In those
early days it was a question with axles generally whether they would
run any specified time or break. There was no analysis of material, no
scientific treatment of it.
How much this German created! He was the first man to introduce the
cold saw that cut cold iron the exact lengths. He invented upsetting
machines to make bridge links, and also built the first "universal"
mill in America. All these were erected at our works. When Captain
Eads could not obtain the couplings for the St. Louis Bridge arches
(the contractors failing to make them) and matters were at a
standstill, Kloman told us that he could make them and why the others
had failed. He succeeded in making them. Up to that date they were the
largest semicircles that had ever been rolled. Our confidence in Mr.
Kloman may be judged from the fact that when he said he could make
them we unhesitatingly contracted to furnish them.
I have already spoken of the intimacy between our family and that of
the Phippses. In the early days my chief companion was the elder
brother, John. Henry was several years my junior, but had not failed
to attract my attention as a bright, clever lad. One day he asked his
brother John to lend him a quarter of a dollar. John saw that he had
important use for it and handed him the shining quarter without
inquiry.
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