it, it would be better to be an engineer than to own the engine ”

“ Now you will understand why a good engineer wears out more rags than wrenches, while a poor one wears out more wrenches than rags. Never bother an engine until it bothers you. If you do, you will make lots of grief for yourself. ”

“ What I mean by watching an engine is, every few minutes let your eye wander over the engine and you will be surprised to see how quickly you will detect anything out of place. So when I see an engineer watching his engine closely while running, I am most certain to see another commendable feature in a good engineer, and that is, when he stops his engine he will pick up a greasy rag and go over his engine carefully, wiping every working part, watching or looking carefully at every point that he touches. ”

“ So if the more experienced engineer thinks we might have gone further in some certain points, he will please remember that by so doing we might confuse the less experienced, and thereby cover up the very point we tried to make. And yet it is not to be supposed that we will endeavor to make an engineer out of a man who never saw an engine. It is, therefore, not necessary to tell the learner how an engine is made or what it looks like. We are not trying to teach you how to build an engine, but rather how to handle one after it is built ”

“ A bad sand road requires considerable sleight of hand on the part of the engineer if he wishes to pull much of a load through it. You will find it to your advantage to keep your engine as straight as possible, as you are not so liable to start one wheel to slipping any sooner than the other. Never attempt to "wiggle" through a sand bar, and don't try to hurry through; be satisfied with going slow, just so you are going. An engine will stand a certain speed through sand, and the moment you attempt to increase that speed, you break its footing, and then you are gone. ”

“ So, remember that the nozzle has something to do with the power of the engine, and you can see why the fellow that makes his engine clean its own flues is not the brightest engineer in the world.
While it is not my intention to encourage the foolish habit of pulling engines, to see which is the best puller, should you get into this kind of a test, you will show the other fellow a trick by dropping the exhaust nozzle off entirely, and no one need know it. Your engine will not appear to be making any effort, either, in making the pull. ”

“ There is much more danger of setting fire with wood than with coal.
If you are in a dangerous place, owing to the wind and the surroundings, don't hesitate to state your fears to the man for whom you are threshing. He is not supposed to know the danger as well as you, and if, after your advice, he says go ahead, you have placed the responsibility on him; but even after you have done this, it sometimes shows a good head to refuse to fire with wood, especially when you are required to fire with old rails, which is a common fuel in a timbered country. ”

“ This may be as good a time as any to say to you, remember that a blast of cold air against the tubes is a bad thing, so be careful about your firedoor; open it as little as, possible; when you want to throw in fuel, don't open the door, and then go a rod away after a shovel of coal; and I will say here that I have seen this thing done by men who flattered themselves that they were about at the top in the matter of running an engine. That kind of treatment will ruin the best boiler in existence. ”

“ The boy did the mischief through no malicious motives, but we regret to say that there are people in this world who are mean enough to do this very thing, and not stop at what the boy did unconsciously, but after shutting the water in the gauge for the purpose of deceiving you, they then go to the blow-off cock and let enough water out to insure a dry crown sheet. While I detest a human being guilty of such a dastardly trick, I have no sympathy to waste on an engineer who can be caught in this way. ”

“ For instance, an engineer is running with a low gauge of water, owing possibly to the tank being delayed longer than usual, he knows the water is getting low, but he says to himself, "well, if the water gets too low I will only blow out the plug," and so he continues to run until the tank arrives. If the plug holds, he at once begins to pump in cold water, and most likely does it on a very hot sheet, which of itself, is something he never should do; and if the plug does blow out he is delayed a couple of hours, at least, before he can put in a new plug and get up steam again. ”

“ But the good engineer knows better than to treat his engine that way.
Never attempt to pull your loads over a steep hill without being certain that your clutch is in good shape, and if you have any doubts about it put in the tight gear pin. Most all engines have both the friction and the tight gear pin. The pin is much the safer in a hilly country, and if you have learned the secret of the throttle you can handle just as big load with the pin as with the clutch, and will never tear your gearing off or lose the stud bolts in boiler. ”

“ The trouble with so much of the so called cylinder oil is that it is so light that the moment it strikes the extreme heat in the steam chest it vaporizes and goes through the cylinder in the form of vapor and the valve and cylinder are getting no oil, although you are going through all the necessary means to oil them.
It is somewhat difficult to get a young engineer to understand why the cylinder requires one grade of oil and the engine another. This is only necessary as a matter of economy, cylinder or valve oil will do very well on the engine, but engine oil will not do for the cylinder. ”

“ You will find further on that all check valves are arranged to prevent any flowing out from the boiler, but nothing to prevent water flowing in. Such an occurrence will do no harm but the knowing how it was done may prevent your giving yourself away. A good authority on steam boilers, says: "All explosions come either from poor material, poor workmanship, too high pressure, or a too low gauge of water." Now to protect yourself from the first two causes, buy your engine from some factory having a reputation for doing good work and for using good material. ”

“ It will not make an engineer of you. But read it carefully, use good judgment and common sense, do as it tells you, and my word for it, in one month, you, for all practical purposes, will be a better engineer than four-fifths of the so-called engineers today, who think what they don't know would not make much of a book. ”

“ A. A good engineer keeps his engine clean, washes the boiler whenever he thinks it needs it. Never meddles with his engine, and allows no one else to do so. Goes about his work quietly, and is always in his place, only talks when necessary, never hammers or bruises any part of his engine, allows no packing to become baked or burnt in the stuffing box or glands, renews them as quick as they show that they require it. Never neglects to oil, and then uses no more than is necessary. He carries a good gauge of water and a uniform pressure of steam. ”

“ Of course, you can count the revolutions of your engine, but you frequently want to know the speed of the driven pulley, cylinder for instance: When you know the exact size of engine pulley and your cylinder pulley, and the exact speed of your engine, and there was no such thing as the slipping of drive belt, you could figure the speed of your cylinder, but by knowing this and then applying the speeder, you can determine the loss by comparing the figured speed with the actual speed shown by the speeder. If you have a good speeder you can make good use of it every day you run machinery. ”