The Two Towers: Main

helper. Whenever the young engineers saw Mr. Alden coming into the drafting room, they would drop their pencils in anticipation of the fiery clashes which seemed to be an invariable part of the experimental process.

There were few other projects in which Mr. Alden was not successful, and he had the further fortunate knack of turning his ideas into dollars."If you'll give me a ride into town, I'll stop at the bank and give you a check," he said to Charlie Allen. As the men climbed into Charlie Allen's big open car, Mr. Alden added, "But don't you tell anybody about it for a long time."

"C.M." or "Prof" (there was a choice) kept the secret for a long time. When the station was equipped with its eighty-four-foot boom rotating from the power of a water wheel almost hidden under the highway bridge, the public announcement of this attraction said it had been made available "by a friend."

A friend indeed was George Alden, who again and again made other additions to the laboratory, to its land and waterways. Finally, by a trust set up in memory of Professor Thompson, he guaranteed such a permanent provision for the laboratory that Professor Allen could later report: "As a matter of record, it can be said that the laboratory from the beginning has cost the institute but very little money."

This was due not alone to Mr. Alden's gifts. "Prof" Allen was the best promoter a cause ever had. Because of many a Yankee swap for hydraulic advice, the laboratory soon possessed an amazing array of equipment. "Prof" Allen was also the best economizer any project ever had. He even used the power generated by a model of the turbine in Russia's Dneiperstroi power station to provide power and light for the laboratory. Never known to throw anything away or to waste anything, when it came time to build a new building, he simply built it around the old one. The grounds became an ideal depository for mechanical equipment, with storehouses sprouting up all over the place for his treasure trove of what he called "idle apparatus" but many another person called junk.

Some of this equipment, along with Professor Allen's horse and buggy and car, was stored in the old Hill barn. This barn had been transferred the several miles from the corner of Salisbury and Boynton Streets by another of Professor Allen's adroit deals. The barn had been demolished when six friends of Tech had bought the estate as a gift to the school. "A shame to waste it," said Professor Allen, looking at the barn when it was being torn down. With his usual "dickering," he arranged with a drayman to take it out piece by piece to Chaffins when there was not a full load on regular trips. Eventually, as he knew it would be, the barn was completely reassembled.

When first established, the laboratory had been used for thesis

If you stay with a problem long enough you will get the answer. It may not be the one you expected but the chances are it will be the truth. If you really want to learn anything from an experiment, change only one condition at a time. Never hesitate to try a hunch. If it turns out O.K., the theoretical chap will tell you why. If practice and theory don't agree, investigate the theory.
      --Observations of Charles Allen