Rough and Tumble Engineering | Page 6

way to keep it running nicely. I
have seen twenty dollars damage done to the separator and two days
time lost all because the engineer was as near the separator as he was to
the engine when a root went into the cylinder. Stay with your engine,
and if anything goes wrong at the separator, you are ready to stop and
stop quickly, and if you are signalled to start you are ready to start at
once You are therefore making time for your employer or for yourself
and to make time while running a threshing outfit, means to make
money. There are engineers running engines today who waste time
enough every day to pay their wages.
There is one thing that may be a little difficult to learn, and that is to let
your engine alone when it is all right. I once gave a young fellow a
recommendation to a farmer who wanted an engineer, and afterward
noticed that when I happened around he immediately picked up a

wrench and commenced to loosen up first one thing and then another. If
that engineer ever loses that recommendation he will be out of a job, if
his getting one depends on my giving him another. I wish to say to the
learner that that is not the way to run an engine. Whenever I happen to
go around an engine, (and I never lose an opportunity) and see an
engineer watching his engine, (now don't understand me to mean
standing and gazing at it,) I conclude that he knows his business. What
I mean by watching an engine is, every few minutes let your eye
wander over the engine and you will be surprised to see how quickly
you will detect anything out of place. So when I see an engineer
watching his engine closely while running, I am most certain to see
another commendable feature in a good engineer, and that is, when he
stops his engine he will pick up a greasy rag and go over his engine
carefully, wiping every working part, watching or looking carefully at
every point that he touches. If a nut is working loose he finds it, if a
bearing is hot he finds it. If any part of his engine has been cutting, he
finds it. He picked up, a greasy rag instead of a wrench, for the
engineer that understands his business and attends to it never picks up a
wrench unless he has something to do with it. The good engineer took a
greasy rag and while he was using it to clean his engine, he was at the
same time carefully examining every part. His main object was to see
that everything was all right. If he had found a nut loose or any part out
of place, then he would have taken his wrench, for he had use for it.
Now what a contrast there is between this engineer and a poor one, and
unfortunately there are hundreds of poor engineers running portable
and traction engines. You will find a poor engineer very willing to talk.
This is bad habit number one. He cannot talk and have his mind on his
work. Beginners must not forget this. When I tell you how to fire an
engine you will understand how important it is, The poor engineer is
very apt to ask an outsider to stay at his engine while he goes to the
separator to talk. This is bad habit number two. Even if the outsider is a
good engineer, he does not know whether the pump is throwing more
water than is being used or whether it is throwing less. He can only
ascertain this by watching the column of water in the glass, and he
hardly knows whether to throw in fuel or not. He don't want the steam
to go down and he don't know at what pressure the pop valve will blow
off. There may be a box or journal that has been giving the engineer

trouble and the outsider knows nothing about it. There are a dozen
other good reasons why bad habit number two is very bad.
If you will watch the poor engineer when he stops his engine, he will, if
he does anything, pick up a wrench, go around to the wrist pin, strike
the key a little crack, draw a nut or peck away at something else, and
can't see anything for grease and dirt. When he starts up, ten to one the
wrist pin heats and he stops and loosens it up and then it knocks. Now
if he had picked up a rag instead of a wrench, he would not have hit
that key but he would have run his hand over it and if he had found