" The result proved the correctness of my belief. The surest
foundation of a manufacturing concern is quality. After that, and a
long way after, comes cost.
I gave a great deal of personal attention for some years to the
affairs of the Keystone Bridge Works, and when important contracts
were involved often went myself to meet the parties. On one such
occasion in 1868, I visited Dubuque, Iowa, with our engineer, Walter
Katte. We were competing for the building of the most important
railway bridge that had been built up to that time, a bridge across
the wide Mississippi at Dubuque, to span which was considered a great
undertaking. We found the river frozen and crossed it upon a sleigh
drawn by four horses.
That visit proved how much success turns upon trifles. We found we
were not the lowest bidder. Our chief rival was a bridge-building
concern in Chicago to which the board had decided to award the
contract. I lingered and talked with some of the directors. They were
delightfully ignorant of the merits of cast- and wrought-iron. We had
always made the upper cord of the bridge of the latter, while our
rivals' was made of cast-iron. This furnished my text. I pictured the
result of a steamer striking against the one and against the other. In
the case of the wrought-iron cord it would probably only bend; in the
case of the cast-iron it would certainly break and down would come the
bridge.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174