"I"m not trying to trip you," exclaimed Roger. "I"ve read all I can find on it, and that"s darned little. You know those arrangements of mirrors in an umbrella-like frame, focussing the sun"s rays on a point at the center, where the steam boiler is located?"
"Yes," said the Dean.
"Well, I don"t believe the fellows that are working along that idea are right. The mechanism is hopelessly complicated, unwieldy and expensive."
Erskine nodded, his gaze on Roger"s dreaming eyes.
"Ever since I was a kid," said the boy, slowly, "in fact ever since the factory went to pieces, I"ve had a pipe dream. It"s sort of nutty, you know, and I suppose you"ll think it"s childish, but--"
"Let"s have it. I accept your apologies," said the Dean, smiling.
And so Roger was launched for the first time on the telling of his dream. He was a little halting and incoherent at times, but his old friend listened attentively. When Roger had finished, he said,
"It"s a good dream, Roger, and sound in its general premises. Have you ever got down to bra.s.s tacks with it and tried to design a solar engine?"
"No, I"ve only a lot of notes and sketches. It always seemed to cost so much that I never had courage to go any farther."
Erskine refilled his pipe. "I have a dream too. Only mine is in pretty good working shape. My dream has been to turn out of this school men who were practical engineers but who also had ideas. Men who were never satisfied with a bridge, a motor, a gas engine after they had finished it, but would be forever trying to improve it. Such men, of course, are rare, but in the fifteen years I"ve been here, I"ve sent out five or six lads who have given American engineering a real lift. I haven"t come across a fellow before though who had any concrete vision of the world"s labor problems in relation to the inventing game."
He fell to brooding and Roger waited patiently. Erskine finally looked up. "It"s a big dream, boy. Too big for you or any other man to put over in a single generation. But we"ll do what we can toward giving it a start. You cut out junior laboratory and get to work on your designs.
When you finally get one that seems workable, we"ll have the shops make a model." He paused, then rose and Roger rose too while the Dean put a hand on his broad young shoulder. "You"ve launched on the finest, most thankless, most compelling, most discouraging, most heart thrilling game in the world, Roger. You"ll probably be poverty stricken all your life, but Lord! Lord! what riches of the mind will be yours!"
Roger flushed and lifted his head in a gesture that was infinitely young.
"I"m used to poverty, sir."
"I know you are and so am I. Good night, Roger!"
"Good night, Dean! Thank you!" and Roger, in spite of his grief, returned to the Wolfs" with his face set triumphantly toward the future.
The next morning he deposited his suitcase in old lady Winkler"s most meager and coldest bedroom and after he had stoked the furnace and shoveled the walks he bolted for the college drafting room.
It was not until the fall of his senior year that Roger completed a design of a solar engine which Dean Erskine was willing to turn over to the University shops, that a model might be made. Roger had taken Ernest into his confidence and that faithful friend undertook to make all drawings for him. Ernest had no originality of mind, but he was an excellent workman and a first cla.s.s mathematician and laboratory man.
Early in January, the model was completed, and on a cold Sat.u.r.day afternoon, the test was made. Roger and Ernest came home to the Wolfs"
for supper deeply discouraged.
"But why wouldn"t it work?" asked Elsa, as the boys wiped the supper dishes for her.
"If I knew that, I wouldn"t be blue, would I?" grunted Roger.
"I wish I understood the stuff you talk," Elsa went on. "I don"t see how on a cold day like this you"d expect to run an engine with heat from the sun."
"We didn"t try to," said Ernest.
"Didn"t try to!" echoed Elsa. Then she banged the tea kettle angrily back on the stove. "I do think you boys are disgusting! Here I"m so interested in your work and you treat me as if I were a baby! And I"d like to know who does more for you two great hulks than I do. You simply disgust--"
"Hold on, Elsa," roared Roger. "For the love of Mike! I"ll confide the inmost secrets of my being to you if you"ll stop jawing. Now listen!
You can see that we can"t get as high temperatures out of the sun"s rays as we can out of burning coal or gasolene?"
Elsa, much mollified, leaned against the sink and fastened her violet eyes on Roger"s face.
"I understand that," she said.
"Wonderful!" murmured Ernest.
Elsa made a face at her brother and Roger went on with a grin. "So I"m trying first of all to develop a practical, efficient engine that will run with the temperatures I"m able to get from Sun Heat."
"And won"t the model work at all? Not a bit?" asked Elsa.
"She just sits and looks at me without moving a muscle," replied Roger.
"Can"t the Dean tell you what"s the matter?" Elsa ventured.
"The Dean!" snorted Ernest. "Isn"t that just like a girl? Why, Roger knows more about low pressure engines in a minute than the Dean"ll know in his whole life. Come on, Rog, if you"ve finished your kindergarten.
Let"s go up to see Florence King and her bunch at the Beta house. It will rest our brains."
"Not for me," replied Roger. "I"ve done enough girling to last me a spell. I"ll stay here and educate Elsa till she goes to choir practice, then I"m going home and bone on that design."
"Sorry for you," sniffed Ernest, and was off.
Roger deposited Elsa at the church door, then returned to Mrs.
Winkler"s. The light burned in his cold little room nearly all night.
But when he went to bed, sketches for the complete redesigning of the engine lay on his table. And it was this changed design which he kept through all the vicissitudes of struggling to market his dream.
During his senior year, Roger, with Ernest and other promising men of the graduating cla.s.s, had several jobs offered him by different manufacturing and engineering concerns. In the earlier days of the University, a young graduate of the School of Engineering had been looked on with contempt by the business men of the state. He was a "book" engineer to them, just as a graduate of the School of Agriculture was a "book" farmer to the farmers of the state.
But, as the years had gone on, it was observed that the minor jobs, obtained with difficulty by the men whom Dean Erskine had trained and recommended, nearly always became jobs of fundamental importance. The observation bore fruit. Little by little "Dean Erskine men" were scattered across the continent until even as early as Roger"s graduating year, it was the custom of engineering concerns and manufacturers to watch the Dean"s laboratories closely and to bespeak the services long before commencement of every promising lad in the cla.s.s.
By the Dean"s advice, however, Roger did not accept any of these positions. He decided to take an instructorship in the University and keep on with his experiments in solar engineering. Both he and Erskine felt that in a couple of years, at most, Roger would have something practical to offer the world. Ernest also took an instructorship, working toward his doctor"s degree. His father was delighted. He was immensely proud of Ernest"s work in college, and a full professorship for Ernest would have meant as much to Papa Wolf as the national presidency for his boy.
The two years flew rapidly. The summer that he was twenty-five, Roger, armed with letters of introduction from the Dean, and a roll of drawings, went to Chicago. He was about to market his dream and he proposed to give the two summer months to the job. After that--well, the possibilities staggered even Roger"s imagination, which was an active one.
Haskell and Company, makers of Gas-Engines! The sign was as inconspicuous as the firm was famous in the middle West. Roger, after two days of waiting, was staring at the faded gilt letters until the moment of his interview with Mr. Haskell arrived. He was a little uncertain about the knees, but very sanguine for all that. Mr. Haskell, a small man with a grizzled beard, sat behind a desk in a room that was small and dingy. The desk seemed to Roger an unnecessarily long way from the door, as he advanced under Mr. Haskell"s eyes.
"Well, Sir, so you"re one of Erskine"s men. Ought to be good. Solar engine, though, doesn"t sound cheerful. What"s the idea?"
Roger unrolled his drawings and began his explanations. Haskell listened with keen interest, asking questions now and again. When Roger, flushed of cheek, had finished, Haskell lighted his cigar, which had gone out.
"Very clever! Very clever! A nice little experiment. What do you want to do with it?"
"I want you to manufacture and sell these solar heat plants," replied Roger boldly.
"I see. But are you sure such a plant is practicable?"
"Absolutely!"
"Where have you had one working?"