Domestic Ambush

The problem with building an industrial empire was that eventually everyone began assuming you knew what you were doing.

Ernest had discovered this reality several years earlier. If a blast furnace hearth failed to reach the required tapping temperature, a metallurgist came looking for him. If a bridge design exceeded its structural budget, Arthur came looking for him. If an iron mine in the northern hills failed to meet its extraction targets, a superintendent came looking for him.

And if the Belfast National Railway needed another locomotive, another freight terminal, another passing siding, or another hundred covered wagons, someone always came looking for him.

He had grown thoroughly accustomed to the burden. Engineering and industrial problems possessed inputs, constraints, and mathematical solutions.