CAMDEN- >The Life And Times of Warren Webster

AN APPRECIATION

"An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man"—never were these oft-quoted words of Emerson more truly applicable than to my father. His character and personality are interwoven in every policy and method of Warren Webster and Company.

Beginning his career when the use of steam was practically restricted to motive-power, Warren Webster saw its growth as the great building-heating medium, its adoption as an integral factor of processing in countless fields of manufacture, and, finally, its being wedded to electricity in unbelievable refinements of control and application.

Through all this period he played an important and pioneering part and in his later days could contemplate the installation of 10,000 Webster Feedwater Heaters and nearly 75,000 Webster Systems of Steam Heating in many of the world's finest buildings, and the use of Webster products as standard equipment wherever steam apparatus is used.

His goals were never the establishment of some chemical reaction or the invention of some particular mechanism, but rather a ceaseless day-by-day struggle toward improvement and better application, to master new problems and supply new needs, technical and economical, being created by rapid advances in every field of manufacturing and industry.

The incidents of each interesting hour were stored in his memory. He took pleasure in recounting experiences and there was nothing I liked better than listening to him. His reminiscences had the vividness of pictures thrown on a screen. One could tell by the intensity of his eyes, by the inflections of his voice, by the casual mention of some minute detail, that his imagination had bridged the years and he was actually re-living the incident. His stories were lean and to the point. They seldom contained any preachment or explanation, yet when he recounted some decision or action one instinctively realized the clear thinking and fair principle behind it.

I feel that anyone who reads these pages cannot fail to grasp my father's ideals and objectives. For this reason, the anecdotes are told in his own words, just as he related them, for like most men of action he disliked writing, especially of himself.

No co-operation, service or courtesy shown Warren Webster was ever forgotten by him. If any of my father's old comrades fail to find here any mention of incidents shared together, the fault is mine and I realize the reminiscences presented in this book hardly skim the surface of his experiences. In extenuation, however, let me explain this book is not intended to be an exact chronological biography, nor is it a history of the development of Warren Webster & Company. I can only hope that its perusal will give the reader a true picture of the character and personality of Warren Webster; of his courtesy, kindness, unfailing humor, simplicity and fairness, of his keen judgment and vision, of the fibre and iron in the man, and of the principles which entered into the structure of the institution he founded.

Warren Webster had a tremendous capacity for work—for getting things done. He was quick to recognize talent and ability in others and never hesitated to acknowledge it. He surrounded himself with assistants whose competence and loyalty he knew and trusted. His mind had the rare quality of quickly orienting itself to the problems he placed before it and of concentrating on them, no matter how much effort was involved, until the solution was found. This is evidenced not only by his mechanical developments but also by his almost inspirational steering of the finances of Warren Webster & Company through many critical periods and his handling of his "side interests"—whether it happened to be the affairs of a shipping line or the rehabilitation of Florida orange groves and hotels. Any one field of his labors might well be deemed a busy life's work, yet he never considered himself overburdened or even taxed to capacity and he always seemed to have ample time for everything. Warren Webster's life was one of service and in contemplating its many phases well may we say with Bacon "inventors and authors of new arts, endowments and commodities towards man's life were ever consecrated among the gods themselves."

Since a man's life is so definitely a part of the times in which he lives, I have devoted several chapters in this book to presenting a background of contemporary events. The historical information gives some idea of the problems that my father faced and how he played a leading role in one of the greatest periods of scientific and mechanical development in the experience of man.

WARREN WEBSTER, JR.

UNDER LOWERING CLOUDS

IT IS a generally accepted theory that protracted epochs of great mental strain and emotion, such as occasioned by war or pestilence, exert a definite influence on the characters of children born during the period.

My father was a striking contradiction of this theory. He was quite the reverse of bitter, sectionistic or militaristic. Yet his was an exceptionally fitting test-case, for he was born on June 25, 1863, in Philadelphia, in the then charming old residential section of Tioga at that time almost rural in its setting.

Those were the darkest days in the city's history since Howe's occupation had banished Washington and his army to the bleak heights of Valley Forge more than three-quarters of a century before. For Pennsylvania, from which had come the long-barreled "Kentucky" rifle of pioneer song and story, was true to .its traditions as a fighting State. To the Civil War Pennsylvania sent 366,000 men—one of every eight inhabitants.

Hardly had the cannonading at Fort Sumter died away and President Lincoln issued his first call than there began a crosstraffic— Pennsylvania volunteers going South and a steady stream of wounded pouring North. In 1863, the third year of the war, the score heavily favored the Confederacy. When in the early summer Lee reached the Shenandoah Valley, consternation spread through the Middle States and the impending cloud hung heavy over Philadelphia. Stores and shops closed their doors. Crowds packed Chestnut and Market Streets, congregating before the newspaper offices. There were tales and rumors of dark deeds by the enemy's guerrillas—such as the Lawrence, Kansas, massacre by Quantrelle and his band.

President Lincoln called for 100,000 additional volunteers— 50,000 to be supplied by Pennsylvania. Governor Curtin demanded more volunteers to defend the State. Philadelphia Councils appropriated $500,000 for home defenses. Such citizens as were exempt from active military service were ordered to form a corps for the protection of the town.

My grandfather, Jones Webster, was an advertising man, and for fifty years conducted an office (probably one of the very first in that line of business) at 30 North Fifth Street. He was in close touch with the newspapers and therefore heard every rumor as it reached the city, so that his household must have been exceptionally well informed.

My father was just six days old when on the night of July 1st word reached Philadelphia that the state had been invaded and that a terrific battle was in progress near the Southwestern border. During the 2nd and 3rd the wildest rumors were in circulation; some claimed the Confederates were advancing, others that they had been all but annihilated. On the 5th, Meade's dispatches brought definite announcement of the great victory of Gettysburg over the Army of Virginia, commanded by Lee in person.

Among the endless tales of the battle was one recounting how on the first day General G. K. Warren, observing that by some oversight two strategic points, Round Top and Little Round Top, had been left unoccupied, had called up the Fifth Corps and seized both places, that their possession had proved a vital factor and might well have been responsible for the victory.

General Warren was my grandfather's particular war hero— and when my father was christened he was named "Warren" in his honor.

News of the Union victory at Vicksburg on the 4th was now Confirmed. For the moment the threat of invasion was lifted, but not the horrors of war. General Hancock, with a shattered leg, and five hundred other wounded arrived on the 5th, followed by four thousand more on the 12th, as well as three thousand Confederates, who were conveyed to Fort Delaware. Long lists of dead and missing brought grief to innumerable homes.

Then came the "draft" because the volunteer system could no longer raise troops fast enough. Three hundred thousand men were needed. There was considerable grumbling among the citizens, but nothing approaching the anti-draft riots of New York, where for days the city was in the hands of the mob. Another half-year, and there came a call for two hundred thousand more men. In these two drafts, alone, Philadelphia supplied thirteen thousand men. In the last draft of three hundred thousand men, in December, 1864, Philadelphia's quota was eleven thousand five hundred.

After the second battle of Bull Run, seventeen hundred wounded arrived in Philadelphia, and at least five thousand more after Grant's battles in Virginia. The hospitals could no longer accommodate the wounded and various buildings were pressed into service. Nor were there sufficient trained nurses, but Sisters of Charity under the famous Sister Gonzaga came to the aid of the city. In 1864, also, was held the great Sanitary Fair in Logan Square. This Fair, attended by President Lincoln himself, raised more than $1,000,000 for purchasing hospital supplies for wounded soldiers of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

The days passed—Chickamauga, Chattanooga, the Second Battle of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, New Market, Cold Harbor, Nashville, all swelled the mounting lists of Pennsylvania's dead and wounded. On April 9,1865, came news of Lee's surrender. It was time. The country breathed with relief, but there was little frolicking or mirth—there were too many vacant chairs around the family tables.

Six days of quiet, then on April 15th there flashed over the wires the news that President Lincoln had been shot, followed on the 16th by the announcement of his death. There was some confusion at first, as the telegraph was still in an imperfect state, for Edison, then a lad of sixteen, was working "night wires" in the Middle-West and even then developing his inventions which were to revolutionize telegraphy. But as the news became confirmed beyond the possibility of doubt, the country was stunned as no victory or defeat in five bloody years had had power to stun it. After Appomattox, Grant had said "Let us have peace," and had told the Confederates to "keep their horses for the plowing." But there was no peace in the South and little plowing. A maniac's hand had removed the preserver of the Union, the defender of Liberty, the true friend of the South. It had let loose a passion of hatred and all the woes of the Reconstruction Period, in which it is said more lives were lost than at Gettysburg, Chancellorsville and Antietam.

CHILDHOOD AT WOODBURY, N. J

MY GRANDMOTHER'S maiden name was Sarah Holmes Thorn. She was a farmer's daughter and both she and my grandfather were born in New Jersey. They had six children— Elwood S., A. Spencer, Laura, Warren (my father), Theodore L., and Hannah L. In 1869, when my father was six years old, the family moved across the Delaware to Woodbury, N. J. There they lived for about seven years, my father attending the public schools.

Of his childhood at Woodbury my father had many tales to recount, but the one I like best was about his earning his first money. It illustrates in a practical way the old saying that "the boy is father to the man."

"I earned my first money," he would say, "when I was ten or eleven years old. I had a mighty hard time doing it, too, but it was really my own fault. One day I heard a farmer-friend tell my father that he had a batch of sweet-potato vines which he wanted to plant right away, but that owing to the labor-shortage he could get no help. I asked if it were work that I could do and the farmer said it was. Accordingly, I went with him to his farm to spend the night and the next morning we went out to plant the vines. Not having much idea of the working conditions, I had worn a pair of new shoes, which I prized a good deal. I soon found that the sand and mud were playing havoc with my shoes. I accordingly took them off, placed them carefully under a bush and started working in my bare feet.

"Pretty soon the sun began to warm the sand and, as the day wore on, it became so hot that I couldn't stand in one spot for more than a few seconds. So, there was I—moving around to keep my feet from blistering and determined to plant those vines without damaging my new shoes in doing so. I had a deuce of a time, but I stuck it out—and got 50c, my first money, for the job.

"Soon after that I did a day's work for another farmer, Mr. Soley, for 35c, and he paid me off with a 25c and 10c note."

My father kept these notes and later gave them to my mother and they have become something of a family heirloom.

It was in 1875 and Warren Webster was still living at Woodbury when he encountered his famous "bootblack story" which was to be associated with him all his life much as "Casey at the Bat" became identified with DeWoIfe Hopper. And it came about in this way. His brother Elwood returned from New York with a most unusual business-card. On this card a New York bootblack painted such a glowing picture of the pleasures and advantages of having one's shoes shined, that his business had grown by leaps and bounds until he was then operating chairs for twenty-four persons. My father memorized the advertisement and returned the card to his brother. The only time he ever wrote down its contents was the copy he gave me, but in the years since 1875 he quoted its contents hundreds of times—at meetings, in conversations and, regularly, at the request of the employees, at every Christmas entertainment at the Webster factory. I learned it by heart, myself, when a youngster-—just from hearing my father repeat it. Concerning this story, my father said:

"I have had a lot of fun with the bootblack story. I gave it one night at a meeting at which Senator Simmons, of Buffalo, was present. Senator Simmons wanted me to write it down for him. I told him to get a stenographer so I could dictate to her—as I couldn't stop and lose the thought. He never did get the written story."

At another time, at an advertising assembly in Atlantic City, they called on Warren Webster, and he said:

"I don't know of any particular thing that helps business so much as being able to advertise in such a way that people know exactly what they are going to get. Make clear the advantages of what you are going to sell. There was a bootblack in New York who made a fortune because he knew how to advertise his business. Here is what his business-card said: 'Pedal teguments artistically illuminated and lubricated for the infinitesimal remuneration of five cents per operation. Antiquated teguments, pedal or super-pedal, executed judiciously for nominal compensation. Of the innumerable foretastes of heaven enjoyed by every patron, I would simply state that from the eventuation of the operation even to its ultimate successful completion, the patient reclines upon cushions which a sybarite might envy, in a superlatively luxurious attitude, inhaling the life-giving ozone for which my studio is far renowned and gazing enraptured upon the kaleidoscopic landscape which lies beneath. Irrefutable evidence of the veracity of the foregoing statements will be promptly proven by applying to Professor Bismarck, 143 Boreal Building, New York City. Shine, 5c.' "

This is the first time this story has been given in print since 1875.

1876—THE CENTENNIAL

MODERN America—mechanical America as we know it, with machinery and devices to facilitate practically every action in life, is a matter of evolution. Generally founded on theories, discoveries and inventions of earlier date, the advances in all fields began to show definite form and practicability between the years 1860 and 1876. These advances were not confined to America, but were general all over the world. In fact, there is something very suggestive of telepathy in the number of men, widely separated and entirely out of communication, who worked at the same things at one time.

In the United States the West flamed with conflict between the ever-spreading white settlers and the Indians. There was little law but the six-guns in the towns and the worst and sometimes the best elements of the disbanded Union and Confederate forces, unable to endure the monotonies of normal life after five years of demoralizing war, found there an outlet for their energies. It was the day of Jesse James, John Anderson, the Dalton Boys and other "bad men"—of Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack and the frontier heroes. The South emerged painfully and often bloodily from the Reconstruction. The troubles of paper money, of the great "Black Friday" of '69, of constant political brawls and scandals, terminating in the impeachment of President Johnson, kept the East in turmoil. In Cuba, at our very doors, a bitter insurrection raged year after year. In Europe, Bismarck embarked on his wars against Austria and Denmark, and finally in a titanic struggle with France, established the German Empire.

Throughout Southern and Southeastern Europe insurrection followed insurrection. Conflicts in various parts of the British Empire added to the confusion. Considering the existing wars, political changes, financial depressions, etc., the immense and far-reaching accomplishments of this decade and a half are truly amazing.

In 1863, Edison, still a boy, had made several important improvements in telegraph instruments. In 1864, even while the fields of Virginia ran crimson with blood, the open-hearth process of steel was developed. In the next ten years, steel production doubled itself seven times. Andrew Carnegie built his first steel mill in Pittsburgh in 1876. In 1865, the year of the Appomattox surrender and the assassination of Lincoln, the first short stretch of pipe line was laid in the Allegheny River Valley. By 1875 more than eight million barrels of oil was pouring through this and other pipe lines. In 1869, the first chilled steel plow was invented —and many farmers refused to use it, claiming it "poisoned" the ground. Between 1854 and 1866, Cyrus Field, after heartbreaking failures and disappointments, laid the Atlantic Cable. In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. Secretary of State William H. Seward, who conducted the negotiations, was roundly denounced by the New York Evening Post. James Gordon Bennett, famous editor of the New York Herald, ridiculed the purchase, calling it the beginning of a scheme for the annexation of Canada. The general attitude of the press was one of disapproval. But—from 1880 to 1935, Alaska yielded $400,000,000 in gold!

On May 10, 1869, the laat spike was driven in the last rail completing the Pacific Railroad—and the continent was spanned.

New York and San Francisco became days instead of months apart. Johns Hopkins University was founded in 1876. In 1844, Dr. Horace Wells, dentist, Hartford, Conn., had teeth painlessly extracted while under an anesthetic. Local anesthetics, ether and chloroform came into general use. Bell, Gray, Edison and half-a-dozen others were laboring at the telephone and Brush and his rivals were working on electric lights.

All this development work, naturally, sought a world audience. Philadelphia, which had printed the first daily newspaper in America, published the first magazine, established the first circulating library, founded the first corporate bank and the first medical college, built the first American warships, unfurled the first American flag, been the home of the first National Congress and the first Supreme Court of the United States—Philadelphia now afforded that world audience in the first international exposition held in the country, the Centennial, from May 10th to November 10th, 1876.

There have been wonderful fairs since the Centennial—Chicago, Buffalo, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia (the Sesqui-Centennial), San Francisco, New York, offering far greater and more highly perfected wonders, but no Fair or similar event has had so profound an influence on the nation as did the Centennial.

For the exhibits were new and the minds of those who examined them were fresh, impressionable and not surfeited with mechanical miracles. It was still a world empty of bicycles, automobiles, electric trolley-cars, airplanes, phonographs, radios, telephones.

One took a train, horse-car, bus, carriage—or walked. From start to finish, the Centennial was not only a success but an event. As a foretaste of what was to come, the Franklin Institute gave a brilliant exhibition of mechanical arts in the Fall of 1874. On New Year's Day the Centennial Year was ushered in with a great celebration at Independence Hall, during which Mayor Stokley raised the old colonial flag.

The Federal Government refused financial aid to the Centennial, but made a loan of $1,500,000—every cent of which was repaid. Scores of buildings had been erected by various industries, states and countries, on a scale never before attempted for a Fair. Prominent among them were the Main Building; Machinery Hall, 1402 x 360 feet, cost $792,000; Memorial Hall, 365 x 210 feet, cost $1,500,000; Agricultural Hall, 826 x 540 feet, cost $1,600,000; Horticultural Hall, 383 x 193 feet, cost $251,937. Horticultural and Memorial Halls are still in use. Many of the statues and memorials erected still stand—notably the Catholic Temperance Fountain and the Civil War Monument.

There were 1200 exhibitors and 30,000 exhibits at the Fair. Prior to the opening, exhibits had arrived at the rate of seventy carloads a day. An early arrival was "Stonewall Jackson," a 4500-pound bull from Missouri. From Cadiz, Spain, came 87 cases of exhibits and a full cargo arrived from Sweden. In Egyptian Hall over 6,000 catalogued articles were on display. In addition to other displays, British exhibits that arrived on the S. S. Pennsgrove were estimated to be worth 1,500,000—and claimed to be the richest cargo ever received in America from England. There was erected temporarily on the grounds the Statue of Liberty, by Bartholdi, 152 feet high, gift of the French people to the United States. It was afterwards permanently erected in New York harbor where it stands "enlightening the world." A model of Paris attracted wide attention. Also a gigantic Krupp gun in Machinery Hall, which, by some chance, pointed directly at the French section. It was noted also that the eyes of Commodore Barry, on the Temperance Fountain, were fixed on the immense Union Jack on the British Government Building.

Among the millions visiting the Centennial were the Emperor and Empress of Brazil and a host of European royalty and notables. The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston chartered a steamer to convey them to the Fair. On July 24th the Cincinnati Light Guards, thirty in number, reached the Fair and encamped on the grounds, having marched eight hundred miles.

Richard Wagner composed a grand march for the Centennial, his fee being $5,000.00 gold. One of the "instruments" was a park of artillery. In Machinery Hall, a chime of thirteen bells, representing the original States, was rung at sunrise, noon and sunset every day. A remarkable fireworks display featured Fourth of July at the Fair, in conjunction with a brilliant military pageant.

The Centennial was officially opened by President Grant when, at noon, on Wednesday, May 10, 1876, he started the great Corliss engine in Machinery Hall. Of all the thousands of exhibits, not even excluding Brush's electric arc lights, this immense engine seemed most to fascinate the crowds and, indeed, to symbolize the Centennial. It furnished power for eighteen acres of machinery and was described as "almost noiseless." It was 39 feet in height, and weighed 1,792,000 pounds. It drove eight miles of shafting. The flywheel was 30 feet in diameter. It developed 1500 h.p. and could be forced up to 2500 h.p. It had two walking-beams, weighing 22 tons each, two 40-inch cylinders and a 10-foot stroke. The crankshaft was 19 inches in diameter and 12 feet long; connecting rods were 24 feet long; piston rods, 6¼ inches in diameter. The platform was 55 feet in diameter, of polished plates, on a brick foundation. The inventor, patentee and builder was George H. Corliss, Providence, R. I.

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Warren Webster was just thirteen years old at the time of the Centennial. Early one morning he and a chum, with all their savings in their pockets, set out for the Fair. They went by train to Camden, crossed the Delaware on the ferry and took a horse-car for the Grounds. Knowing his burning curiosity about everything, it may safely be assumed that very little of the Fair escaped him. A detail he mentioned in after years was having his shoes shined by a new electrical shoe-shining machine, automatically operated by inserting a nickel in the slot. He observed so much and absorbed so much that it took many days to assimilate it. The impression produced was both deep and lasting.

In after years he never referred to the Centennial without adding: "That was a wonderful exposition!" Warren Webster probably gazed long and wonderingly at the Corliss engine in Machinery Building, as did so many thousands of others—and at the immense boilers which gave it power. Little did he think that within a few short years steam heating throughout the world would bear the name of "Webster."

* * *

In the year 1876, while the crowds sauntered through the Centennial Grounds and trains and steamships daily brought fresh quotas of visitors from all over the world, many memorable events were transpiring elsewhere.

On March 17th, the Black Hills gold rush began, re-enacting the days of '49. This precipitated the great Indian uprising. On June 25th, General Custer attacked an Indian village of 2000 lodges on the Little Big Horn. He was met by a large force of Sioux under Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, and he and his entire command of three hundred and five officers and men were killed to the last man.

On Friday and Saturday, August llth and 12th, the Madeleine, of the New York Yacht Club, defeated the Countess of Dufferin to retain the Queen's (America) Cup. Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler, running on the Republican ticket, were elected President and Vice-President, respectively, but their election was not confirmed by the "Electoral Commission" until March, 1877.

BACK IN PHILADELPHIA—GROWING UP

IN THE latter part of 1876, the Webster family moved back to Philadelphia, occupying a home at 1709 Columbia Avenue. During the next few years Warren Webster attended the George G. Meade Grammar School, at 18th and Oxford Streets, and Central High School, at Broad and Green Streets.

"When I was about sixteen years old," related my father, "I carried baskets in the market at 20th and Oxford Streets, and averaged $2 an afternoon. I also shoveled snow off pavements. I didn't think anything of it. To me it was merely being able to get hold of some money—and I was willing to work for it. I made money while others were playing because I liked to do it—and that was how that was managed. Once I worked for a week for David W. Garrigues, painting chairs, for which I received $4—$3 of which I turned over to my mother.

"In the summer of 1878, another boy and I agreed to distribute one thousand folding fans in the Girard Market Place for a fee of 50 cents each. On one side of the fan was a Japanese picture; on the other side was the following advertisement: 'Dr. VanDyke's Sulphur Soap—Extracts the Effete Eliminations of the Body and Re-establishes Health-giving and Revitalizing Organisms.' The day the fans were to be given away was very warm. After giving away about fifty fans, I decided I could sell them. I put a price of 5c each on the remainder and sold them all. When we went back to the man who had hired us, I told him we had sold the fans and he need not pay us anything. He was satisfied, but rather surprised that there was such a demand for the fans.

"Around that time," continued my father, "I worked for six weeks for a Philadelphia dentist at ^5.00 a week. I made gas, polished artificial teeth and adjusted the vulcanizer, according to instructions the dentist gave me. It was interesting work—and I liked it."

When Warren Webster was seventeen, in 1880, after his graduation from Central High School, Philadelphia, he received an appointment as a cadet at the U. S. Naval Academy. With twenty-five other cadets from various states he went to Annapolis to take the entrance examination. On the first day of the examinations, he was disqualified on account of poor eyesight. He couldn't distinguish colors sufficiently well to pass.

"For the moment," said he, "I was very much discouraged and didn't know what to do. However, as I had paid my board in advance and couldn't get it back, I decided to stay and look around. I walked down to the dock and saw a sailboat tied up there and the idea of hiring it occurred to me. A colored man who was aboard the boat told me where the owner was. Accordingly I went to the owner and spoke to him about hiring the boat provided I could handle it. He said: 'Well, how do I know that you can handle it?' I said, 'You don't know—I don't know myself. But I'm used to sailing and I would like to try it.'

"I got the colored man to go with me to handle the halyards. I said to the owner: 'I will sail across the bay or far enough to see how she handles.' He let me try it, and when I came back I rounded up right at the dock. 'You're all right, boy,' he said, 'you can hire the yacht if you want her.'

"I made arrangements to hire the sailboat and then, as it was nearly noon, I went up to the boarding-house where the boys were all at lunch. I took my place and told them that I had been disqualified on account of poor eyesight but that I hoped they would all be successful. I then told them that I had hired the yacht and offered to take them sailing that afternoon for 50c each. Twenty or twenty-two went with me that afternoon—and the same number the next day. At the end of the week, after paying the sailboat owner and the colored man, I had a net profit of about $50.

"My brother, Elwood, had lent me $25 to pay my expenses to Annapolis. When I got home I pulled out my wallet and said 'Here is the $25 expense-money you lent me—thanks.' He was surprised to see the wad of notes I took out of my wallet, and said: 'I didn't expect anything back—but where did you get all that money?' I told him about taking the boys sailing. He thought that was a clever idea for a fellow as young as I was.

I told him I believed I could handle a similar cruise on Delaware Bay and that I had more nerve now than on the first venture.

"I got in touch with Captain Peter Crozier, who owned a single-masted sloop, berthed at the Poplar Street Wharf, and arranged to hire it from him for ten days for $15.00. My brother was favorably impressed with the idea and wrote an advertisement for me to run in the Public Ledger. It was worded:

'Independent Yacht Club will make a 10 day cruise down the Delaware. Price, $15. Limited capacity—10. No liquor. References required.'

"I received forty-three replies, and from these applicants picked ten. I was captain, and I hired a cook. All the work was done by the boys in the party. We systematized the work, keeping the decks clean, setting the sails and raising the anchor; we also organized regular watches. Nobody was paid except the cook, who received $8.00.

"The trip worked out beautifully. We cruised down the Delaware to Maurice River and back, fishing and enjoying the beach facilities en route. I believe I made about $85.00 clear.

"That same summer of 1880," Warren Webster continued, "five other boys and I bought an old sloop for $60.00—and started on another cruise down the Delaware. One of the boys began to drink. We let him drink all he wanted and then took him off the sloop to a hotel at Bombay Hook, arranging with the proprietor to keep him overnight and send him back to Philadelphia next morning. We then set sail across the Bay for Sea Breeze.

"When we were about one-third of a mile from Cohansey Light, a squall came up and the rowboat that was being towed behind the sloop filled with water and had to be cut loose. Then the topinlift broke, causing the boom to drop overboard and the sloop to fill with water. As we were carrying about a ton of stone ballast, the sloop soon sank.

"Fortunately, we were seen by the lighthouse-keeper at Cohansey Light and he turned on the light early to guide us in the approaching darkness as we swam through the heavy seas towards shore. Four of us finally reached the marshes where it was shallow enough to stand, but the other boy had to be pulled in and revived. But we still had to reach Cohansey Light, which necessitated our swimming Cohansey Creek and struggling a considerable distance with the water up to our armpits over a bottom so soft that our feet sank deep with each step. It was pitch dark. When at last we got to Cohansey Light, a white-haired old lady welcomed us with hot food, dry clothes and tubs in which to wash both ourselves and our clothing; later she gave us a room with two great beds.

"The next day was fair and clear. The problem now was how to get home? Fortunately, a Captain Schenckle, a retired meat merchant, stopped by to ask for information regarding the sloop he had seen in trouble the night before. When he found that we boys were the crew and that we were, by good luck, safe and sound, he offered to take us back to Philadelphia in his yacht. As a result of this strenuous adventure I lost fifteen pounds."

Captain Schenckle took a great liking to Warren Webster and soon after the Cohansey Light affair invited him to go on a yachting trip down Delaware Bay, promising to instruct him in the finer points of sailing and navigation. Here is the story of the trip as Warren Webster related it:

"The first night we anchored at low tide at the mouth of Murder Kill Creek. When the tide rose five or six feet, the cable was too short and the anchor did not hold, so we were driven out to the ocean. Asleep in the cabin we knew nothing of this until I was awakened by thumps on the deck. Looking out the port, I found the wind had driven us right alongside a barkentine, the crew of which was throwing lumps of coal on our deck to awaken us. I shook the Captain by the leg and awoke him. He went out on deck and began to laugh, saying: 'Well, you just didn't put enough cable out last night so we were blown out here in the ocean.' We sailed in and anchored in Murder Kill Creek.

"The next day we were cruising about two miles off shore, when Captain Schenckle, wearing heavy boots, went out on the end of the boom to reef the sail. In some way, he slipped and fell into the water. Tying the sheet-rope under my arms so that it couldn't slip, I jumped into the water and swam out to the Captain. The rope was slack, but when it became taut we were able to haul ourselves back to the yacht. The Captain's heavy boots made it difficult for him to reach the deck, so I made a rope cradle for him to step in and then it was easy. Strange to say, until this trip Captain Schenckle had always gone out alone and this was his first accident. This happened in 1880 when I was seventeen years old."

"At that time," continued Warren Webster, "I attended a Sunday-school Class in Philadelphia, taught by the late Mr. John Wanamaker. In his talk to the boys, Mr. Wanamaker said: 'You are just starting out in life. You may be looking for easy roads to travel, but you won't find them. You have to work hard to accomplish anything worthwhile. You will encounter troubles, but don't become discouraged. Trouble is like a snowball. When a snowball starts at the top of a hill, it rolls and gathers more snow. But when the snowball of trouble gets down to the bottom of the hill, don't be found under it—be found on top.'

"One day, forty-five years later, I was with Mr. Wanamaker at Pass-a-Grille, Florida. It was just at sunset. Mr. Wanamaker stood watching the sun in silence as it seemed to dip into the Gulf of Mexico. When at last every ray had disappeared, he turned to me and said: 'The sunset is always sacred to me. I make it a rule never to be disturbed by anybody or anything while the sun is setting.'

"I then told Mr. Wanamaker how impressed I had been with his snowball story in the Philadelphia Sunday-school years before.

'It is a beautiful story, Mr. Wanamaker,' I said, 'I have always kept it in mind and passed it along to others.' 'That was a great many years ago,' said Mr. Wanamaker. 'It does me a lot of good to hear you say that. I am glad to know that you thought that advice worth following.' ".

HE GOES TO WORK

ON APRIL 23, 1881, two months before his eighteenth birthday, Warren Webster graduated from Union Business College, now Pierce's Business College, in Philadelphia. His first thought was to get a job. He had always dreamed of the time when he would be in business for himself, but he realized that he must first have some practical business experience and accumulate some capital. Said he:

"N. G. Taylor & Co., 303 Branch Street, Philadelphia, had advertised for a boy. They requested that all applications be made in writing, but I plucked up courage and made my application in person. When Mr. Taylor, a partner in the business, started to look for my letter, I said: 'Mr. Taylor, you won't find any letter there from me. I didn't write one. I am a graduate of Union Business College and I am looking for an opportunity. I have push, pluck and perseverance. I will work a month for nothing if you will give me a chance. I want to learn.' You can have the job,' Mr. Taylor replied, 'but I can't have boys working around here for nothing.'

"I received $4 a week, the regular starting wage. My first duty was copying letters. Those were the days of the wet-clothbook-and-letter-press. The method required having the cloth at a certain dampness in order to obtain a good copy. As I had no experience, I got the cloth too wet and spoiled a few letters. The boy who had been doing this work previously saw this and said, 'Mr. Taylor won't stand for anybody spoiling letters. If I were you I would tear up the letters and forget them.' I said, 'That isn't my idea of doing it.'

"I took the three spoiled letters and went into Mr. Taylor's office. 'Mr. Taylor,' I said, 'I have ruined three letters because I didn't know just how to work that job. If you will let the other boy stay down tonight and show me how to do it, I promise you there will be no more spoiled letters.' That night the other boy stayed and gave me a lesson on how to copy letters, and I paid him half-a-dollar for the trouble."

Soon Warren Webster wanted more work to do. He was made assistant to the man who ran the Sheet Iron Department. He worked hard and soon was transferred to the Babbitt Metals Department.

Here he had to weigh the mixtures. He memorized the day-to-day stock sheet in the Sheet Metal Department and knew exactly how much of each material was on hand at any given time. When he went on vacation, Mr. Taylor realized how much he had come to depend on the boy. So Warren Webster was given charge of the Department, with a fifty percent raise in salary—to $6.00 a week.

"Soon after that," said my father, "I got another raise—this time to $12.00 a week, or just double my salary. It came about in this way: Many of Taylor & Co.'s shipments came from Wales. Up until this time Mr. Taylor had always accepted the vouchers that came with each shipment without checking them. I soon found by weighing them that the sheets were lighter than marked. That was how the economy was effected. It made a difference of about $1500 on one shipment from Wales—and I got my raise.

"My next job," he continued, "was as a salesman for the American Oxide Bronze Company, Philadelphia. They had a secret process for .manufacturing bronze castings. My salary was $15.00 a week plus 5% commission on sales. I managed to sell more than they were producing, but they could have produced more, for they had four crucibles and only worked two. They were so well satisfied with my work that they gave me some stock in the Company. Later I sold the stock for $500.00.

"I was then twenty-one," said Warren Webster, "and was determined to go into a business where I could be completely on my own. I had saved $1000.00 between 1881 and 1884, while working for N. G. Taylor & Co. and the American Oxide Bronze Company. I intended to invest $500.00 and hold $500.00 in reserve.

"I went to see a business acquaintance, Mr. Ott (of George F. Ott & Company) to inquire about a location for a casting shop. He sent me to a Mr. Kohler at his hardware store on Second Street in Philadelphia. Mr. Kohler had a stable back of his store which I rented for $10.00 a month. I now had a business of my own. To help me I hired Benjamin Sinkerson and his young son, both of whom I had known at the American Oxide Bronze Company.

"One day Mr. Kohler, my landlord, made a suggestion. 'I think you ought to reclaim tinfoil,' he said, 'you can collect it from the stores and melt it down to get the tin out of it.'

"This sounded like a fine idea, so I hired two wagons to collect the tinfoil and set the Sinkersons to work melting it down. In a few hours tinfoil began to accumulate. Soon we had such quantities there was no room to work. If we had kept at it very long, we would have blocked traffic on Second Street. After two or three days I abandoned the tinfoil idea and got down to the business of castings."

There was a directness about Warren Webster's business methods that seemed to impress everyone in his favor. Going to Lippincott, the soda fountain manufacturers, he asked for and received a sample of their most difficult casting and permission to show what he could do with it. When he delivered the casting, it was pronounced as good as anything they had had—and thereafter he received a number of orders from this Company.

Said he: "I also made centrifugal hydro-extractor brass rings and the H. P. Uhlinger Co., now Schaum & Uhlinger, gave me a splendid contract. The rings were satisfactory and I had the molder and his boys make them whenever they were slack in the Department. They could mold up one of these rings in a half-day then I would put it in stock and the Uhlinger Company would send for it later. They took all I ever made.

"After a little more than a year in business," said Warren Webster, "I found I had made $673.00, after clearing expenses. This was for the period between June 23, 1884, and November 14, 1885. I was in my twenty-third year.

"About that time I increased my force. I hired a castings man, and a very fine tin-plate worker named Herman Bull, a German.

"Herman Bull thought we should make ventilators. He had an idea for a ventilator and I had him make one. I told him I thought it could be patented, but he wouldn't spend any money on it, so I did. But a patent was refused. We had a smooth flange about it—and there was nothing new to be patented. However, as we had already built a good many, I conceived the idea that if I made them with a corrugated ring, I would go beyond the diameter of the pipe, bring the arc in and over, and the corrugations would be strengthening to that particular plain ring. With this improvement I obtained a patent. That was the start of the Star Ventilator.

"I adopted a big red star as the trademark. I always thought it was, pictorially, a good thing, because once you see a star on a ventilator you won't forget it. My competitor at the time was the Globe Ventilator. Its trademark was smaller and it was hard to see.

"After a time, I was compelled to give up the shop behind Kohler's Hardware Store. The place was too small to do ventilator work and conduct the brass business. So we moved to 12 Fetter's Lane, between Second and Third Streets, above Market, where we occupied the third floor. This place met our needs for a time, but the opportunity presenting itself, we again moved to very much more convenient quarters at 491 North Third Street.

There we continued to manufacture Star Ventilators and brass castings until I went into the heating business."

THE YEARS 1876 TO 1888

THE year 1888 is the key-year in Warren Webster's business career. His handling of his affairs in that year—at the age of twenty-five, establishes beyond question the quality of his foresight and judgment. To really appreciate this, one must go back to 1888 and realize the conditions and facts on which this foresight and judgment had to be based. To do this it is necessary to subtract from our modern world every suggestion of skyscrapers, automobiles, gasoline-motors, airplanes, motion pictures, radios! As a further help, this chapter is devoted to a cross-section listing of the world news, showing some of the things people were thinking, doing and planning in 1888 and the preceding twelve years.

After the Centennial in 1876, the advance of the New Age notably quickened in tempo. It advanced on well defined fronts— meat, wheat, coal, steam, transportation, steel and iron, oil. Each was interdependent on the others—steam on coal, transportation on steam, coal on transportation, steel and iron on coal and transportation; meat, wheat—and the concentration of foodstuffs that came to be known as the "packing industry," on coal and transportation.

Soon steam added two branches as mighty as the main stem—electric power and steam heating. For economic reasons, certain districts became the centers of various developments: the packing and food business centered in Chicago, spreading later to Kansas City, Omaha, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Milwaukee; coal in Pennsylvania and West Virginia; steel and iron around Pittsburgh; oil in Pennsylvania; steam—wherever transportation, power, electricity and heating were required.

To the factories, attracted by urban life, nocked a goodly proportion of the farm population; ships unloaded millions of immigrants yearly from every land to supply man-power. Villages became towns, towns became cities, cities vast metropolitan areas, until shortage of space at the industrial centers begat large buildings and skyscrapers, which in turn created a demand for better heating systems.

These movements were well started by 1888, but they were not yet clearly defined. The America of 1888 was decidedly different from the America of 1876, but it still bore little resemblance to the America of today. The change was just begun. Yet so much had happened since 1876!

In 1876, Bell had exhibited his telephone. Thomas A. Edison and Elisha Gray were both working on a device of this nature. Bell beat Gray in obtaining a patent by a matter of hours and Edison had already filed a caveat. However, it was not until Edison added the transmitter that the instrument became practical.

Behind the telephone were researches dating back to 1837 by Berliner, Blake, Hughes, Dolbear, Page, Borseui and Reis. And, in 1876, following close on the heels of the telephone, Edison dazzled the world with the phonograph.

Early in 1876, it was announced that work on a tunnel between Dover, England, and Calais, France, would be started immediately.

In 1650 Von Guericke built a motor for generating electricity. In 1700, Hawksbee produced light with the same machine. Von Kliest invented the Leyden Jar about 1745 and Franklin experimented with it. Davy discovered the arc light in 1809-1810, and Faraday discovered the principle of the magneto in 1831. In 1841, DeMolyns made the first decisive steps toward the discovery of the incandescent light. Stan and King substituted carbon filaments for platinum in 1845. The experiments of Farmer, Watson and Swan contributed to the work. Brush exhibited his arc lights at the Centennial, and lighted a public square in Cleveland, and Madison and Union Squares, New York. This long pursuit of electric light was brought to a glorious conclusion on October 21, 1879, when Edison presented the world with the first perfected, practical incandescent electric lamp. The first business house lighted was in New York, the first newspaper—the New York Herald; the first theater—in Boston; the first city—New York; the first church—in London; the first exposition—Paris, in 1878.

The original Brooklyn Bridge was opened by President Arthur, on May 24, 1883, and took its place as the latest wonder of the world.

On May 23, 1885, Edison filed patent claims for wireless telegraphy. This was actually operated between moving trains and stations on the Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1886.

Which brings us to the year 1888, in which all the following events occurred:

During this time, the peace of Europe trembled in the balance. Leslie's Illustrated Weekly of February 18, 1888, had this to say: "Nothing is settled but the certainty of a tremendous convulsion that may come tomorrow, or next week, or in six months, but that cannot be averted by anything less than the direct interposition of the Almighty." (Yet this "Convulsion" did not come for twenty-six years—1914.)

On February 6th to 11th, the Walking Match in Madison Square Garden was won by James Albert. Distance covered, 490 miles.

There were 377 fires in New York City alone during January.

In St. Paul, Minn., 475 saloons out of 780 closed by the High License Law.

Texas had a treasury surplus of $1,725,000 and the press was urging the governor to call a special session of the legislature to reduce taxes.

A syndicate of New York, Toledo, Chicago, and Detroit capitalists, representing $25,000,000, organized to build a pipe-line from northwestern Ohio oil fields to Toledo, and to erect refineries, so as to compete with the Standard Oil Company.

Preparations were being hurried by United States manufacturers to participate in the Paris Exposition of 1889. England virtually boycotted the Exposition on the grounds that she did not care to participate in an Exposition celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the fall of the Bastile.

Washington: Speaker Carlisle ordered all Stock Exchange "tickers" removed from the Capitol.

The Boston Bureau of Health announced an increase in the average length of human life throughout the world.

"Jumbo" Magnet, most powerful in world, was constructed at Willett's Point. Long Island Sound, New York, by Major W. R. King, U. S. Engineers. Pull at center was said to be in excess of five tons.

Washington: The House Committee on Territories decided to formulate an omnibus Enabling Act for the admission as States of the four Territories—Dakota, Montana, Washington and New Mexico.

Chicago: A large steel company decided to substitute crude petroleum for coal as a fuel for four large boilers. They also planned to test the use of oil for the heating of ingots and blooms.

A letter written by General Grant in 1880 was published showing he declined the American Presidency of the Panama Canal Company because he believed the subscribers would lose all their investments.

Washington, March, 1888: A convention of women discussed "Women's Work"—among the delegates were Clara Barton, Mrs. Howe and Miss Edna D. Cheney.

St. Paul, Minn.—A plan was being discussed in the Northwest to build a railroad to Pekin, China, and Irkutsk, Asiatic Russia, from St. Paul via Bismarck, N. D., British Columbia and Alaska, crossing Bering Strait (only twenty-six miles wide) on interisland bridge.

Washington: Eight bills for the erection of public buildings in various cities, and appropriating $1,262,000 therefore, passed the House in one day. Twenty-two other bills were reported, proposing to appropriate $2,745,000 more. (America was building!)

Oswego County, N. Y.—Legislature confirms election of Miss Ida L. Griffin as School Commissioner of Oswego County and passed special law that sex should be no bar to office.

Spain: The Spanish Senate approved a bill establishing trial by jury.

Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.—The enrollment of 83 students in electrical engineering was considered an "indication of the rapid growth of the interest in application of electricity to engineering problems."

Washington: A bill was introduced in the House proposing to amnesty all offenses committed against the internal revenue laws by moonshiners, illicit distillers, etc., down to February 22nd, 1888. Strangely enough the bill came from a South Carolina representative.

Washington: The United States Senate passed a bill to incorporate the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua, with a capital of $100,000,000 for the construction, equipment, management and operation of a ship canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific, either entirely through Nicaragua, or partly through Costa Rica.

Augusta, Me.—John M. Chase, after five years of experimenting, claimed to have invented a practical aerial warship which he was demonstrating to a naval committee at Washington. The ship was propelled by wings and driven by a coal or oil-fired engine.

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania inaugurated Veterinary School as department of the University.

March 11th-13th: Blizzard swept through the East and other parts of the country, turning even New York City into an Arctic world, without communication, and, in many places, without food, fuel or shelter. Many lives were lost. (This was the Great Blizzard of 1888, the yardstick of all other recorded blizzards.)

Washington: President Cleveland signed Chinese Bill prohibiting Chinese immigration for twenty years.

Washington, May 22nd: Convention of Lawyers formed National Bar Association.

New York: Monsieur Joseph Dugnoi, one-time gastronomical director of the Cafe Bignon, Paris, and Emperor William I's palace at Berlin, Germany, became "Cook" to Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, at S10,000 a year, contract to run five years.

Minneapolis: Architect L. S. Buffington obtained a large number of patents, both in this country and Europe, on an invention which he claimed would revolutionize the building world. By it, buildings can be constructed of any desired height, starting from a foundation like the base of a bridge pier. A Minneapolis syndicate of capitalists proposed to erect a building 80 x 80 x 300 feet, or 28 stories high.

Kansas: Farmers, stock-raisers and feeders started a movement to inaugurate the Farmers' Trust for Northwestern States and Tributaries of Mississippi Valley, to control shipments and regulate supply and prices of the products of the soil.

A new instrument called the "Autographometer" was invented. It was claimed that it could be carried in any light vehicle and would automatically indicate the difference of level of all places over which it had passed.

Wireless telephonic communication, it was announced, could be carried on between ships by means of sound-producing and receiving apparatus attached to the hull of each ship below the water-line.

Pyrodene was another invention of the year. It was claimed to make wood, textile fabrics, paper and other inflammable material fireproof.

London: The Automatic Alarm Thermometer was invented, which rings a bell when temperature falls below (or goes above) the point at which it has been set.

Professor Elisha Gray, considered by some persons as the real inventor of the telephone, announced two new inventions. The first was the Talentograph by means of which letters and pictures could be transmitted from one person to another to a distance of 500 miles. The transmitting and receiving instruments, it was explained, were both equipped with electrically motivated pencils. Manipulation of the transmitting pencil of one instrument caused the receiving pencil of the other instrument to be similarly operated. The second invention was an automatic switchboard for telephone exchanges by means of which the operator of the exchange could put himself in connection with any other telephone.

Philadelphia: Cruiser Yorktown was launched at Cramp's Shipyard for the "new American Navy."

Baltimore: Five patents were issued to Elias P. Ries for electric heating apparatus, two of them for heating railway cars.

Pretoria, Transvaal Republic, South Africa: Paul Kruger elected President of the Republic.

Rio de Janeiro, May 14, 1888: Brazilian parliament abolished slavery.

New York: The Electric Club demonstrated "new" uses of electricity: the electric light-cluster; setting type by dictation from phonograph; electric combination-lock safe; a storage battery; cooking by electricity; shining shoes electrically; electrically-operated piano.

Washington: The bill to establish a Department of Agriculture, with a Weather Bureau, was passed by the House of Representatives but was expected to be defeated in the Senate. Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, of June 9,1888, said: "Such a machine could do nothing for farming, nothing for labor, nothing for commerce or any material interest, and would be merely a needless expense."

Washington: A careful Treasury estimate placed government revenues for the year (1888) at $380,000,000; expenditures, $313,400,000; excess receipts, $66,600,000;

A syndicate of American capitalists employed engineers to explore thoroughly the provinces of Athabasca, Alberta and British Columbia and then take a look at Alaska, all with the purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of building a railway from some point on the Northern Pacific in Dakota to Fort Wrangel, Alaska.

Cincinnati: The Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley was held from July 4th to October 27th. The electrical display was the principal feature. In the twelve years since the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876, it was explained, the electric light had come into general use and the telephone had become so useful "it could not be dispensed with."

Paraldehyde, a new sleep-producer, was declared to be "quicker than chloral, as safe as the bromides, and not injurious except when used to excess."

Colonel William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) proposed to conduct a party of British noblemen, together with several distinguished Americans, on a pleasure-excursion across the plains. The party to start from Colonel Cody's ranch, go through Nebraska, New Mexico and Arizona, and come out through Lower California.

Edison in this year brought out his "perfected" phonograph.

In 1888 the United States already had about one-half the railway mileage of the world.

Electric welding was introduced.

Mr. John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, was the first United States citizen to have $1,000,000 insurance on his life. The next largest policyholder was Mr. John B. Stetson, hat manufacturer of the same city, who had $750,000.

Artificial silk was discovered and declared to be "practically equal to natural silk."

Portable electric lights, with storage batteries to be hung on one's coat, were used for reading in railway cars.

California: Population—1,500,000—twice that of 1880.

General Philip H. Sheridan, Civil War hero, died at Nonquitt, Mass.

Gettysburg, Pa., August 8th: The bronze statue, by Gerhardt, of General G. K. Warren, in whose honor Warren Webster was named, was unveiled with military exercises. It appropriately stands on Little Round Top, the hill which proved the key-point of the Union lines and which Warren's military genius prompted him to seize and save in the nick of time.

August 21: Great storm swept the Chesapeake. Spectacle of waterspout seen by hundreds.

Paris: Railway through Bulgaria established direct communication between Paris and Constantinople. Time, approximately three-and-one-half days.

One million persons were reported to be studying Volapuk— the "universal" language.

The Government of the Hawaiian Islands was reported to be insolvent and bankruptcy to be imminent.

Tomsk, Siberia, August 3, 1888—The magnificent new Imperial University was opened.

Republican candidates General Benjamin Harrison, for president, and Levi P. Morton, for vice-president, were elected defeating President Cleveland and Alien S. Thurman, the Democratic candidates for president and vice-president, respectively.

Belva Lockwood was nominated for president by the Equal Rights Group. She had previously opposed Blaine and Cleveland in 1884, receiving the electoral votes of Indiana and Oregon, totaling sixteen. She was the second woman candidate for the presidency of the United States, the first being Miss Victoria Woodhull, who ran in 1872.

A freight train of eighteen cars with dry goods to equip a wholesale store at Tacoma, Washington Territory, left Jersey City over the Erie Railroad on December 7th. The train was the largest to start a run of 2500 miles in the history of railway service. It was estimated that it would reach its destination about Christmas Day.

Washington: Postmaster General's report showed that by comparison of cheapness of postage, gross revenues and expenditures, number of post-offices, extent of mail routes, mileage of mail service and volume of mail matter carried, the Postal System of the United States was the leading one of the world.

Paris: New Pasteur Institute Building was dedicated. Cost, $500,000. Among the subscribers were the Czar, the Sultan, the Emperor of Brazil. This was the twentieth laboratory—seven in Russia, five in Italy, one each in Rumania, Austria, Brazil, Cuba and the Argentine. Two more were nearing completion—one in Chicago and one in Malta.

Paris, December 17th: Bankruptcy of Panama Canal Company announced, with a loss to the subscribers of $250,000,000 in cash.

In the United States there were 5,351 individual plants and central electric light stations, producing every night 192,500 arc and 1,925,000 incandescent lights. These were employed as the motive-power of dynamos, steam engines aggregating 459,495 h.p.

There were in operation thirty-four electric railroads, comprising 138 miles of single track. The number of persons employed in making electric motors was placed at 1,500. There were eight publications devoted exclusively to electricity and its dependent industries in the United States.

The Labor Commission estimated that in 1887 there were 853 strikes, involving 1,862 establishments, as against 1,411 strikes, involving 1,881 establishments in 1886.

Washington, October 31st: Lord Sackville-West, British Ambassador, dismissed by President Cleveland for unwarranted interference in American politics on the eve of an election.

Kentucky: Bloody clashes take place between gangs of "White Caps," who took upon themselves the forcible regulation of business, and the mountaineers whom they sought to regulate.

In December the Maryland Police Steamer Governor MacLane had a desperate fight with Chesapeake oyster-pirates. The Governor MacLane rammed and scuttled two pirate schooners after sweeping their decks with grape and cannister, took another schooner as a prize to port, captured the entire crews of the vessels and drove four others ashore. The number of pirates killed is not listed.

Mannheim, Germany: What is described as a "novel carriagemotor" has just been produced by Benz & Company. The motive power is a small engine located under the body of the carriage, driven by gas generated from benzine. The driver sits in front and guides the carriage by a steering-wheel and at the same time regulates the speed of the engine. For a journey of one hour, one liter (about a quart) of benzine is required.

Philadelphia: Warren Webster entered the heating industry and founded Warren Webster & Company.

WARREN WEBSTER ENTERS THE HEATING INDUSTRY

In THAT busy, pushing, turbulent year of 1888, Warren Webster was doing well with his profitable ventilator and brass casting business, but on every hand new enterprises were on the way and he, like all his world, was on the lookout for Opportunity. And Opportunity did come—in the guise of a man whom we shall designate as Mr. Smith to avoid hurting anyone's feelings.

One busy day in May, this man walked into the shop, laid a sheaf of patent papers on Warren Webster's desk, and offered to sell him a half-interest in a new type of feedwater heater.

In 1888, electric lights and gas lights were in fairly general use in the business centers, hotels, etc., of large cities. While their great illuminating power was undeniable, yet for close work and reading most persons preferred a good oil-lamp to the yellowish electric gleam or the nickering gaslight. The telephone had won its place, but it was subject to squeaks and buzzes and was by no means the clear instrument of today. Steam, too, was in use as a heating medium, but its use was confined to the factories, shops, hotels and larger buildings. A steam-heated room was either too hot or quickly became uncomfortably cold when the steam was shut off. Frequently the steam became "trapped" in the pipes and pounded unpleasantly; when the pipes were hot there was usually an unpleasant, steamy odor. Steam was not employed in heating homes, not even large mansions. Many of the swankiest office buildings depended on large open fire-places for heat.

These conditions might well have obscured the outlook, but Warren Webster with his clear vision knew intuitively that he stood on the threshold of something big. Just how big, of course, he could not have realized, for no one could have told on that day in 1888 that within a few years the population of a good-sized town would be housed in one building, standing in the space of two or three city lots, towering up and up into the sky, tier after tier, and that due largely to his work and developments, people would enjoy June weather in that building the year 'round—from the cellar even to the uppermost floor.

After careful consideration, Warren Webster bought a half interest in two Smith Patents—later a full interest was acquired, and started in the Steam Heating Industry.

Although he continued the manufacture of Star Ventilators and brass castings, Warren Webster was thinking more and more in terms of Feedwater Heaters. He soon discovered that Mr. Smith's idea was by no means complete and needed development before it could be marketed. It was only after a great deal of experimental work that he built his first feedwater heater which he called the "Webster Exhaust Steam and Fuel Economizer"— and later the "Webster Vacuum Feedwater Heater and Purifier."

It may be described, briefly, as a tank or container made of wrought or cast iron in which the exhaust or waste steam from engines, pumps and other motive units was brought into intimate contact with fresh water suitable for boiler feed purposes. A very important feature was inducing a flow of exhaust steam from a branch of the main exhaust pipe into a chamber sealed from the atmosphere by means of the vacuum of condensation created when the hot exhaust steam was condensed in mixing with the colder body of water within the chamber. The water could be heated to 210° F. and purified.

Said Warren Webster: "Smith had nothing but a. simple patent —that of 1877. It conveyed an idea/but it was not a practical commercial idea until someone made improvements to it. He claimed that it was a complete feedwater heater, but it was not.

There were other feedwater heaters on the market at the time, but the Webster Feedwater Heater was so superior in efficiency that it paid to substitute it for the old types. It could be sold on the economy basis both to new plants and existing plants.

As to this, Warren Webster said: "My feedwater heaters were all put in on trial. Nobody was obligated to keep a heater if he didn't like it after sixty days. They could send them right back to the factory. But I never had one sent back that I can recall— not one. All the customers kept them and paid for them.

"The first feedwater heater was installed in a paper house in Philadelphia, on Branch Street. It exploded, blew out the side of the building and burnt my arm, but I found out what the trouble was and overcame it in the next one I made.

"Next I placed one in the Esterbrook Pen factory in Camden. They were forcing the boiler and getting water at 110° F. I installed my feedwater heater on trial as usual. If it proved satisfactory, they were to pay for it. If not, it could be disconnected. The place could be run either way—with mine, or the old one. After the Webster Feedwater Heater had been in operation a very short time, the saving was so great that Mr. Wood, the manager, was delighted and wanted to pay for it before thirty days were up."

As soon as he developed the Smith Patent, he began to apply it to steam heating. The heating engineering necessary for the application of Feedwater Heaters led to the development of the Vacuum System of Steam Heating, a principle pioneered by Warren Webster and now universally recognized. This principle served as the basis for the development of the whole group of Webster Systems of Steam Heating. Said my father:

"Everything was going well and I had installed forty Vacuum Steam Heating Systems when we ran into a suit for infringement of the Williames Patent. My lawyer, Mr. Moyer, now discovered that Smith had sold his patent rights to other persons before he came to me; likewise, the opposing counsel found that the records at Washington showed that the patent belonged to other people. To make matters worse, in defending the suit I had already signed a bill of complaint claiming I owned the patent, which (however innocently it had been done on my part) practically amounted to perjury before the law. When this was shown at Washington, I was given thirty days to acquire the patent or stand prosecution. The only way I could see of raising the money to buy the patent rights within thirty days was by selling my patent and business on the Star Ventilator which I owned free and clear. Merchant & Co., now Merchant & Evans, made the Globe Ventilator. The Star was of equal size, but would do more work, and when selling in competition, I could always go in and demonstrate this and get the order. Merchant & Co. became interested in the Star because I was interfering with their business, so they took the agency and found it to be a good thing. I went direct to Mr. Merchant, and said: 'Here is the position I am in—I need $6,000.' Their Mr. Cohen, with whom I dealt, used his influence with Mr. Merchant, and I sold them the patent, trade-mark and stock of the Star Ventilator for $6,000.

"I used $4500 of this to acquire the rights of the Smith Patent. I had the names and addresses of the people who owned these rights—rights which Smith had first sold to them and then resold to me, and I had to go and buy the rights of each of them. I met one of these persons on Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia, and he told me he knew beforehand that I was going to buy his rights because Smith said to him one day that I would have to acquire all rights within a short time. Smith asked what this man wanted for his rights and was told '$1000.' Then he said: 'Ask $1500-- he will pay it.' I did pay it—I paid each of them the same price.

"We put up a long and expensive fight against Williames, but he won the suit. We found that the Smith Patent didn't cover the application of the vacuum system. It was suggestive of it, but it did not cover it.

"Williames had been Smith's agent at one time. He saw the weakness of the patent. The Williames Patent (U. S. Patent No. 256,089, dated April 4, 1882) covered every feature that could make the Smith Patent practical. The Williames Patent was a remarkable patent in its class, because it was a true basic patent upon a new method of steam heating. It was so broad in its scope that it did not cover apparatus. It was infringed by the attachment of any kind of vacuum pump or any other means for creating and maintaining in the return line of a heating system a pressure lower than that of the atmosphere.

"Just before his suit against me, Williames had won a decree in New York State against the Ingersoll Rock Drill Company. He was in position to sue me on every Vacuum Steam Heating System we had installed.

"I saw my entire business about to be swept away. It was the biggest problem that had ever come up in my experience. Then I made up my mind what to do.

"Williames was the Chief Engineer of the old Philadelphia Inquirer Building. I went to him and said: 'You are an engineer, Mr. Williames, and you understand that I have a profitable business in feedwater heaters. I could give away vacuu

	Warren Webster Born: June 25, 1863 Died: December 21, 1938