Mechanic's lien

“ Hence, when a machine was assembled the unyielding metal parts had to be filed and trimmed and hammered to fit them together. If any accident occurred to a machine, the damaged part could not be replaced by another taken from stock. The entire machine had to go back to the shop where an experienced mechanic would make a new part to replace the damaged one. In those days a machine was not manufactured but was built as an individual mechanism, just as a house or a boat is built to-day. ”

“ But we must strongly recommend that when it becomes necessary to employ the services of a mechanic, the car be taken to a Ford mechanic—one of our own representatives who thoroughly understands the car—and who will have no motive for running up useless repair bills. ”

“ If, under all the circumstances, and in view of the promises to remedy the defect, the engineer was not wanting in due care in continuing to use the engine, then the company will not be excused for the omission to supply proper machinery upon the ground of contributory negligence. ”

“ Sometimes, when an engine was in danger of being washed, some member of the company would follow the line of the other company's hose till he came to where it passed through a dark place, and then, whipping out his pocket-knife, would cut it open and run away. When there were not enough members of a company present to man the brakes, or when they were tired out, the foreman had the right to select men from among the bystanders, and compel them to take hold. ”

“ All master mechanics should have full control of the engineers and firemen in the employ of their respective roads, with full power to hire and discharge the same,—of course, recognizing the rights that the general managers or superintendents have to order the discharge of any engineer or fireman for neglect of duty. ”

“ When we happen to have a train with such light tonnage that all excuses for moving the car have been exhausted it reaches the yard nearest its destination. The master mechanic's office in a day or two has pounded sufficiently at the yardmaster to get the car set, usually several hours after it has been promised. It is not of record just how much time and money have been wasted by the mechanical department through not having the car when expected. ”

“ A prime difficulty of the establishment of a motor-car is the chauffeur or engineer.
The perfect motor servant should be a combination of gentleman and engineer. He is a new type of man, and will require the wages of other engineers. I do not think that a competent, cool-headed, skilful, well-mannered engineer will ever be obtainable for 30s. a week. On the other hand, the simplification of the motor engine and the establishment of garages will render the employment of highly educated engineers unnecessary in private establishments. As to public garages, some are well managed, others are not. ”

“ Engineers are subject to the superintendent of machinery when off, and to the conductor when on, the trains. None but a man well acquainted with the details of machinery, and who has served in a locomotive machine shop, and is in every respect temperate and steady, should fill this berth.
Foremen of the blacksmith, machine, carpenter, and car shops, are subject to the superintendent of machinery, and have charge of the repairs and cleaning of the engines, cars, and other machinery.
Car-masters have charge of the men employed in cleaning, oiling, and examining the cars and their wheels. ”

“ It is the affair of the company’s agent and not of the machinist to know just what a railroad needs. It is a common, and most absurd practice, for a man who is completely ignorant of machinery to order five or ten engines, without the least regard to the character of the road or of the traffic. ”

“ The engine was in charge of one of its employes, an engineer, and, while the plaintiff was making the coupling, the engine was, by the negligence and mismanagement of the engineer, driven against the car, causing severe and permanent injuries to the plaintiff. ”

“ Oh, the car is not attached to the engine at all; and should the engineer lose the control of his machine, which is not at all likely, the car can be brought to a stand-still by independent brakes of its own. ”

“ But from the time when George Stephenson was appointed fireman, and more particularly afterwards as engineman, he applied himself so assiduously and so successfully to the study of the engine and its gearing—taking the machine to pieces in his leisure hours for the purpose of cleaning and understanding its various parts—that he soon acquired a thorough practical knowledge of its construction and mode of working, and very rarely needed to call the engineer of the colliery to his aid. ”

“ If a mechanical engineer invents an improvement on any of the appendages of a steam-engine, such as the valve-gear, the condenser, the steam-chest, the walking-beam, the parallel motion, or what not, he is not obliged, in order to make himself understood, to describe the engine, nor the particular appendage to which the improvement refers, nor its mode of connection with the principal machine. These are already familiar to others skilled in that kind of machinery. He may begin at the point where his invention begins, and describe what he has made that is new, and what it replaces of the old. ”

“ What had threatened to be a fearful disaster, with a loss of men, engine, and cars, was only a slight splintering of two cars that the carpenters could repair in a day. They had a general shaking of hands alone there in the woods over the engineer's splendid feat; and for months it was told to listening men in every flag station and freight-house along the line how the brave and cool engineer brought his engine down the seventeen-mile grade. ”

“ While it is true that no claim is formally made for the admission of train-pipe air directly to the brake cylinder, as a method or process, a construction is given by the complainants and the circuit court to the second claim, which eliminates the mechanical features described, and one which could only be supported upon the theory that the claim was for a method or process. ”

“ While they were working there the engineer cut off the engine, the car ran slowly down the grade, and Ring, caught by the chain, suffered fatal injuries.
A rule of the company provided that employees should advise the engineer when they were going between or under cars and must know that he understood their purpose before they put themselves in any dangerous position. ”

“ CONNECTING-RODS, SIDE RODS, AND WEDGES. CARE OF LOCOMOTIVE RODS.
When it is found that an engineer runs his engine for months on arduous train service, and has no trouble with his rods, he may safely be credited with knowing his business, and attending to it skillfully. In regard to the keeping of the machinery in working-order, the engineer’s duties are mostly of a supervisory nature. When piston-rings get blowing, when guides need closing, or when a pump gets working badly, he reports the matter; and the work is done so that the defect is remedied. ”

“ But although the evidence was conflicting in these particulars, it established without any contradiction that it was the duty of the pilot to go ahead and see that the switches were lined up properly, and, if not, to put them in position for the engine to pass, and that it was the duty of the engineer to keep control of his engine and to follow at a rate of not more than 3 or 4 miles an hour. Both the plaintiff and the engineer had been in this service for a long time, and were familiar with the manner in which it was conducted, and with all the conditions surrounding it. ”

“ Applying these rules, if the railroad company, after purchasing this engine, made such reasonable examination as was possible without tearing the machinery to pieces, and subjected it fully to all the ordinary tests which are applied for determining the efficiency and strength of completed engines, and such examination and tests had disclosed no defect, it cannot, in an action by one who is a stranger to the company, be adjudged guilty of negligence because there was a latent defect,-one which subsequently caused the destruction of the engine and injury to such party. ”

“ The engineer operated the engine so negligently that he caused injuries to the plaintiff, a servant of the contractor, who brought this action against the defendant to recover damages for his injuries, alleging that the engineer was the servant of the defendant. It was held that the engineer was not the servant of the defendant, but, for the time being, was the servant of the contractor. ”

“ The engineer who has a liking for his work, and takes pride in making his engine perform its part, so as to show the highest possible record, does not require the fear of an inspector behind him as an incentive to properly examine his engine, and keep it in the best31 running-order. He recognizes the fact, that upon systematic and regular inspection of the engine while at rest, depends in a great measure his success as a runner, and his exemption from trouble. ”

“ I have seen twenty dollars damage done to the separator and two days time lost all because the engineer was as near the separator as he was to the engine when a root went into the cylinder. Stay with your engine, and if anything goes wrong at the separator, you are ready to stop and stop quickly, and if you are signalled to start you are ready to start at once You are therefore making time for your employer or for yourself and to make time while running a threshing outfit, means to make money. There are engineers running engines today who waste time enough every day to pay their wages. ”

“ As the hundreds of parts come off, they are marked with the engine’s number. Then they scatter all over the shop to be inspected and cleaned or fixed and tested.
Meantime, other workers take charge of the wheels. In the old days, they had one particular way of testing a wheel. They gave it a good sharp rap with a hammer. If the metal rang out clear and bell-like, it was supposed to be all right. Inspectors in railroad yards went about tapping car wheels, too. And that’s how repairmen and inspectors got their nicknames—car-knocker, car-whacker, car-tinker, car-tink, car-tonk. ”

“ No class of railroad-men affects the expenses of operating so directly as engineers do. The daily wages5 paid to an engineer is a trifling sum compared to the amount he can save or waste by good or bad management of his engine. Fuel wasted, lubricants thrown away, supplies destroyed, and machinery abused, leading to extravagant running repairs, make up a long bill by the end of each month, where enginemen are incompetent. Every man with any spark of manliness in his breast will strive to become master of his work ”

“ In the first place, the engineer draws up a scale of prices and specifications which must be complied with in their entirety as well as in all details. Rival engine builders are thus compelled to make their estimates according to the same standard, so that one engine can readily be compared with another with the utmost fairness. In these specifications, penalties will be provided for by the engineer which will be levied if the warranties of the maker are not fulfilled. ”

“ That, if it be interpreted simply as a claim for the function of admitting air to the brake cylinder directly from the train pipe, it is open to the objection (held in several cases to be fatal) that the mere function of a machine cannot be patented. ”

“ The duties of the engineers are to stake out the work for the contractors, make monthly returns of its progress, and see that it is well done and according to the specifications and contract. The line is divided into sections, and an engineer, with his assistants, is placed in charge of each. Where the works are heavy, the contractors build shanties for their men and teams near the heavy cuttings or embankments. It is the custom to take out heavy cuttings by means of the machine called a steam shovel, which will dig as many yards in a day as 500 men. ”

“ The bearings are in reality the vitals of the motor, and when these are worn beyond the point of easy adjustment or renewal, the repairs necessary to place the machine in good condition would oftentimes cost more than the entire engine is worth. ”

“ Each steam engine has a force of twelve men attached to it, viz., a foreman, assistant foreman, an engineer of steamer, a driver, a stoker, and seven firemen. All the engines and carriages are drawn by horses. There are five hundred and four men, and one hundred and forty-six horses in the department. Each man is paid by the city for his services. The chief engineer receives four thousand five hundred dollars per annum, foremen of companies thirteen hundred dollars, the engineers of steamers twelve hundred dollars, assistant engineers eleven hundred dollars, and firemen one thousand dollars. ”

“ To know this, [Pg 220] he must make a personal inspection of every part of the engine—trucks, wheels, drivers, cranks, rods, valves, gearing, coupling, flues, scales, journals, driving-boxes, throttle gear, oil cups; in short, every thing about the engine must be seen to by him personally. He must know that every journal, every joint on the whole machine is in proper order to receive the oil necessary to lubricate it, for they will each and all receive a pretty severe strain in his coming ride, and, unless well oiled, will be pretty apt to get warm. ”

“ The engineer should examine, with a wrench in hand, the bolts and nuts about the trucks and axle boxes, as these are apt to become loose and come off on the road. A proper construction would remedy this defect almost entirely, and by a proper construction is meant the more frequent employment of split pins, cotters, and other similar safety appliances now omitted for the sake of economy of manufacture. ”

“ The writer, however, while still a young man, had all lingering doubt as to the value of a drafting room dispelled by seeing the chief engineer, the foreman of the machine shop, the foreman of the foundry, and one or two workmen, in one of our large and successful engineering establishments of the old school, stand over the cylinder of an engine which was being built, with chalk and dividers, and discuss for more than an hour the proper size and location of the studs for fastening on the cylinder head. ”