Once upon a time, a most interesting story happened in the iron mines of Pittsburgh.
This was many, many years ago. One miner worked all day long in a mine deep underground. He needed to drill a hole to lay the dynamite, because after the explosion the precious ore is easier to mine.
And suddenly he came across something too hard. He struck once, twice, and heard the sound of metal in response. The miner laid dynamite, there was an explosion, and pieces of rock flew in all directions. But when he started clearing, he again came across something solid and again heard the sound of metal. Finally, he scattered the entire pile of ore, and a huge man appeared before him.
Yes, yes, a man, but only made of iron. And so huge that his arms were like the legs of an elephant. Iron Man sat down, stretched, grinned from ear to ear and asked where they rented rooms nearby. Yes, certainly with a good boarding house, that is, with a good breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I don’t know what you would do if the iron block that you just dug out of the ground asked you where to find a room with a good boarding house? I only know what this miner did. Out of surprise, he came up with nothing other than to simply answer:
“They say Mrs. Horky's in Pittsburgh has the best stewed cabbage for lunch.”
“Thank you,” said the iron man, “so I should go there.”
And he quickly walked away. Our miner didn’t even have time to ask him a single question. The Iron Giant jumped into a wide, long train carrying ore to the big, smoky city of Pittsburgh, where the ore was smelted into steel. He had already sensed that he would soon be at his destination when he heard the invigorating, fuzzy smell of the steel mills, and was very worried whether he would be able to find Mrs. Horkey.
But his nose caught something better than the smell of melting steel. It was the smell of stewed cabbage! Leaning over the edge of the trolley, the iron man saw a row of tables set under the trees in the middle of a wide clearing, and smart people, apparently gathered here for a picnic or some other occasion.
The iron giant jumped over the side of the trolley in one fell swoop and went straight to these people to ask them for directions to Mrs. Horky's house or, more precisely, to her stewed cabbage. But no one even looked at him, because the guests' attention was focused on Steve Mestrovich.
Steve Mestrovich stood on a high podium that he himself had erected in the middle of the clearing. Next to him stood his pretty daughter Mary. Beauty - “you couldn’t find a more beautiful one. And all the best steelworkers of the country gathered around - tall, strong, powerful. They all came here to help Mary Mestrovich choose a groom.
What can you do, Steve Mestrovich said that the prettiest girl in the world, that is, his daughter, needs the strongest groom. And to choose it, the surest way is to organize a competition. Steve was talking about this now from his podium, holding his daughter’s hand.
- I prepared three pieces for you! - and he pointed to three heavy metal castings lying side by side on the podium. “The smaller one weighs three hundred and fifty pounds.”
Three hundred and fifty pounds is one and a half hundred kilograms, you know.
“The average one,” Steve continued, “weighs five hundred pounds.” And the last one is as much as the first two combined. So, this is it: whoever hopes to become my daughter’s fiancé, please come here!
The young people began to stir and began to make their way to the podium.
- First condition. Mary will only marry a steelworker. So I ask farmers and miners not to worry, calmly eat stewed cabbage and
then turn to sweets. Condition two. Whoever cannot lift the lightest piece will return to the table and sit next to the children. Whoever can't handle the five hundred pound casting will sit at the table next to the women. A real man, who will raise a big piece above everyone else, let him marry my daughter even today. Of course, if she likes him.
All the young steelworkers from the banks of the deep Manongela River lined up in a chain and took turns lifting a three hundred and fifty pound piece of metal. Everyone did great, except for the two losers from Homestead. Well, they had to retreat and sit at the table next to the children.
Now everyone who could continue the competition took up the five hundred pound casting. They puffed and sweated and strained, but only three managed to lift it. It was Pete Passick, Eli Stanovski, and this guy from Jonestown.
And so Pete took on the hardest piece. No, at first he couldn’t even get it off the ground. But he strained himself and with one jerk lifted the heavy block an inch and a half, that is, about three fingers, and then dropped it.
Then Eli Stanovski took off his shirt, rubbed his palms with dry earth so that they would not slip, and also took hold of the beam. But he never managed to raise it above an inch.
Then the guy from Jonestown stood up. First he gave a very emotional speech about what he intended to do with this piece of metal. But this made no impression on anyone, and Steve Mestrovich even got bored somehow. What can I say, could the steel mills in Johnstown compare with the factories in Pittsburgh? Steve dreamed that his daughter would marry a man who works where more steel is smelted!
Having finished his speech, the guy from Jonestown took up his steel
An inch is a measure of length, 2.5 cm.
new casting. His face was flushed with blood. The veins in my neck were swollen. Sweat poured off him. And the steel beam is not moving.
And then the laughter of the iron man thundered.
He got lost somewhere in the crowd, and at first no one paid attention to him. Well, of course, everyone was busy with the competition. Iron Man was literally cracking up with laughter. Then, grinning, he walked up to the podium, picked up the poor fellow from Jonestown with one hand, and picked up the heavy casting with the other. And he waved them over his head.
The Jonestown guy screamed like a boy who had suddenly been forced to wash his neck.
- Calm down! - the giant growled at him, and his voice boomed louder than a steel foundry when it is at full speed. - You can’t even joke...
And he carefully lowered the young man from Jonestown to the ground. And then - once! — and tied all three castings together in a knot right in front of the cheering crowd.
Steve Mestrovich was in seventh heaven. How proud he was that a worthy groom had been found for his daughter Mary!
-Where did you come from? What's your name? - he asked the giant.
- Yo Magyarok! — the fellow answered, breaking into a smile.
There was a cheerful laugh at this. But the fact is that more and more Hungarians gathered there. They knew well what “yo Magyarok” means - they say, “we are from the good Hungarians,” that’s who we are.
“Yo Magyarok,” repeated the iron giant. “I work like a Magyar and I eat like a Magyar.” Call me Yo Magyarok. Know ours!
Steve Mestrovich was happy and proud, but he wanted the competition to be held according to all the rules. And he decided to check whether Yo Magyarok was really a steelworker, which he asked him directly.
Then Yo Magyarok pulled his shirt off his shoulders and hit himself in the chest with a mighty fist. There was a roar from this blow,
It was like hitting a cast iron cauldron with a heavy hammer. And everyone saw the giant’s steel muscles.
There was no doubt that Yo Magyarok was a true steelmaker.
“Well, you have every right to marry my daughter,” Steve told him. - Of course, if she doesn’t mind. You won the competition according to all the rules!
But Yo Magyarok smiled sheepishly and said:
- No doubt, there is no more beautiful girl in the world than your Mary! If only I had time to get married, I couldn’t find a better bride. But the trouble is, because a married person, like it or not, must at least occasionally sit at home, and I cannot afford this. I can't! I'm supposed to work. Work harder than everyone else! And then, it seems to me, your daughter would rather marry Pete Passik.
And this was the absolute truth. So in the evening there was a rich feast to celebrate the wedding of Mary Mestrovich and Pete Passik. All honor is honor. Straight from the wedding, Yo Magyarok went to the city and found Mrs. Horky's boarding house.
“They say you make the best cabbage stew in Pittsburgh,” he told her. “So, I need five servings of stewed cabbage a day, and you don’t have to worry about bed.”
“Where are you going to sleep then?” - Mrs. Horkey asked curiously.
“I’m not sleeping,” Yo Magyarok explained to her. - I just work and eat. I eat and work.
Mrs. Horkey cooked him five portions of stewed cabbage and then showed him the gates of the steel mill. It was located just opposite her house, just across the road.
The owner assigned Yo Magyarok to furnace No. 7. This furnace, like all the others, melted scrap metal and pig iron into strong steel. With the addition of limestone, of course. As a rule, to put the heavy charge, that is, all this iron mess, into the furnace, workers used special trolleys with folding
sagging body. But Yo Magyarok didn't need them.
He grabbed huge armfuls of iron fragments and pig iron, then handfuls of limestone and loaded the red-hot furnace with them himself. And while the fire was blazing in the furnace with a roar and a roar, he used his bare hands to evenly stir the boiling metal so that the steel was cooked properly. You probably know that a person wearing safety glasses is assigned to each furnace to monitor how the steel is being cooked through a special peephole. But Yo Magyarok did not recognize any glasses, eyes or assistants. When, according to his calculations, the steel was almost ready, he put his hand into it and determined by touch whether this white-hot boiling mass was ready. And then with his finger he knocked out the plug in the side of the stove.
Ordinary steelworkers have to use a heavy crowbar for this, you understand. How else can you knock out a thick plug made of pressed sand and clay?
As soon as the plug flew out, a fiery stream of liquid metal burst out of the furnace. Yo Magyarok grabbed it with his hands, waited until the steel cooled down a little, and then let it pass through his fingers. This is how he prepared excellent railway rails.
In general, the production of railway rails required a lot of time. Typically, liquid steel was first poured into a huge ladle. Then this bucket was picked up by a crane, which walked freely on rails overhead. A crane tipped a ladle of liquid steel into a flask - this is a special casting mold. And when the steel cooled there, it was rolled out with huge rollers, and rails were obtained. So can you imagine how Yo Magyarok sped up the steelmaking process?
One thing was bad: Yo Magyarok worked so quickly that soon it was impossible to approach the plant - there were rails everywhere. Rails on rails, and more rails on rails. Neither pass, nor drive, nor enter, nor exit the plant. When-
The owner of the plant had to give the rest of the workers a day off.
And after that, the rolling mill at the plant broke down. It was used to produce steel cladding for sea vessels. The owner rushed to Yo Magyarok for help.
Yo Magyarok could not refuse him. He himself did not like it when work suddenly stopped, and he hurried to replace the rolling mill. Well, he did it very well.
He threw long metal castings onto the floor and trampled them with his feet until they were flat and smooth. And then he took them in his hands and pulled them out, stretched them out, to make them thinner.
And another time the tool shop stopped. And the owner again called Yo Magyarok for help.
Yo Magyarok took large sheets of iron, chewed them with his steel teeth into pieces of just the right size.
He was a jack of all trades, a steel Yo Magyarok, and could do any job in a steel mill.
But difficult times have come. Many factories and plants stopped. Almost no one needed new metal and new steel anymore. There was not enough work for the workers. And they sent a delegation to Yo Magyarok, who asked him to work more slowly so that there would be work left for others. Of course he agreed. But that didn't help either. Nobody was buying steel anymore, and the plant had to be closed completely.
- Cover the fire! - the owner of the plant ordered the workers.
This meant they had to turn off the furnaces and stop making steel.
The workers turned off the stoves and went home. Everyone except Yo Magyarok. No one ever found out where he went.
However, everything passes, everything changes. Difficult times have also passed. The country again needed steel for rails, and for the plating of ships, and all sorts of other things.
But most of all, steel was needed to make new steel mills. The workers returned to their furnaces and began to fan the fire in them.
The owner had to hire a whole team of workers to heat up the largest furnace No. 7, because Yo Magyarok never showed up.
Soon white-hot steel was pouring into the huge ladles again. And then the workers suddenly heard a familiar
voice:
- Well, was it a success? - it's about steel.
None of them could figure out where this voice was coming from, until they suddenly saw Yo Magyarok. He sat in the ladle, immersed in molten metal up to his chin.
Only now everyone has guessed where he had been all these years. He remained in his factory, the largest
furnace No. 7.
The owner was terribly upset.
- Get out quickly! - he shouted. - You'll melt!
But Yo Magyarok just grinned: they say, know ours!
He was happy that he would be part of the steel that would go into building new steel mills that would give jobs to his steelworking friends. That's just the way he was. Yo Magyarok.
He wanted the best steel to be smelted this time, better than anything that had ever been made before. And so he stayed in the ladle and melted.
And the crane picked up the ladle and splashed the molten metal into the flask. Smart machines formed various parts from metal, which were used to build new factories.
Since then, when it is possible to smelt good steel,
Steelworkers always say: “Yo Magyarok!”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru