Another and more common defect in young engineers is a want of thoroughness.  It is generally best to go to the bottom of a question at first and keep at it until it is thoroughly and fully completed.  Confucius says, “If thou hast aught to do, first consider, second act, third let the soul resume her tranquillity.”  Those who begin a great many things and never fully complete them lose a great deal of valuable time, but do very little valuable work.  The way to avoid this difficulty is to be cautious about beginning things, but when once started don’t leave it until you are satisfied to leave it for good.  There is an Arabian saying, “Never undertake all you can do, for he who undertakes all he can do will frequently undertake more than he can do.”

Another common error is extravagance.  On the plea that “the best is always the cheapest,” and to be sure of a large factor of safety, or as the late Mr. Holley called it a “factor of ignorance,” without much trouble to themselves, some engineers use more or better materials than the work requires, and thus greatly increase the cost without any corresponding advantage.  Almost any engineer can do almost anything in the way of engineering if not limited by the cost, but the man who knows just what materials to use and how to use them so that they will answer the purpose as to strength and durability can save his own salary to his employer many times over by simply omitting unnecessary expense.

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HOW MECHANICAL RUBBER GOODS ARE MADE.

While the manufacture of rubber goods is in no sense a secret industry, the majority of buyers and users of such goods have never stepped inside of a rubber mill, and many have very crude ideas as to how the goods are made up.  In ordinary garden hose, for instance, the process is as follows:  The inner tubing is made of a strip of rubber fifty feet in length, which is laid on a long zinc-covered table and its edges drawn together over a hose pole.  The cover, which is of what is called “friction,” that is cloth with rubber forced through its meshes, comes to the hose maker in strips, cut on the bias, which are wound around the outside of the tube and adhere tightly to it.  The hose pole is then put in something like a fifty foot lathe, and while the pole revolves slowly, it is tightly wrapped with strips of cloth, in order that it may not get out of shape while undergoing the process of vulcanizing.  When a number of these hose poles have been covered in this way they are laid in a pan set on trucks and are then run into a long boiler, shut in, and live steam is turned on.  When the goods are cured steam is blown off, the vulcanizer opened and the cloths are removed.  The hose is then slipped off the pole by forcing air from a compressor between the rubber and the hose pole.  This, of course, is what is known as hose that has a seam in it.