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Show LOOK FOR THE THRILL IN YOUR JOB7sAYS STEINMETZ By Charles W. Duke " ryj AVF1 really lack romance, in (bis scientific aiKj nginfTing tv.-eutii-th renluiy? r.s there no poetry in this world of -or-t'! Or is it not rather that the ignorance ig-norance of the average litriii ry man disables him to see the romance of our age.' ' Charles I'. Steinmetz, the wizard of s.ehen-olady, s.ehen-olady, the electrical genius wIioms n-ipicvo. incnls in the realm of Am'-rio.-ui iixlii-l r i have made him known in eycry corner o the world, propounded the questions. At y st.trnl.ion had jnrst been railed lo llir-m. The appeared in the course of p preface that Doctor Sleiuniclz had written to fi book entitled "Romanes .'Ji lo a Great. Far lory," by 'f'J I Charles AI. Ripley, pi,;. 1 turing graphically and ' 11 J romantically life in the ' H P I i Z'" 77te Parable of the Raindrop f' I ! 3Ss7S'I"'j m warm summer afternoon four drop? of water lay In the bay. Iw- F FA''"a sponding to the blazing rays of the sun, these drops of water evap- f s,-sV'' a orated and ascended heavenward, where they helped to form a cloud, and j tiia ft then, directed by the Invisible Hand, this cloud coursed northward. One j fj drop of water fell in a garden and helped furnish man with food. Another ,'i drop of water fell in a field of cotton and helped to give man clothing. The j f 3 third drop fell in a forest and helped nourish a tree, and 80 helped to, provide i jj-j man with shelter. But the fourth drop of rain was not destined to furnish j s j B man with food, clothing and shelter but to give him heat, light and power. j . r M So on and on it went, further northward until it dropped in the form J jiJm ; of snow on a barren mountain peak. There it waited many months until Uta if 1 earth had gone half way around that same sun; and one warm day in May, j the sun's rays brought the message that its long stay in the mountains wa s'; jl fj at an end. Throwing off its winter clothing it again assumed the form of a f jf:' i jjj raindrop and crept down the edge of the vast ice floe. Then it joined some ' mi H brothers in a tiny rivulet, then tumbled. into a mountain brook and soon, in IrV H a raging torrent, it sped down to the lake. There its progress was checked t'i 3 by a dam, but not for long. For soon, racing down the penstock, it dialled jS jj itself against the steel blades of the turbine in the power house. In that if jjj brief instant it fulfilled its destiny, for it helped to create light, heat and j M power. ; jj For ages and ages this great rcycle has been going on, water, mist, stA A clouds, rain, snow, ice, water againj'up and down from arctic to tropic lands fa, f and back again countless billions of miles. Our forefathers for thousands 'P 4 ot years stood be3ide tne Breat mountain cataracts, unable to use the price- IjP 8 'ess energy which was wasting itself in roar and mist; for, tliere was miss- Jt ffifL I ing that vital link, electricity! From Charles M. Ripley" "Romance of a jlfJl 1 H -Great Factory," which Doctor Steinmetz refers to as an example of the "octry indwtry" to be found in this.romantic age. j By Charles W. Duke , ,, 7""""" "no really I.-uk roman.e in (bis y ' - " ? V V Keien litie and enin, erig (v.-uti.'th i W ! .-f' i T eenlury? I.s there ,,o poetry in tins world (. A' . .. '.ify 9y!m!mamiStmmmKXmS3SE!. nt Or is it not rather that; (lie is- .'' . tf?:' !';-'' tVi .-'.':'- V' noranm ot the average literary man doubles ' V-rK" V I s - y r h,m to ,ee ,e romanee of onr t f f A J0. TJ ThCParaDiC Charle:, I-. rileinmeu, the wizard f hen " 1 ? ? - P - -.--'ft f e,,t.ady, the eh,,riea! geis who , e Y . 555rfc-rr! HNa raf ...rnls ,n the realm of A,,r,ea, 1 A 'V I . j t H f 1 " TpJ U spending to the blazing rays have made him knounin every r i J K, 1 r If "-"" "rJT 4 . i- sST'l' 2 orated and ascended heaven ware the world, propounded the qtiti.-ns. My ri v if' Vs(,( f "aifjfflW! j v i I " " V) then, directed by the Invisible Ha attention had just been railed to them. They CtV'- ' va-a- . ; a v V f j w- i . J S drop of water fell in a garden an appeared in the course of 'vJrX .i':, .,V .rfpTiwrra " m2lL? '57 ;'i drop of water fell in a field of cotl p preface that T'oitor '-S-v t--" rr'." -- -I A? f Vi4 V : f fl third drop fell in a forest and hcli Hleinmcl, had written to fA 'VyjV, A'lt y ' j If . f ' 8 man with shelter. But the fourl a book entitled 'Romance ' 1 " x ( $ " Prti A''1 4v J ) M man with food, clothing and shel lo a Great. Factory," by 1 M s ' 'i Vf- " ' ' H. Hp? 4 4 V O R1 . So on and on it went, furt! Charles .M. Kipley, pi,;. i i 2jK W l il'IW ( f J Hit 7 utal turing R,,pical.y d , Z I , k L 'A f Ft fl 1 1- W .) MS had gone half way around n I l t Vl If! . jM. raindroPandcreptdowntheedg( Z H M . t ,S H W 4 kiUiJo m V PiS brothers in a tiny rivulet, then t X ,f f, , , 'iM H l ) A ilvL Jrf toy f a a raging torrent, it sped down to f f"l p 4 IV fj f' J Xfl I ;S v ' M f . h'J a by a dam, but not for long. Fori iX H flY'S f 6 J rH 1 147 J1 -0 JMLS&Vti-' i'H 0 itself against the steel blades of , Hf ' 4 I t V mllfll '4 ' "i "4'r'7JT P M brief instantUfuimied its desUn ffllXl A If PU 11 I i tA? II I For ages and ages Uils gre tC LS. Ilk ' J5rT 'f , yt mlMS 'J Of ' 4 y.7--i-" .''-l g clouds, rain, snow, ice, water aga yCN' t'' 't C K . ' f JiHHl I VC''' Y P V 7rf I and back againountlessbilHon -awin. , I I g -7 S-Tf ; WB'IU W of years stood beside the great r 1 9 P.-Uu , 1 ( XLJ IWJVJT V)y e4 1 'energy which was wasting it, ; ' - f J V ;,4RM3--7 ,?vtN J '",71 ing that vital link, electricity !-f J. MI3.'.V i W t7iT , 1 ''. Y, x 'i'f 'V''i K- Jll , jljlinr-lS IB -Great Factory," which Doctor i feilf:. - X y-t-Vh. v- - nrfj "i'?,'?''.i!y .'"'-v-ivvr.-i.;;.-;:".-. 'V V 1 XA these working classes to delve deep into Rr-ys. i-' .L't """'r f:!.- ' -'h-: s-t.!is. '"'" ' "H roniuuce of tue very tuiug right at 'SkkN. t. ..j i';; "'TT i 1 M - . hand ! ' ' Mr4' , X AS , $ - ' s VV "Unfortunately many do not have the NyQV,V-',---'f'';'1 .:".. ' ):." s 2r&L ' f - y . vision to romprehend the realities, the '.SBWf -' te;:tj arJ JV r " beauties, the romantic side of, their' every - 'SKj'i'''"',"-'V': 'y- . . . tV-AiP-ri-VK II " ' 1 day work. They need some one to show .S2SXfv y f' v' 5t ' - - Vt . them, to lead them." :!; - t ' V I - ' j milAT suggested a digression concerning -iJ-"- 'A. i ' II f 4 ' i :i J- Doctor Sleiometz's question regarding the , , , , VL. I v' S i i ;i. literary men of the day and their dis- huge plant of the General Elec- L' J t ,s 1 ill ability as regards beholding the real ro- tnc Company at hencctady. 1 r J V t ,s J . mance of the age. Doo or hteinmet i, . ch.ef con- ( , t i w Xt ' X ' ' Yes, the writers o the day have much siting cns:ueer ot the com- H j f , . , ' (0 doJever so much-toward showing the noet i . r 4 1 f.Sr' ' J ' i workingman the romantic side o life. If .geri 3" en? lU' 1 4 i ' I the w.orkingnmn fails to see the romance of gineering skill?" The hou't t - , I ' ' , ' 1 industry certainly the majonly of our struck my fancy and I deter- I ' ' 1 wviting men do. hy do so many of our mined to get a full and free an- . ' ' - wW literary lights put out the so-ca led be,t swer from this great electric f . U ' 5 ' i , ' " , 11 sellers' of modern fiction ? ou know the genius. Also, as a "writing- ft T 1 I . "AW- ' r" ' type of book I mean the book that is for- man," my curiosity was stimut ' Jf i jS , ,X , ' ' gotten as soon as it is read. Over and over lated by his statement aueut ' s H - X ' , v v ' I ' J I again they repeat the same old -story of "the ignorance of the nvera-e s ' j S ' ' - V " ' - '"'". f erotic sentimentalism, running up and down literary man that disables him "i 5 , , s 5 J the seale from hysteria to pathological de- to see the romance of ou'r age." - - S CC) , " ' ' 1 s ' ' generation. Hopelessly out of touch with So I wanted lo know further , N ' J I1 VvY ' S "v.. x' 4 tllc world o today, they see nothing m it ex- what was in (he back of the " 4 ' V4 t T W' ' , ' " cept sensual erotics o the more hysterical bteinmetz m.nd on this subject. C; s - -v. x ( t i Vv i t vpes and it is characteristic that even in But before tracking Doctor X 1 X XxX f 1 lfV Faust the world's greatest drama, our lit- fcte.ninctz to hrs laboratories in , vA U XsX ' W crary generation dwells chiefly on the merely he bus hng cty of Schenectady ?W , N , X W dental love episode of Marguerite." I fiu.shed rather avidly that 1 W ' Cjs XN " ! , Doctor Steinmetz thinks writers today are r, I S 1 H!i liDCS oa --M . V , for the most part way off the key o human romance ,u mo.ro iodu.sfry. .V"" 0--0 cudeavor A few critics, he maintains, Could , be that Ste.nmet, of r Ite style o popular fiction, and the hll"!.r,ad5, fr..1?."1? "elusion that , PR7RI pft TZc "tec amor for it, thinking it is "the "Jn the Iliad and the Odyssey Homer told us of tho adventures of his particular age, the couquest of Troy, the wanderings of the navigator through tho terrors o the ocean at the dawn of history," he explaiued. "Three thousand years later iu his autobiography, auto-biography, Faust, Goethe tells us the adventures adven-tures and aspirations of his particular age; from the youthful efforts to conceive the absolute groping after the ideal of the trus and beautiful up to the satisfaction of sedate se-date manhood, helping mankind to conquer nature and make the earth a better place in which to live. , "The great writers of the past wrote o the age in which they lived, but the writers of today are out of touch with the twentieth century. There are a few exceptions excep-tions ; but only rarely does a Mark Twain discover romance in a 'Tom Sawyer' or a 'Huckleberry Finn ;' seldom does a Jack London gives us a 'Buck' or a 'White F'ang;' there has been but one poet o the engineer Kipling with his 'Day's Work' and 'Mc-Andrew's 'Mc-Andrew's Hymn.' (irpHAT'S why I welcome a book like the -L one my friend Ripley has written concerning our own works, here entitled '.Romance of a Great Factory."' The engineer- . author lives with us. - AVe are doing the world's work of today. He understands it and sees the poetry in it. He describes the adveutures of the thousands of us who have ' gathered here in an organization mightier than any age has seen; who have contributed con-tributed to the conquest of nature and by our work have helped to make the world a better place in which to live." "And suppose we have more of the romance ro-mance in industry literature the business story?" "You will find men more interested in their work. They are prouder to be. a part o the great scheme of life as they become more familiar with its romantic details. AA'hat is stronger than the power of thought? AA-hat cau be accomplished by linking up imagination with fact! Bring out the curious, the spectacular, the sentimental and you stir a deeper interest. Make the job more attractive and you contribute more to the production of the world's work. All this can be done by bringiug out the romantic side of industrial life. Aud who cau say iu this remarkable age that the business and industry of the world are beyond thl pale o romance?" huge plant of the ticneral Electric Elec-tric Company at Schenectady. Doctor Steinmetz io chief consulting con-sulting engineer o the company. com-pany. "Do we lack romance in this age of science aud super-engineering skill?" The thought struck my fancy and I determined deter-mined to get a full and free answer an-swer from (his great electric genius. Also, as a "writing-man," "writing-man," my curiosity was stimulated stimu-lated by his statement anent "the ignorance of the average literary man that disables him to see the romance of ou'r age." So I wanted to know further what was in (he back of the Steinmetz mind on thjs subject But before tracking Doctor fcteinmetz to his laboratories in the hustling city of Schenectady I finished rather avidly that bood preface with its lines on romance in modem industry. Could it be that Steinmetz of these working classes to delve deep into the roniuuce of tue very tuiug right at hand ! "Unfortunately many do not have the vision to comprehend the realities, the beauties, the romantic side o their everyday every-day work. They need some one to show them, to lead them." THAT suggested a digression concerning Doctor Steinnietz's question regarding the literary men of the day and their disability dis-ability as regards beholding the real romance ro-mance of the age. "Yes, the writers of the day have much (0 d0 ever so much toward showing the workingman the romantic side o life. If the workingman fails to see the romance o industry certainly the majority of our writing men do. AYhy do so many of our literary lights put out the so-called 'best sellers' o modern fiction? You know the type of book I mean the book that is forgotten for-gotten as soon as it is read. Over and over' again they repeat the same old -story of erotic sentimentalism, runniug up and down the seale from hysteria to pathological degeneration. de-generation. Hopelessly out o touch with the world o today, they see nothing m it except ex-cept sensual erotics o the more hysterical types; aud it is characteristic that even in Faust, the world's greatest drama, our literary lit-erary generation dwells chiefly on the merely incidental love episode of Marguerite." Doctor Steinmetz thinks writers today are for the most part way off the key o human endeavor. A few critics, he maintains, make the style of popular fiction, and the people clamor tor it, thinking it is "the proper thing" just because so-and-so says so. He is immensely pleased with the attitude atti-tude of some magazines in introducing and developing the typical American business story of commerce and industry. The average aver-age American is more interested in the things he is doing, says the scientist, than any other subject, and needs only to have it presented in attractive stylo for it to take precedence over any other type of literature. ocucnec . u come to the couclusion that technical sh,U had robbed the industrial world of romance? AYas it. indeed, possible that "before the shriek of the locomotive the wood nymphs have fled aud the factory whistle has driven away the romance of the old times?" AYas it true, as some of the mournful ' cynics had iulimaled and many of the malcontents mal-contents emphasized, that art and poetry no longer flourish in our cold engineering age? Thank goodness, no, so far as Doctor Pieininelz is concerned. Here is a miracle Dili, with a small misshapen body but a marvelous mind, who beholds romance in tho very things that touch our everyday life today to-day anil prophesies marvelous Dew things born out of the romantic age of industry just at hand. Here was his formal' answer as 1 read it in that preface: "There is more poetry, more romance in the advances which we have seen jn our lifetime life-time than ever Homer described. We navigate navi-gate nol only the surface of the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean but its very depths by submarine. AVe fly to (he higher altitudes' of the skies by airplaue. "We tiiug the human voice over thousands of miles across continents and oceans by telephone. Si ill unboru generations gen-erations will hear the living voices of our musicians, bequeathed to them by the phonograph. pho-nograph. Hir great-greal-!;reat-grandchildren will see iu action our prominent men ft f todav recorded and everlastingly perpetuated per-petuated by the oinrmatoscupe that new historian of these great times. "There is romance in the life of the vigilant mariner who listens to the wireless messages from distant shores. There is tragedy in the late of the giant battle cruiser, military engineering's greatest ad-vauee ad-vauee ; and with more effective power than all the war engines of former aes. Manned by thousands of. men. guarded by heavy steel walls, running through (lie storni-lossed storni-lossed ocean with the speed of the hurricane, i-he goes to nieel the enemy in the nation's defence ; and six minutes nl'lerward her t-haiicrrd hulk sinks beneath the wave. "There is romance in ihe mighty spinning i ip. the steam turbine fed by the slored sun-' sun-' rt of prehistoric ages ages when ferns X " r'urit trees and our ancestors wcro 'im; things in the slime on the shores of lagoon not very long no. as time is co, iu the universe. Turning at a speed '; -h would carry it. a'-ross the continent con-tinent L .. t.,w hours were it not inipri.-uued in the pou.- plant, some single turbine furnish ir.diil. nl i'h elcclnciiy equaling the power of - -ly thousand hor-e.-. Tiiev turn night into '"-v and propel the electric train wi'h i. . . wl of Ihn They actuate mines :.) irfories and make pns-. t-ibbj wonderful :ua --ials uuknowu to former for-mer genei a I ion.. "In the model-.: 'try there is far mure .romance ami poel.-y '-an lliere has ever i,eeii in the hi-lory i.( pa-t : hut we must Vi" living v. i I i il I o . ' i i,d under.-1 and il . 'I lci i- . v. e .,,11- 1 he h ; - il II 1 he ne-n of mi! ,-enl ii and not she. , -d m the du: t of jia, I ages." Uullv for Leinijielz ! i-. one who could always gel a ihriil out of the steady "choo 1 clioo!" of a locomotive aud the relentless turning of her driving rods, I was keen to grasp his band after reading those lines and say "good for you ; if we had a few more like you there would be less of discontent and more of love of work these days." FOL'XD him at last in his home on the outskirts of Schenectady; nestled down behind- a bower of foliage that from the street quite obscures the combination home aud workshop where the famous engineer lives. Along a shaded walk, with a be-vildcring be-vildcring array of floral beauty ou every side. Ily the side of the house toward the rear. In sharply at a door marked "Entrance "En-trance to Laboratories." Now the hum of a motor; (he blue flame of a gas jet; rack on rack of test tubes. But no Steiumetz. N'ow out through a side door into the yard on the other side ot the house whence we hud entered the premises. "Hello, Doctor!" Came (in answering "hello" from the greenhouse that flanks the western side of thii marvelous home. And there, among specimens of cacti, ferns ami flowers imported from the jungles of Africa, the wastes ot the Sahara and other remote corners of the earth, we find the great engineer. Crouched over a miniature pond, hanging on to the stein o a monster water lily, while he "adjusted in place a copper wire that would support some one of his valued tropical specimens. "Romance? Yes, I find it at every turn iu life," he was saying a few- minutes later, after be bad climbed back on the "duck board" aisle that led through the conservatory conserva-tory and we bad retired to a couvenient hen'-h in the corner. Tenderly, almost affectionately, he t'oudlcd the leaf of a giant cactus that had come from a fur desert. "You sec this cactus," he began passionately. passion-ately. "Hack of that plant is a romantic story that should siir the imagination of every man and woman. Think of a living green thing standing out amid the barren vwtste of the desert. How is it kept alive? AVe do not know what it was iu the loug ago before the deserts became arid spaces. Very likely it was some beautiful plant. Ami now M-e what happened to it in the process of evolnl ion ! See its odd-shaped leaves aud its brambles ! "loej the average person know why its 'ears' are long and thick? Does he know that this leaf was once a huge brauch aud lhal in the ma l:e - over to suit tho changing eondilions of climate nature nu.de these If av.v tur" to cany v.aler? Thus, while the sun scorches the sands of Ihe desert aud the traveler succumbs to the terrors of XL' 'tlt the cactus Mauds self-preserved by. the water stored within its ugly body. Its long roots reach far into the earth like the palm tree and touch the hidden springs of cool water.". The engiueer's eyes were winking fast and he was.drawiug hard on a cheroot. "Do you know why the cactus has thorus?" ho coutinucd. "They- were once the leaves of the plant. Through the ages they w-ere dwarfed into thorus. l.ature thus ' endowed plant life with the means for self-defeuse. self-defeuse. The thorns repel nuimal life that might go ruthlessly through the forest trampling tram-pling aud destroying plaut life. Everywhere there is evident the instinct to live; not solely among humans, as we see, but amoug the animals and the plauts. See this." Doctor Steinmetz snapped a twig from a tropical plant just over his head aud held the severed portion up to our gaze. A milky substance poured from the end of the stem. "F'eel it," he suggested. It was sticky, like the paste put on a torn automobile tube. "No animal would cat of that plaut," continued the scieutist. "Too gummy and, furthermore, terrible to taste. Poison. Au-other Au-other safeguard by nature to prevcut the destruction of plant life. So it goes through the whole forest or jungle. "You sec, there is a wonderful story in everything that touches our life," continued Doctor Steinmetz. "Everywhere we turn there is romance to be touud. Too mauy ot us wander along failing to sec the riches o life that abound on every baud. No, there is no lack of roiuaucj in the world today; there is, very often, however, a lack of the vision necessary to behold the wonders of the age iu which we are living. The wireless telephone, that projects the voice around the world; the submarine, that dives far under tiie sea, aud the airplaue, that flies miles over our heads these things are some of the marvels of the time that attest the romantic age iu which we live. The things) that once were dreamed of are here. We have come to them slowly by process of evolution, hardly realizing just what we do have. If we lack romance it is because we lack the imaginatiou to see these things; mauy men are too engaged iu material pursuits pur-suits to behold the beauty ami splendor of the things that engage our life." Doctor Steinmetz paused a moment in retrospective mood. "And yet many of these marvelous new things have been with us for a long time," be continued. "They were here for some lime before mao utilized them. You know, the war produced nothing new. A good many people think the war was responsible for a lot of new marvels, of things unheard of before the war. .Aud yet the war produced known of these things for some time; the war only revealed them to the world. There is no such thing as expediency in science. 'These things come gradually through loDg years of scientific development. There are fixed laws of nature that are invariable. So it develops that when 'man wants something in particular he fits science to the need in hand. Just by way of illustration: It was found early iu the war that hydrogen could not be used for balloon inflation because o its inflammability. Something else had to be used. Engineers turned to helium, a non-intlammable non-intlammable gas. It was not necessary to 'discover' helium, tor it was there all the tU''But there are new things being developed all the. time?" was asked. "Developed, yes," answered the scientist. "Expedient man is always combining to make something new. Society's -iceds are constantly con-stantly being supplied out of the realms of scientific research. Think of our forefathers aud then of today. How many of us remember re-member the first automobile, the first electric lb'ht the first telephone, the first talking machine aud ouly recently the first submarine and the first airplaue?" TJAVE we reached, then, the limit? JTI How tar can we go iu scientific development?" de-velopment?" 1 interrupted. "F,y no means the limit," was bis quiet answer "We are even yet ou the borderland border-land of wonderful new things yet to come. The limit'' Has there ever beeu any limit.' , It is all a matter of speculation, this question ques-tion of what new tilings will be developed for the future. Shall we communicate with the plauets? A wireless message can be Hashed to Mars in four seconds, but 1 shall not sav whether we will ever communicate Willi oilier planels. for that implies that the planets are inhabited. And are we sure they are inhabited? I am content to take tilings as they come and to view the wonders won-ders of the present rather thau speculate on Ihe probabilities of the future. Only we shall go forward. Progress! It is the way of the world." After a inonieut "And why uut dwell more ou the glories of the present age? In the world's work of today there is more romance and poetry thau ever before. He who sees ouly the monotony of the daily grind is looking down instead of up. Many men who work say they have not the opportunity to sec it; and" yd" a man must be living right with his work to get the romance of it. "Many who have the education, leisure and inclination can go back through the pages of history and regale themselves with the old romance of the world, llut to the majority of working Americans their world is bound round by the things they are doing every day. They are seeing only the lueouiol ive, the. steamship, the mill or factory, fac-tory, the electric light, the telegraph or the automobile. J'.uf what, a chance for all |