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Knowledge Is Power: E. G. Bailey and the Invention and Marketing of the Bailey Boiler Meter

1996; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tech.1996.0035

1097-3729

Virginia P. Dawson,

Australian Indigenous Culture and History

Knowledge Is Power: E. G. Bailey and the Invention and Marketing of the Bailey Boiler Meter VIRGINIA P. DAWSON From the time of the Industrial Revolution through World War I, the stoker—back hunched, sinewy shoulders glistening in the eerie glare from the furnace, lungs filling with coal dust—fed indus­ try’s hungry fires. The 18th-century stoker, or fireman, possessed high-order craft knowledge “breathed in by the sooty atmosphere in which he lived rather than consciously learnt, or formulated into words.”1 The fireman depended on his knowledge of the burning characteristics of different coals, of the amount of moisture the fuel contained, and of the idiosyncracies of particular boilers to decide how much and how often to stoke a boiler. A good fireman knew when to adjust the damper and how thick the coal ought to be spread to prevent holes from developing in the fuel bed. Experience had taught him the intervals for stoking to keep a clean, or smoke­ less, fire. Even after the introduction of mechanical stokers late in the 19th century, industry continued to depend on the experience andjudg­ ment ofseasoned firemen. The author ofa 1903 article on mechani­ cal stokers in Power, a magazine read by power plant engineers, stressed that the new technology did not “do away with the necessity of having a well paid, intelligent fireman in the boiler room.” MeDr . Dawson is an independent scholar who writes on the history of technology, science, and business. She wishes to thank the family of E. G. Bailey, especially Vir­ ginia Hoyt Kurtz, who commissioned this study through the Winthrop Group, and provided access to Bailey’s papers, now part of the business history archives at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware. Sam G. Dukelow, longtime employee ofthe Bailey Meter Company, shared documents and ideas and read drafts of this paper with an eye to technical accuracy. Bettye Pruitt of the Winthrop Group, Edward W. Constant II of Carnegie Mellon University, and Bruce Sinclair of the Georgia Institute of Technology also provided valuable critiques. 'John R. Harris, “Skills, Coal and British Industry in the Eighteenth Century,” History 61 (1976): 167-82.© 1996 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/96/3703-0003$01.00 493 494 Virginia P. Dawson chanical stokers often failed when owners placed their power plants “in charge of cheap and incompetent men.”2 Yet during the first decades ofthe 20th century, the fireman began to pass from center stage in U.S. industries, pushed aside by the efforts ofpower plant engineers to improve the technology ofsteam generation and lessen industry’s dependence on skilled labor. The unprecedented demand for electric power during these years shaped a generation of engineers determined to improve the effi­ ciency ofcoal-fired boilers. As Louis C. Hunter and Lynwood Bryant noted in A History ofIndustrialPowerin the United States: “The indiffer­ ence and neglect that had been the traditional lot of the boiler plant gave way under the pressure ofneed and the recognition ofopportu­ nity. The generation of steam became an object of managerial con­ cern and engineering attention that was long overdue, with results that were no less impressive than those accompanying the piston engine’s replacement by the turbine.”3 Engineers directed their at­ tention to the development of high-performance tubular and watertube boilers, and auxiliary equipment such as mechanical stokers and ash handling equipment. They also improved the management of the boiler room, an important yet little recognized achievement of this period. This last required the development of instruments to guide and monitor the fireman’s performance, as well as better coal sampling techniques. The promotion of efficiency and the elimination of waste were pervasive themes in the popular culture of the progressive era and watchwords among engineers of the period. The effort to improve the discipline and efficiency of the boiler room coincided with the introduction of Frederick W. Taylor’s principles of scientific man­ agement in manufacturing. Better factory management promised to keep inflation in check, conserve scarce raw materials, and bring greater harmony to the relations between labor and management. Taylor promoted the gospel of efficiency with a...