The Autobiography of John Fritz

              AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN FRITZ I31
Moore of the Bush Hill Iron Works and were a great improvement over the old style. The shoes were planed the whole length of the train and as a result the housings could be placed at any point and at any distance apart.
I have described the plan of fitting up the mUls somewhat fully in reference to the Cambria works. This has been done in order to show the importance of substituting machinists for millwrights; in fact, the machinist of that day who was good with the hammer, chisel, and file was a more important person about the works than he is at this time. Then all the work that was done on a rolling-mill housing was done by the machinist by hand.
It is not possible for a mechanical engineer of to-day, who is well posted in the use of our modern tools, electric traveUng cranes, and all the general faciUties that are in use at this time for doing work promptly and correctly (with money galore), and with electric Ught, so that work can be done by night as correctly as in the day, to realize the condition of affairs at the time the changes and improve¬ ments were made at the Cambria Iron Works over fifty years ago, practically speaking without tools. For all parts of the work that could not be done with chisel, hammer, and fUe, special makeshift tools had to be designed and gotten up to suit the occasion. This required much time, money, and inventive talent of a high order. Energy, determination, and patience of a staying quaUty were the great requisites for doing work under the then existing conditions. We had no crane for handUng or erecting the work, and had to build a kind of portable derrick wliich could be moved from place to place, as it was wanted, by either horses, mules, or men, but generaUy the last. It proved to be a most efficient machine as a makeshift for a crane. It did aU the erecting and changing of roUs. It was so essential and so powerful that the men named it