Letter, James Gleason to William Gleason
A letter from James Gleason to his father, William Gleason. The letter is dated 1888, but appears to really be from 1889 because Jim asks for clarification about a new machine Kate Gleason had described to him in a letter from January 30, 1889. Jim also tells his father about an engineering student who will be working for the company in the summer and asks if he should stay in Ithaca or come home to work during a break in March.
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Ithaca N.Y. Feb 4 – 88
Dear Father;
I received a letter from Kate this
week, and she was telling me of the new device
you got up for your lathe aprons. She didnt
make it very clear as to how you succeeded in
making it impossible to throw in both feeds at
once, and do it without extra expense. You had a scheme
on the lathes when I was home, which served the
same purpose but must have cost $10 or $12 to put it
on. Do you use two or three tools in the new
shafting lathe or do you have a mill follow the
roughing tool to size the shaft; some of these
points I was not sure of, and so missed an
opportunity of explaining to the professors.
You engaged a sophmore here, Williams, to work
next summer; He is undecided which he will
go into the machine shop, or the foundry. He took
the foundry work here and thinks he can earn
his wages better as a moulder than as a machinist;
He never worked in a machine shop at all.
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News from the shop makes me impatient to be at
work again; but the College year is more than half over
and it will not be long before I am at it again.
We have a two weeks vacation beginning about
March 17th. Do you want me to come home and
go in the shop or stay here.
Your Son
James E. Gleason