"I first saw
it in actual use in mending a cracked cylinder in an automobile.
The cylinder was repaired without being taken out at all. I've
seen it weld new teeth and build up worn teeth on gearing, as good
as new."
He paused to let us see the terrifically heated metal under the
flame.
"You remember when we were talking to the watchman down there at
the station, Walter?" he asked. "I saw this thing in that complete
little shop of theirs. It interested me. See. I turn on the oxygen
now in the second nozzle. The blow-pipe is no longer an instrument
for joining metals together, but for cutting them asunder.
"The steel burns just as you, perhaps, have seen a watch-spring
burn in a jar of oxygen. Steel, hard or soft, tempered, annealed,
chrome, or Harveyized, it all burns just about as fast, and just
about as easily under this torch. And it's cheap, too. This
attack--aside from what it costs to the safe--may amount to a
couple of dollars as far as the blow-pipe is concerned--quite a
difference from the thousands of dollars' loss that would follow
an attempt to blow a safe like this one."
We had nothing to say. We stood in awe-struck amazement as the
torch slowly, inexorably traced a thin line along the edge of the
combination.
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