Perseverance Island; Or, The Robinson Crusoe of the Nineteenth Century
Page 19
CHAPTER XVI.
Smelt my iron and make Bessemer steel and all kinds of tools. Erect an anvil and forge. Build a saw mill, and plant a farm and kitchen garden.
Having gotten everything all ready for my purpose, I placed, as nearlyas I could judge, about a ton of the broken ore in my kiln to beroasted or calcined, and after this was accomplished, I transferred itto my blast furnace and added to the calcined ore about a ton and ahalf of half-burned coal, and one-third of a ton of limestone; thesebeing the proper proportions, as I was well aware. Under this, andaround it, I placed a large amount of coal fuel, and having ignited itby means of a large quantity of wood placed under the whole mass, Iwent, when it was well started, to my gateway on Rapid River, and setmy machinery agoing, which started the fan-wheel, which immediatelycreated a terrific blast, and the whole furnace was soon in a glow.I kept this up by feeding new fuel, till by certain signs I feltconfident that the mass of ore was smelted, when I shut down my gatewayso as to regulate the blast to its minimum and keep the fan-wheel justrevolving. I then dug away the clay at the orifice of the blast-furnacethat opened into the smelting-room, and had the supreme satisfactionof seeing the molten ore flow out like water into the furrows of sandthat I had formed and excavated to receive it. I had made this furrowfor a purpose also, and had something in mind when I formed the sandmould, something like a foot in depth and eighteen inches in length,exactly under the nozzle of the delivery orifice of the furnace. Themolten ore ran into this rapidly and soon filled it, forming a roughblock of iron a foot thick, a foot wide, and eighteen inches long. Whenthe fiery fluid had completely filled this, I shut off the dischargeby thrusting some moist clay into the orifice. This block that I hadjust made was to be my anvil, and as it was large and would take timeto cool, I directed the orifice of the furnace to one side by means ofa clay channel, so that the next discharge should not interfere withit; and as my desire was now to get steel in smaller quantities so thatI could use it, I drew narrow and shallow channels through my sand atquite long distances from the blast furnace, but all coming together inone deep channel under the orifice, but spreading to different partsof the smelting house, as the ribs of a fan do from the point at whichthey are collected. Into these channels I allowed the remainder of themolten ore to flow, and it extended itself through all these minorchannels, and when it was cool I had several long bars of cast steelthat, on my anvil, I could work up into any form.
After a few days, when my anvil was perfectly cool, I mounted it upona block of wood and commenced to build a forge near by it, of brickand stone, into the fire-place of which I led a branch flexible tubeof goat's skin from the fan-wheel, which I could easily detach andconnect, and which gave me a blast instead of the usual bellows. Atthis forge I worked for a week steadily, turning out the simplest andmost necessary tools, such as chisels, hammers, hatchets, axes, nails,bolts, plane irons, gouges, etc., which I tempered and hardened whenneedful. I also made myself tongs and shovels, pickaxe, and crowbars,and as fast as one tool was made at my forge, such as a pair of tongsand a hammer, I had means to make others better and rapidly. In thisweek I saw treasures gather up about me fast, and, having finished myiron work, I set to, to arrange them into tools. In the first place,by means of cold chisels, I cut out from a large mass of soft stone,that seemed as if it would suit my purpose, a grindstone some two feetin diameter; this I set up on two standards and connected with mywater wheels. By means of this I could sharpen and bring into shapeall the rough pieces of iron tools that I had forged out, and I hadno difficulty in sharpening all my axes, planes, hatchets, chisels,etc., and, when necessary, giving them a finer edge on a whetstone,which I had found to suit my purpose. After getting these all in shape,my next task was to affix handles to them. This was not difficultto do, and it is hardly credible how soon I had my shop hung roundabout with useful tools. I soon had my planes in order, and my workthen commenced to have a finish that it had before lacked. I did notstop here, however, for I was now in my element. I was ambitious ofproducing much better tools than I had yet finished by the very meansthat I already had, made to my hands, for creating them. I hope it isunderstood that the result of my smelting was not common iron, butwhat is known as Bessemer steel. By the numerous air passages throughthe ore and my fan-wheel, I had been enabled to turn out the result insteel in bulk by what is called the Bessemer process, leaving the metalall ready to my hand for tools, etc. This steel was not hard enoughfor some purposes for which I needed it, and having forged some piecesinto the proper shape, I treated them to the crucible and blast, havingbeforehand stamped them with a cold chisel, and finally turned out somesplendid files, which was what I most needed to advance in my ironwork. As a boy, I used to be expert in this case-hardening of files andsteel, and my knowledge now stood me in excellent need.
As soon as I got my files made, I felt as if I could make anything,and my next smelting procured for me--for it only took about twelveor fourteen hours to smelt--some thin sheets of steel, which I set towork upon to smooth by means of my grindstone, so as to make hand-saws;and, of a larger and thicker piece, two fine up-and-down sawmill saws,destined for my sawmill yet to be built. All of these I sharpened andhardened to the necessary temper, and by this time I discovered that myiron was of an excellent quality and as tough as possible. I had neverseen finer, even in imported Swedish iron so much sought for at home.I think that the pleasantest noises I had yet heard since arriving onthe island was my axe cutting into the side of a tree; my saw splittingthe same into small boards when needed; and my planes smoothing theseeasily to a fine level surface. I did not attempt to saw out one boardmore than I needed, for I intended that my sawmill should do all thatfor me, and the planing too without much trouble on my part. So I setto work at this matter in earnest and cast me an axle for my waterwheel, which I concluded to erect on my own side of the river. Thiswheel that I made was not much like the other, but was of wood andiron, strong and well built, and fastened with iron bolts, and set iniron sockets.
I dug away quite a space of the natural fall of Rapid River, anderected a strong flume and gateway, so as to control my wheelperfectly. I took little pains with the covering of my mill, makingit hastily and with little care; but the foundations I laid out welland strong, and built it parallel with the side of the river, and hadrunning down into the latter, from the mill, smooth timbers at an angleof about forty-five degrees, on which I intended, by means of my goatsor the machinery of the mill itself, to "parbuckle" the logs up intothe mill in front of the saw. For a mechanic the arranging of my millwas an easy task, not easy in its details, being laborious and hard,but easy I mean in its mechanical construction, which did not give mea moment's thought. About six weeks saw it all finished and everythingin place; revolving knives for my planing-machine and a splendidup-and-down saw for my log-splitting. Of course all my machinery wasof a different style, now that I had means to work with, than therude wheels on the other side of the river. I had before me a good,substantial sawmill--rather rough, to be sure, in some details, but Idid not care for that. Nobody, I am sorry to say, would ever look uponit and find fault with its want of finish.
Having this all done, I launched the "Fairy" above the falls andpaddled up the river for about half a mile, marking on either bankwith my axe the trees I wished to cut down--some of pine and cedar,and others of a hard, dark wood, like walnut, that I knew not the nameof. A week's hard work with the axe saw some twenty of these in thewater and floated to the dam, whence I rolled them out of the water asI needed them, and cut them into the requisite lengths for my sawmill,when I pushed them by handspikes again into the stream, and floatedthem in front of my inclined planes, up which they soon mounted byrolling themselves over and over in the two bights of a rope at eachend, being slowly wound by the machinery of the mill on a drum inside,or, in other words, as sailors would say, "parbuckled" into the mill,where a few movements of the handspike put them in position on thecradle in front of the saw. Let it suffice for me to say that in a weekor two I had
all the planed boards that I should need for years, andalso plank and joist nicely piled outside the mill, and covered with alight roof of rushes and cane from the rain and sun. It was a greatthing for one man to be able to do so much, but then I had now got astart where nothing could stop me. Nature was under my thumb; I was themaster.
All these works in iron, steel, and mill-building brought me tospring-like weather, in the month of October, and I began to seesigns of returning summer. I hastened, therefore, to drop all thesematters, and put myself and goats seriously to work to provide formy coming wants in the vegetable line, and for this purpose went tothe landing-place and cleared a space of I should think an acre witha light subsoil plough and two yokes of goats, and planted the wholewith different kinds of the seeds that I still had on hand, and which Ihad preserved. About this open space, or natural glade, were the usualtrees and shrubs of the island, and with my axe I made them serve atdistances for posts, filling in the intervals with limbs and shrubs,and, where absolutely necessary, using some of my precious boards,till I had made a very coarse, rough, but serviceable fence about mygarden that goats or other animals could not get through and destroythe young vegetation when it should sprout up. It was here that I sowedsome of my precious wheat, retaining a little in case of accident. Inthis garden I planted seeds that would mature late in the season, andwould in a measure take care of themselves. Near the Hermitage I laidout a similar garden, with the same kind of fence, but not more thanone hundred feet square. In this I planted all the little things thatI needed at hand for my table, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, beans,radishes, celery, blackberries, strawberries, lettuce.
I found that my apple and pear seeds had taken root, for I visited thembefore winter had set in, and I took this opportunity, in ploughing, tomanure with chopped fish the circular places that I had planted beforethe winter, and care to avoid turning up with the ploughshare any ofthe soil where these precious seeds were buried, and where the small,slight stems, leafless, now protruded. Spring came rapidly forward, andI found myself in almost warm weather and pleasant days before I hadfinished all my gardening, which was near the end of September.
These tasks nearly finished the year for me, within a month and a fewdays, and what had I accomplished? On Thursday, November 9, 1865, Iwas, by the providence of God, saved when all my shipmates were lost. Ihad been preserved for some good purpose evidently, or else the hand ofthe Almighty would have swept me out of existence with my messmates.
On that terrible day in November I was cast on shore, with scarcely anyfood, no hat, no coat, and without water. With no aid but that given meby God, and by the use of my own hands and brain, I was to-day sittingin front of my home, erected by myself alone. In this short space oftime, one year, I had wrested from Nature many things, showing thesupremacy of mind over matter, and knowledge, over ignorance and sloth.I had in this year made fire without the aid of matches, distilledsalt water to procure fresh, made myself implements of defence, anderected towers of perpetual lamps, made myself flint, steel, andtinder, bows and arrows, fish-hooks and lines; discovered coal,sulphur, saltpetre, and iron, and captured goats, fish, seals, birds,etc., and at the end of the year found myself sitting at my house doorsurrounded with my flock of goats, my garden and farm planted, mymill and smelting-house in running order, my canoe at my feet in thequiet water of the cove, and everything about me that could please orcharm the eye. From absolutely nothing I had created everything; thatis to say, the ground was now so laid out that in the future I saw noend to the daring attempts that I should make, and could make withevery chance of success. I felt, now that the year was ending, that myhardest work was done; that I had so much now to do with, that all thatI should now undertake would be comparatively easy; but then, on theother hand, my ambition was so great that I could see things in the dimfuture that would tax the strength and brain of any man to consummate,but which from my temperament and loneliness I knew I should be forcedto attempt. Many problems were already turning themselves over in myhead, and from them I picked out this one, What is the position of yourisland in latitude and longitude?
I gave myself this as a special task, and whilst I was at work atlittle matters around about the Hermitage my mind kept asking me(for it had no one else to talk to), What is the position of yourisland in latitude and longitude? and it was repeated so often and sopersistently that I tried to answer it, which I did in the followingmanner, as you shall hear.