p. 253 | IT PAYS TO THINK

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 20, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 16.

IT PAYS TO THINK.

A STRIKING instance of the extent to which labor-saving machinery is carried nowadays, says the Industrial Journal, is shown in the tin-can industry. Everybody knows tin cans are made by machinery. One of the machines used in the process solders the longitudinal seams of the cans at the rate of fifty a minute, the cans rushing along in a continuous stream. Now, of course, a drop or two of solder is left on the can. The drop, on the outside can be cleaned away, but it is not so easy to secure the drop left on the inside. It wouldn't do, of course, to retard the speed of the work; better waste the drop. It is only a trifle, anyhow, and to ninety-nine men in one hundred it would not seem worth a minute's attention. The hundredth man worked for a firm using one of these machines, and he set about devising an ingenious arrangement for wiping the inside of the can, thereby saving that drop of solder, and leaving none to come in contact with the contents of the can. He was encouraged by his employers to patent his invention, did so, and has already received several thousand dollars in royalties for its use. As the machine solders twenty thousand cans a day, the solder saved by his invention amounted to $15 a day. It pays to think as you work.—Scientific American.