Harris-Ingram Experiment

by Charles E. Bolton

  CHAPTER XXII

  COLONEL HARRIS'S BIG BLUE ENVELOPE

  The honeymoon of George and Gertrude included not only the two delightfulweeks in Switzerland, but also the ten or twelve days on a slow steamerreturning to New York. The weather at sea was all that could be desired.The longer a smooth sea-voyage, the better lovers are pleased. Returnocean passages usually furnish the much needed rest after a so-calledvacation abroad. Overworked Americans need, not so much an entirecessation of activities, as a change of occupation, which usually, bringsthe desired results.

  George and Gertrude made but few acquaintances on the steamer. Thethought that each possessed the other was enjoyment that satisfied, andboth were happy. Each lived as in dreamland, and scarcely observed eventhe daily runs made by the steamer. The death by accident of a sailor,and his strange burial at sea, served only for a brief time to arrest ahappiness made complete by each other's voice and presence. The two weekson the ocean came and went as softly as flowers unfold and disappear.Thus far, married life had been ideal.

  It was after eleven o'clock, and anxious passengers were pacing thedecks, hoping to sight native land before retiring. Suddenly the officeron the bridge discerned the dim Fire Island Light, bearing north by west,twenty miles distant. Ten minutes later, five points on the port bow, apilot boat was sighted. Her mast-head light was visible, also the torch,which soaked in turpentine, burnt brightly at intervals.

  The steamer signals, "We want a pilot," by burning a blue light on thebridge, and bears down on the pilot schooner. The moon reveals enormousfigures, with a heavy dot beneath, on the mainsail of the schooner. Overthe rail goes the yawl, followed by the oarsman and pilot, whose turnit is to go ashore. The pilot carries a lantern, which in the egg-shapedyawl dances on the white wave crests up and down like a fire-fly. Theyawl is soon under the steamer's lee, and a line from the big ship pullsthe little boat to the ladder, and the pilot nimbly climbs to thesteamer's bridge, bringing the latest papers. The schooner drifts underthe steamer's stern, takes in the yawl, and again sails to the eastwardin search of another liner.

  The entrance to the port of New York is patrolled night and day by apilot-fleet of thirty boats, which cost from $10,000 to $20,000 each.They are staunch and seaworthy, the fastest schooners afloat. Often,knocked down by heavy seas, for a moment they tremble, like a frightenedbird, then shaking the water off their decks, they rise, heave to,perhaps under double reefed foresail, and with everything made snug,outride the storm, and are at their work again. Pilots earn good pay, andthis they deserve, as they often risk their lives in behalf of others.

  Sandy Hook Light was now in sight, and long before the sun began hisjourney across the heavens, the steamer lay at anchor at quarantine,waiting for a certificate from the health officer. As the steamer proudlysped through "The Narrows," a jubilant crowd of passengers on thepromenade deck sang,

  "My country 'tis of thee Sweet Land of Liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died; Land of the pilgrim's pride; From ev'ry mountain side Let freedom ring."

  The hymn was sung to the tune of "God Save the Queen," and severalenthusiastic Englishmen joined with their kith and kin.

  On Bedloe's Island Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty waved her torch, outwardbound steamers exchanged salutes, the Brooklyn Bridge and all the ferrieswere thronged with people hurrying to the labor marts of the metropolis,as the steamer with George and Gertrude aboard moved up the harbor andwas safely docked on the North River.

  In the lead down the gangway Gertrude hastened George to secure acarriage for their hotel, so anxious was she to reach rooms on Americansoil, where she might honorably break the seal of her father's mysteriousbig blue envelope. It had rarely been out of her mind since the day ofher wedding in Paris.

  After breakfast, served in true American style, the Ingrams glanced atthe big morning papers crowded with American news, and wondered whyEuropean papers printed so little about the States. Then they retired totheir rooms to break the seal of the blue envelope.

  George was all attention as his young wife with the flush of health andexcitement in her cheeks tore apart the envelope, and stepping to thewindow for better light, she began to read Reuben Harris's letter.

  Paris--

  _Dear George and Gertrude_,--

  The accumulation of my fortune, now largely invested in prime securities, has been a surprise and often a burden to me, and with it came, as I now clearly see, great responsibilities.

  Money is power, and most people zealously seek it. Many fail to get it, and often those who do succeed, fail to keep it. Wealth unsought comes only to a few, while others, with perhaps hereditary financial instincts, pursue with certainty of success the golden fleece.

  My early experiences with poverty, and now with wealth, and my late extensive observations have impressed upon me, as never before, the common brotherhood of mankind. The great problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relations. What shall be the laws of accumulation and distribution? To decide this wisely the discretion of our present and future legislators will be heavily burdened.

  The condition of many races is better to-day on the foundations on which society is built, than on the old ones tried and abandoned. What were yesterday's luxuries are to-day's necessities. The poor enjoy to-day what yesterday even the rich could not afford. Mankind always has exhibited great irregularities. In every race some are born with an energy and ability to produce wealth, others not. Invention and discovery have replaced scarcity and dearness with abundance and cheapness. The law of competition seems to cheapen comforts and luxuries.

  Both labor and capital are organizing, concentrating, competing. The idealist may dream of what is attainable in the future, but our duty is plainly with what is practicable now. My prayer is for wisdom and ability to administer wisely our wealth, during my life-time. I am therefore resolved to act as follows:--

  1st. To retain for my family only what will provide modestly for them all. I do not wish to leave much property for my relatives to use prodigally, or to quarrel over.

  2nd. I plan not to wait till I die and then leave behind for public purposes money which I cannot take with me. I shall consider myself as an agent, or trustee, in charge of certain surplus funds to be expended in behalf of my poorer brethren.

  On our return to America, Mrs. Harris and I will make our wills in accordance with the above. It is our desire that, when you reach home, you both enter at once upon the development of your plans, of a cooperative manufacturing corporation, in accordance with the views which you have so frequently mentioned. In the execution of these plans, you may use, if necessary, five millions. With best wishes for your happiness.

  Your father,

  Reuben Harris.

  The writing of this letter gave Colonel Harris more pleasure than any actof his life; in fact it was for him the beginning of a new life; a lifefor others.

  The reading of the letter also gave George and Gertrude much happiness,for it furnished them abundant means for the execution of theirbeneficent plans, which had been thoroughly considered by the Harrisfamily. This important letter was returned to the blue envelope and givento Gertrude for safe keeping, and it was agreed to leave for Harrisvillenext day at 1 o'clock on the Chicago Special.

  Among the personals in the Harrisville Sunday paper appeared thefollowing:

  Arrived from Europe Saturday morning, Mr. and Mrs. George Ingram. It is needless to say that their many friends will give them cordial welcome. Colonel and Mrs. Reuben Harris, their son and daughter, Alfonso and Lucille, will remain in Europe for several weeks.

  This notice, though brief, was of much interest to rich and poor inHarrisville. Society, of course, was interested in the marriage ofGertrude, business men in the return of so skilled a manufacturer asGeorge Ingram, and many workmen, still unemployed, hoped that their old
superintendent whom they loved would find or make positions for them.

  The continued absence of Colonel Harris the financier aided George Ingramin certain important negotiations which he proceeded quietly to make,viz., the purchase in the suburbs of Harrisville, in fifty parcels, of4,000 acres of contiguous land, that had both a river and a lake front.While these purchases were being made, agents were dispatched intoseveral Ohio counties, and more than 20,000 acres of well tested coallands were secured. When it was learned that all these lands were boughtin the name of George Ingram, and paid for in cash, the wisacres of thecity began to say, "I told you so; these monopolists having visitedEngland have adopted foreign ideas, and now they have returned to buy andhold our valuable lands." George Ingram was reticent, as most successfulbusiness men are, for he gave attention to business. "Talkers are nogreat doers," wrote Shakespeare.

  The offices of the old Harrisville Iron & Steel Co. had been rented toother parties, so a suite of rooms near by was occupied by George Ingramand his five assistants. It had leaked out, however, that Ingram hadgiven orders for twenty millions of brick and a large quantity ofstructural iron and copper tubes, all to be delivered within four months.The order for copper tubes puzzled even the wisest in Harrisville. Later,when a thousand laborers were set at work on the river front ofhis purchase, building extensive foundations, it dawned upon theexpectant that a gigantic plant for some purpose was to be erected nearHarrisville. Newspaper reporters found it difficult to reach GeorgeIngram, even with a card, which would be returned with the reply "Busyto-day. Please excuse me."

  In the meantime Harrisville agreed to create a more available harbor, andto establish dock lines, not less than 500 feet apart, and in three yearsto dredge the river to a depth of 25 feet for five miles back from thelake.

  George Ingram in his own mind had settled three vital points; thatHarrisville was one of the most favorable producing and distributingcenters in America; that he would so design and build a manufacturingplant as to minimize the cost of production; that he would attempt toharmonize capital and labor. Important provisions of the Company'scharter were:

  ARTICLE III

  The capital stock of this Corporation shall be Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000) to be divided into Five Hundred Thousand Shares at Ten Dollars each, fully paid, and non-assessable.

  ARTICLE VI

  The private property of stockholders shall be exempt from any and all debts of this Corporation.

  Two thousand of the four thousand acres purchased were set apart formanufacturing purposes. Most of the land sloped gradually, and thesurface-water naturally drained into the river. George Ingram's plans foran enormous steel-plant had been most carefully worked out in detail.Night and day the construction went forward. In eight months the plantwas in full operation. He had obtained the latest important labor-savingdevices and improved facilities in use throughout America and Europe. Thewhole was supplemented by the inventions already perfected by his fatherand himself.

  The Harris-Ingram Steel Co. was provided with every modern device thatcould in any manner contribute economy and rapidity from the time theores left the ship, till the finished product was loaded for market. Allores and limestone were delivered on a tableland of the same height, andadjacent to a series of several enormous blast-furnaces. The melted ironfrom the blast-furnaces was tapped into ladles mounted on iron cars, andprovided with mechanism for tipping the ladles. The molten iron of thecars was next transferred to improved converters in an adjoiningbuilding, constructed entirely of iron. Nearby were the spiegel cupolas.The greatest possible accuracy was thus attainable in delivering definitequantities of molten iron into the converter for a given blow, also ofspiegeleisen. This was easily accomplished by standing the ladle carsupon scales.

  The metal was cast into ingot moulds, standing upon cars, and thentransferred to the mould stripper; afterwards the ingots were weighedand sent to the soaking-pit furnaces. After a "wash heat" the ingots,or blooms, entered the rolls, and were drawn and sized in shape to fillorders from every part of the world.

  The marvel at the Harris-Ingram Steel Co.'s mills was that electricity,developed in vast quantities at the coal mines and conveyed on patentedcopper tubes, furnished all the power, heat, and light used in the entireplant. Electricity hoisted and melted all the ores; it worked Sturtevantfans and blowing engines, which supplied necessary air for cupolas andconverters. Electricity furnished all the power requisite to handleinnumerable cranes and cars. As easily as a magnet picks up tacks,electricity also handled ingots or finished steel. Five thousand tons offinished steel per day were made and the labor and fuel account had beenreduced over one-half.

  While the huge steel plant at Harrisville was being constructed, a largeforce of men were building a conduit to protect copper tubes, from thesteel plant to the coal fields. At the mines hundreds of miners were setat work, several shafts were sunk, and tunnels, levels, and winzes weredeveloped.

  George Ingram believed that all the force in the world available forman's use was derived from the sun; so he heroically resolved to hitchhis wagon, if not to a star, to the mighty sun. With this purpose inview, he had bought the 20,000 acres of coal land. Half of this area waslocated in Jefferson, Harrison, and Belmont counties on the Ohio River,and thus title was secured to vast quantities of fossil power in theupper coal measures, which ignites quickly and burns with a hot fire. Theother 10,000 acres were valuable because nearer to Harrisville. This coalcame from lower measures or seams.

  George Ingram had made a thorough study of coal, or fossil fuel, itsformation and value. The coal of the carboniferous age is derived almostentirely from the family of plants called _Lycopods_, or club mosses, andthe ferns, which back in high antiquity attained gigantic size. Themicroscope has clearly developed this vegetable origin of coal. The greatAppalachian and other coal fields are without doubt, the long continuedand vigorous forest growths, and subsequent fossilization of the same inthe marginal swamps of ancient gulfs or seas.

  The agency of transfer for solar energy is the vegetable kingdom. Thevegetable cell has the surprising property through the sun's agency ofbeing able to live and multiply itself on air alone. The carbon ofcarbonic acid, a constituent of the atmosphere, is so liberated andappropriated, as to become fixed in the forming tissues of plants. Thusthe plant is a storer of light and heat, a reservoir of force. Itmediates between the sun's energy and the animal life of the world. Thuscoal seams are the accumulations of the sun's energy for thousands ofcenturies, requiring the patient growth and slow decay of hundreds ofimmense forests. One secret of the unprecedented late growth of cities isdiscovered in the steam engine, or the coal which feeds it.

  A pound of good coal, used in a good engine, stands for the work of sixhorses for an hour; a ton of coal for the work of thirteen hundred horsesfor a day of ten hours; ten thousand tons of coal, used in a day bysingle lines of railways, stand for the work of thirteen million horses,working ten hours a day. In 1894 the English mines produced 188,277,525tons of coal. In Great Britain alone, coal does the work of more than ahundred millions of men, and adds proportionately to the fabulouslyincreasing wealth of those fortunate islands.

  The Ingrams had solved two important problems, and on their practicableapplication depended the success of the great Harris-Ingram experiment.The more important of the two was the unlocking of the sun's storedenergy, electricity, at the coal mines. The second was a device forconveying this energy from the mines to the steel plant, and it had beenpatented to protect it.

  Since electricity possibly travels on the surface of wires or metals, theIngrams patented a valuable device of small corrugated copper tubes,strengthened in the center by steel wires, and thus the carrying capacityof electricity was greatly increased, and the amount of costly coppermuch decreased. These corrugated tubes enclosed in cheap glass, andsurrounded with oil, were laid in properly prepared conduits of vitrifiedfire-clay sewer pipes. Without the intervention of the steam engine, bya surprisingly simple process,
electrical force was liberated chemicallyat the mines and transferred for multiple uses at the steel plant.Expensive coal-freights were thus saved. All the slack coal was utilized,and instead of the waste of nine-tenths of the stored energy of the coal,only one tenth was now lost. To husband properly the fruits of so great adiscovery, it was decided not to patent this latter invention, which ifdisclosed would give too great publicity to the details.

  The electrical works at the mines were constructed of safe-steel wallsand roof, and so built that the operations of generating electricitydirectly from coal were conducted in secret in several separateapartments, so that no single operator without the knowledge of all theinitiated employees would be able to successfully work the inventions.The dozen initiated employees had made life long contracts with thecompany in consideration of liberal and satisfactory rewards. TheHarris-Ingram Steel Co. thus equipped began operations.