Rough and Tumble Engineering

Rough and Tumble Engineering

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Title: Rough and Tumble Engineering
Author: James H. Maggard
Release Date: February 19, 2004 [EBook #11164]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGH
AND TUMBLE ENGINEERING ***

ROUGH AND TUMBLE ENGINEERING
By James H. Maggard

PREFACE_______
In placing this book before the public the author wishes it understood
that it is not his intention to produce a scientific work on engineering.
Such a book would be valuable only to engineers of large stationary
engines. In a nice engine room nice theories and scientific calculations
are practical. This book is intended for engineers of farm and traction
engines, "rough and tumble engineers," who have everything in their
favor today, and tomorrow are in mud holes, who with the same engine
do eight horse work one day and sixteen horse work the next day.
Reader, the author has had all these experiences and you will have them,

but don't get discouraged. You can get through them to your entire
satisfaction.
Don't conclude that all you are to do is to read this book. It will not
make an engineer of you. But read it carefully, use good judgment and
common sense, do as it tells you, and my word for it, in one month, you,
for all practical purposes, will be a better engineer than four-fifths of
the so-called engineers today, who think what they don't know would
not make much of a book. Don't deceive yourself with the idea that
what you get out of this will be merely "book learning." What is said in
this will be plain, unvarnished, practical facts. It is not the author's
intention to use any scientific terms, but plain, everyday field terms.
There will be a number of things you will not find in this book, but
nothing will be left out that would be of practical value to you. You
will not find any geometrical figures made up of circles, curves, angles,
letters and figures in a vain effort to make you understand the principle
of an eccentric. While it is all very nice to know these things, it is not
necessary, and the putting of them in this book would defeat the very
object for which it was intended. Be content with being a good,
practical, everyday engineer, and all these things will come in time.
INTRODUCTORY ________
If you have not read the preface on the preceding pages, turn back and
read it. You will see that we have stated there that we will use no
scientific terms, but plain every day talk. It is presumed by us that there
will be more young men, wishing to become good engineers, read this
work than old engineers. We will, therefore, be all the more plain and
say as little as possible that will tend to confuse the learner, and what
we do say will be said in the same language that we would use if we
were in the field, instructing you how to handle your engine. So if the
more experienced engineer thinks we might have gone further in some
certain points, he will please remember that by so doing we might
confuse the less experienced, and thereby cover up the very point we
tried to make. And yet it is not to be supposed that we will endeavor to
make an engineer out of a man who never saw an engine. It is,
therefore, not necessary to tell the learner how an engine is made or
what it looks like. We are not trying to teach you how to build an
engine, but rather how to handle one after it is built; how to know when
it is in proper shape and how to let it alone when it is in shape. We will

suppose that you already know as much as an ordinary water boy, and
just here we will say that we have seen water haulers that were more
capable of handling the engine for which they were hauling water, than
the engineer, and the engineer would not have made a good water boy,
for the reason that he was lazy, and we want the reader to stick a pin
here, and if he has any symptoms of that complaint, don't undertake to
run an engine, for a lazy engineer will spoil a good engine, if by no
other means than getting it in the habit of loafing.
PART FIRST ______
In order