English fiction -- 19th century; Labor unions -- Fiction
Little seized it, and delivered himself as follows: “My thoughts,
gentlemen, were general and particular. I was making a reflection how
contented people are to go bungling on, doing a thing the wrong way,
when the right way is obvious: and my particular observation was--that
these long saws are ground in a way which offends the grammar of
mechanics. Here's a piece of steel six feet long, but not so wide as
the grindstone:--what can be plainer than that such a strip ought to be
ground lengthwise? then the whole saw would receive the grindstone in a
few seconds. Instead of that, on they go, year after year, grinding them
obliquely, and with a violent exertion that horrifies a fellow like me,
who goes in for economy of labor, and have done all my life. Look at
that fellow working. What a waste of muscle! Now, if you will come to my
studio, I think I can show you how long saws WILL be ground in the days
of civilization.”
His eye, which had been turned inward during his reverie, dullish and
somewhat fish-like, now sparkled like a hot coal, and he led the way
eagerly.
“Pray humor him, sir,” said Bayne, compassionately.
They followed him up a horrid stair, and entered his studio and a
marvelous place it was: a forge on one side, a carpenter's bench
and turning-lathe on the other and the floor so crowded with models,
castings, and that profusion of new ideas in material form which
housewives call litter, that the artist had been obliged to cut three
little ramified paths, a foot wide, and so meander about the room, as
struggles a wasp over spilt glue.
He gave the doctor the one chair, and wriggled down a path after pencil
and paper: he jumped with them, like a cat with a mouse, on to the
carpenter's bench, and was soon absorbed in drawing.
When he had drawn a bit, he tore up the paper, and said, “Let me think.”
“The request is unusual,” said Dr. Amboyne; “however, if you will let us
smoke, we will let you think.”
No reply from the inventor, whose eye was already turned inward, and
fish-like again.
Dr. Amboyne and Bayne smoked peaceably awhile. But presently the
inventor uttered a kind of shout.
“Eureka,” said the doctor calmly, and emitted a curly cloud.
Little dashed at the paper, and soon produced a drawing. It represented
two grindstones set apparently to grind each other, a large one below, a
small one above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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