Yankee Aladdin and His Work in England
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MR. STEWART IN THK CENTER OF HIS CORrs OP YANKEE ASSISTANTS.
HAULING AMERICAN GENERATORS FOR MANCHESTER ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT.
WESTINGHOUSE WORKS AT TRAFFORD PARK.
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(Copyright. 1902. by Frank Q. Carpenter.)
IANCHESTER. Eng., August . 7.
(Special Correspondence of The
Bee.) The modern Aladdin Is an
Vj Si American, and his name is George
Westinghouse. His lamp is an
electric one and when he rubs It his in
dustrial palaces spring up In all parts of
the world. Everyone knows of the great
works at Pittsburg. They have a capital of
$20,000,000, they employ 9,000 men and their
field Is the United States. There are West
inghouse works in France, Germany, and
in Russia, but most wonderful of all, es
pecially in their construction, are the Brit
ish Westlnghouge works at Trafford Park.
Only a few months ago the grass grew
where their foundations now stand, hut they
are already turning out all sorts of elec
trical appliances for every part of the Brit
ish empire.
I despair of giving you an adequate con
ception of these shops. They are the big
gest works of the world that have ever been
erected at one time. The buildings cover
twenty-six acres and the floors thirty-eight.
There are twenty-seven miles of railroad
track in the grounds about them and 3,000'
men have been kept busy for fifteen months
laying the bricks and Joining together the
iron and glass.
Vlaltlna; the Great Shops.
There Is a big wall around the grounds
and in entering the factories my letter of
introduction was carried to the offices by
an English policeman, and.lt was In com
pany with Mr. Loud and Mr. Mitchell, the
manager, and chief superintendent, that I
took a walk around the great structures
The trip was a Sabbath day's Journey. It
seemed to me that we went miles in pass
ing up one building and down another,
going from floor to floor, now standing In
the mighty bays away up under the glass
roof and now walking on the ground amid
the Immense machines used for various
kinds of electrical manufacture. I got some
Idea of the size of tho buildings by these
machines. Looking at them from the roof,
those at the end of the shops seemed no
bigger than wheelbarrows and an Immense
boring machine, the biggest ever erected
In England, having a weight of 260 tons,
looked quite small from the gallery.
We went through the blacksmith' hnn
which is bigger than a half dozen ordinary
factories, and tha nut imn
next entered tha machine shop, which has
an area of about nine acres, being larger
than any other machine shop of the united
kingdom. Electric cranes, which can lift
many tons at once, run along overhead
and the machinery below is of every de
scription. The steel furnaces in another part of the
works are a new thing In England. They
are so made that the whole furnace can be
turned by tha pulling of a lever, so that
ten pounds or ten tons or more of steel can
be run out in a mighty golden stream to
make the enormous caatlngs required.
The buildings, In short, look more like
great exposition structures than common
workshops, and their contents are more In
teresting than any exposition I have yet
visited. The roofs are of iron and glass, so
that the shops are flooded with light, and
this brightness Is added to by the white
paint with which everything connected
with the Interior is covered. Great atten
tion has been paid to the comfort of the
employes, and the workmen will probably
be the envied of their kind In the British
Isles. The buildings have cost, so I am
told, about 15,000,000 and the machinery
within them about $5,000,000 more.
American Town In Heart of England.
When these works are in full operation
they will employ about 6,000 hands, and a
town built on the American plan is growing
up there to house them. A building com
pany entirely Independent of the electric
company has been formed and this com
pany now owns 120 acres of land adjoining
the works. It has laid out a town Just as
we lay out our towns in the west. The
streets are In regular blocks, and they are
marked by numbers. The ordinary British
"lac
isBceKsaats
IN THE MACHINE SHOP BEFORE THE TOOLS WERE INSTALLED
street has no name that indicates its loca
tion, and the people here are surprised at
this settlement of First street, Second
street, Third street and Fourth street and
of numbered avenues. About 3,000 build
ings are to be erected and about 600 are un
der roof. The houses are called cottages,
but they are In reality little two-story
bricks of from four to six rooms built In
blocks. Each house has its bath and Its
electric light, which are quite curiosities
in workmen's dwellings in England. The
houses will be rented at cheap rates to the
Westinghouse men, but there will be no
compulsion, and any man can live where he
pleases.
The town company expects to put up a
large hotel for commercial travelers, and
will also have schools and club buildings
and recreation grounds. I understand that
a number of Americans have stock In the
company and that some have bought land
adjoining the town expecting to grow rich
off the Increased values created by the
Westinghouse works.
Astonlahea the Britishers.
The rapid construction of this factory has
been a miracle to the English. The Job
was offered to the local contractors on
the condition that It should be finished
within twenty months. The Englishmen
replied that no man living could put up
buildings like these In less than Ave years.
The Westinghouse company thereupon
went to America for Its builder. They
chose a smooth-faced, stocky contractor
named Stewart, who had made a reputa
tion for quick work In Pittsburg, Chicago
and New Orleans. They showed him the
plans and told him that they wanted the
buildings completed within fifteen months.
Mr. Stewart replied that he could do It
and he put the plans In his left breast
pocket and started for England. He had
never crossed the ocean before, but this
did not phase him. He took a corps of
Yankee assistants with him to use as su
perintendents and settled down In a little
hotel outside the works. He had only 23
men when he began, but four weeks later
his force numbered 2,500 and by advertis
ing extra wages b got the best of the
English bricklayers and carpenters for
miles around to work on his Job. His men
kept a record of what each hand did and
the prospect of completing the building was
dally estimated by the amount being done.
He soon saw that he must get more work
out of his men or the buildings would not
be completed In time. He was surprised
at the poor results obtained In comparison
with what he had been accustomed to In
the United States and it seemed to him
that the men were not doing halt work.
The masons were laying only 450 bricks a
day and upon his objecting he was told
that 350 bricks were the tale required of
each man by the London county council.
Mr. Stewart told the men that they ought
to lay as many as 2,000 bricks a day and
they laughed at the Idea. By pushing and
by rewards he at last got them up to an
average of 800 bricks a day, but there
stopped. He then Imported some American
masons and set them working beside the
Emgllsh laborers. The Americans easily
laid from 1,800 to 2,200 bricks dally, and
the Englishmen, who were too proud to be
beaten by the "blarsted Yankees," put on
a spurt and did equally well. Stewart In
creased the pay according to the work and
there was no objection from the trades
unions. The bricklayers kept up their hus
tling from that time on to the end and the
result was that he got an average of 2,000
bricks dally out of each of them.
He pushed the carpenters In much the
same way and by the use of automatic ma
chinery quadrupled the product of his steel
and Iron works. To make a long story short
he put up all the buildings In the time he
had contracted for and made a reputation
for himself as a wonder among the con
tractors of England. He Is still in the
country and has been asked to take charge
of the building of the Midland hotel In Man
chester. The hotel was begun before the
laying of the foundation of the Westing
house works, but little or no progress has
been made upon It. The Midland railway
v. ants the work rushed and it has given
the charge of it over to Stewart. Mr.
Stewart says there is no trouble In handling
English labor If you do It after the Amer
ican methods of paying big wages and of
Insisting that It be done your own way.
Ghosts of Fondallsm Shaken.
These Westinghouse works are shaking
the ghosts of feudalism. They stand upon
the old Trafford estate, which has been cut
up to make a building site for them. The
Trafford estate has been In one family for
1.000 years. It consisted of 2,000 acres and
Is known as Trafford Park. Ralph Trafford
held It at the time of the Norman conquest.
dustries was about $300,000,000 and this
has now Increased to almost $800,000,000.
There are, I am told, about 1.500 different
electrical enterprises in the Untted King
dom and these during the year 1900 paid an
average dividend of 7ft per cent. Great
Britain and America together have 21,000
miles of electric car tracks, and of these
only 800 belong to Great Britain. Still this
country has almost as many large towns ss
we have. IU people live In towns and the
most of them In towns large enough to
have electric cars. The towns are situated
close together and in the future the whole
country will be covered with a network of
electric lines as though by a spider's web.
The field of electric lighting Is also great.
Very little of It is found in private houses,
and the municipalities will eventually sup
ply electric lights to their citizens at a
moderate profit Fifteen million dollars'
worth of loans were sanctioned by Parlia
ment for such lights in 1900 and In the two
years preceding the total loans authorized
amounted to more than $60,000,000.
Manipulated by Yankee.
So far the chief establishments for mak
ing electrical supplies here have originated
in or have been backed by the United
States. All the companies are under Brit
ish names, and they use to a large extent
British employes, although more or less
Americans are connected with all of them.
The British Thomson-Houston company Is
closely associated with the General Elec
tric company of New York. It has Just fin
ished building large electrlo works at
Rugby at a cost of more than $1,000,000.
The Dick, Kerr & Co., makes electrical
supplies at Preston, near Liverpool. It has
and a. you stand In the WVUnghouM j?"8" tbe Wa,kr patenU and ba?f
buildings you can plainly see th old an- wdeyr ""ft. ho 7"? f,
cestral hall, which was erected when Queen T , ' the United States.
Elizabeth reigned, looking out of the trees. " n f"1"0 t0 "ese there are
Sir Edumund Trafford was knighted by ?f cmpa, n e ?b cb
Henry VI. it may have been because the ly tX- bUt tbe b"lk f t.he
king thought he had discovered, as he i k If? 11 . ."l
claimed, the philosopher's stone, which i . l rlg,nated
would turn everything It touched Into gold. bJ th,e Amerlc?n- The people here want
However this may be. the Trafford family v""""?' !ven tb? "f1-
ha. been a rich one throughout the genera- .nf S. ttn,?lpB ,U" fT"7 VlP
tion. and It has. I understand, other valu- i''.n t
able estates outside this today. ca and aJ'nmo e of American
make.
How Hooley Made fS.OOO.OOO. Of all the electrical works, however, the
In the last few years, however, the means British Westinghouse company has by far
of Sir Humphrey de Trafford became crip- the greatest. It haa put more money Into
pled by extravagances of various kinds and lta business and Is doing everything on the
he sold his ancestral home, so It Is said, largest scale. IU capital Is $10,000,000 and
to pay debts of honor. At any rate It came already paying 6 per cent dividends
Into the hands of Hooley, the mushroom on lts preferred stock. I get this from a
millionaire, who made a fortune In floating 'tenement made by Mr. George Westing
companies In association with lords and bouse at a meeting of the shareholders
dukes, whom he bought by the score at so ,n London not long ago. In his speech he re
many guineas per head for the use of their ferred to the wonderful prosperity of the
names. Hooley paid about $2,000,000 for Pittsburg works, which had paid 7 per cent
the property live years ago and later on dividends right along on a capital of $20,
sold it to the Trafford Park company for 000,000 and at the same time accumulated
$5,000,000, making a cool $3,000,000 out of eurplus. He said that the British company
the operation. during the past year had made enough to
The Trafford Park company still owns lve tbe Preferre1 tockholders per cent .
the most of the estate and it was from "d ln Jdlt,on "urplus of $90,000. This
them that the Westinghouse company had been done aIthoush all the orders had
bought tbe land for their shops. They ? be "xecxtei " America, and now that
have 130 acres and therefore plenty of room !be wrks ,n. Great Br,taln were ln 0Dera
for expansion. n the Proflt should be much larger. In
Other shops have sprung up on other tbl" "peecb Mr' wnghouse spoke of the
part, of the park, for the place Is espe- f"1.e"gine.' Wb,cb he.1? made ,n tb9
daily fitted for manufacturing. It Is Just Un'tfd Statea and whlcb W,U be aUo turned
on the edge of the sister cities of Manchea- 0Ut be Manche.ler. He believes that
ter and Salford. which have a population of a,1ratber tbn tm be th
800,000. and I. the most thickly settled part ""V T.'. '"f.i'u""
of Industrial England. The park borders !?'ne" Ett t8bur" wblcb wUI furnl8n ,g
upon the Manchester ship canal, so that h'fb " h"e poWclj ,
the factories within It have a water route . 1 t0 1 1 . Tr henS are already
to the sea. The country about It is grid- ,oaded W"b fontrac,- mon
ironed with railways and machines can be ome ' t" gost contracts ever issued
shipred to every part of Great Britain. ?D l' th t'"Ui ' the Mersey
. ' tunnel railway at Liverpool from steam to
Vortn.e. in Electricity. electricity, and others are the powfr
There Is no doubt In my mind but that a houses and equipments of the enormous
great deal of money will be made within railroad system of underground London. Tbe
the next few year. In Great Britain In alt Metropolitan roads, which are headed by
tort, of electrical undertakings. The Mr. Yerkes, will have sixty-nine miles of
country 1. Just on the edge of Its elec- double lines and the District railway, which
trlcal development, but It la growing so rung outside these, will have thirteen miles
rapidly in this respect that tbe factories of double line, the cars of both companies
cannot keep pace with It. In 1897 the ag- running to a certain extent over the tracks
gregate capital employed In electrical In- of tbe other. FRANK O. CARPENTER.
