The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

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1901.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. \Q±
have never been equaled. During the month of September the output of ingots and rails
was the greatest iu the history of that record-breaking plant. The total tonnage of ingots
amounted to 74,400 tons, of which the blooming mill broke down 05,310 tons and the
rail mill finished f>9,810 tons. All previous records for rolling structural shapes at the
structural mill at Homestead, Pa., were also broken for the same month by about 3.5C0
tons. — The Manufacturer.
In telegraphy, a woman's Morse signals are as feminine as her voice or her hand-
writing. I have often put to the test my ability to distinguish between the Morse of a
man and that of a woman, and only ouce have I been deceived. I one day encountered
a sender at the other end, a stranger, who for hours " roasted " me as I seldom had been
"roasted" in my telegraphic experience. The dots and dashes poured from the sounder
in a bewildering torrent, and I had the hardest kind of work to keep up in copying.
With all its fearful swiftness the Morse was clean-clipped and musical, though it had a
harsh, staccato ring that indicated a lack of sentiment and feeling in the transmitter.
From this, and from a certain dash and swagger, I gathered, before the day was out,
a pretty distinct impression of the personality of the transmitter. I conceived him to be
of a well-kept, aggressively clean appearance, with a shining red complexion and close
cropped hair; one, in brief, wdiose whole manner and make-up bespoke the self-satisfied
sport. That he wore a diamond iu his loudly striped shirt-front I considered extremely
likely, and that he carried a tooth-pick between his lips was morally certain.
Next day I took occasion to make some inquiries about the unknow r n of my fellow
operator.
"Oh, you mean TY," he said, laughing (for that was the official designation of the
unknown). "Yes, for a girl, she is a fly sender."
It was mortifying to find that I had mistaken the sex of the sender, but I was con-
soled wdien I afterwards- met the young woman. The high coloring was there, and the
self-satisfied air; so also were the masculine ties, the man's vest, and the striped
shirt-front. Nor were the diamond pin and the toothpick wanting. When she intro-
duced herself by her sign, called me "Cully," and said I was "a crack-a-jack receiver,"
I was convinced that it war, nature, and not I, that had made the mistake as to her sex.
— L. C. Hall, in McClure's Mngazine.
Tni-; Steam Thresher.— The American Machinist says that at a recent dinner held
in New York, aad attended by engineers, a manufacturer of engines in Canada read the
following letter received by him some time ago from a French-Canadian customer:
"Dear Sir: Le engine which I procur from you for drive thrash machine he is all rite
correc and he work much more quiet as thrash machine all but one thing which is place
in wheel and is mak for drive le valv which work front and back for admit le steam out
an in le cilindar. My brother Philip who is certificat engineur at Montreal he call hit le
governeur as he cant mak hit work to. Le engine he run correc all clay like clock but
when we stop him by shut trotle valve le governeur he mak some bad noise more worse
as thrash machine. Monfrere Philip he try tight le spring but wich hit mak le engine
go like two forty horse an cause him' run fas then slow lik winmill. Nex mou frere he
loose le spring — mon dieu — I think that time le governeur he smash his self in little
piece. All my man come scare and all these man have stack bees dud til engine be fix.
S'il vous plait send explanation how repair those trouble an mak me satisfy in al respec.
Your frien,
.