The Titanic Plan Read Online Free PDF Page A

comfortably at home. And he had some success as an inventor. His Pneumatic Road Improver, a machine that blew dirt off roads, was awarded first prize at the Chicago World’s Colombian Exposition in 1893. In 1898 Astor patented a solid tire bicycle brake that was sold worldwide. His love for all things mechanical, especially cars, was legendary.
    By 1908, Astor’s youthful passion for inventing was waning. He tinkered in his workshops on various engines for his boats and cars, but that was all. With his marriage in shambles, his mother slipping deeper into senility, and his house still undergoing repairs from the New Year’s Eve disaster, John Astor was feeling like a man whose burdens were beginning to weigh him down.
    On the morning of September 17, 1908, he had a splitting headache on top of everything else. And he had a lunch appointment he dreaded keeping. It was with King Camp Gillette. What does he want to try and sell me this time? Astor thought. That’s all the boorish man does: sell, sell, sell. You’d think, having made millions, he might have garnered a touch of class.
    Class was very important to Astor. It wasn’t to King Gillette. He was a self-made millionaire, a traveling salesman who one morning had a revelation while shaving with his straight razor and came up with the idea for the disposable safety blade. Class had nothing to do with his riches. Charm, enthusiasm and persistence, especially persistence, were the keys to success for Gillette. Like any good salesman, he was fairly oblivious to what people thought of him. He just charged happily forward.
    They were to meet in the Men’s Cafe of the Waldorf-Astoria . Gillette arrived first. He waited at the bar sipping lemonade and marveling at the opulence that surrounded him. Even the beer taps were of inlaid pearl.
    Astor shambled in and greeted Gillette. “Let’s go back to my private dining room,” he said quickly.
    “ Great,” enthused Gillette. “And what a great place you’ve got here, Jack. I’ve seen the pyramids, I’ve seen the Colosseum, and let me tell you, your hotel has got ‘em all beat. You’re a great builder, Jack. This is one of the wonders of the world.”
    The exchange took less than a minute and Astor was already fed up with Gillette’s sunny enthusiasm. He wished he could ditch the salesman right then and there. But he was a cultivated gentleman, even if Gillette was not.
    Astor had two private dining rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria . He took Gillette into the more intimate one. Oysters were already on ice in a giant half shell. A bottle of Veuve Cliquot was chilling in a bucket. Astor gestured for Gillette to have a seat.
    “ It’s good to see you, Jack. I have some very exciting things to talk about with you,” Gillette said.
    “ Oh, God help me,” Astor muttered under his breath. Then aloud: “Champagne?”
    “ No, thank you. I have my lemonade, which is doing me just fine.”
    “ Suit yourself,” Astor said and poured himself a glass of champagne, which he drank quickly then refilled his glass.
    “ Tell me Jack, wouldn’t you like to create something even greater than this hotel?”
    “ I’m always looking for new business ventures, but right now I have a splitting headache. Can we talk about this some other time?”
    “ I’ll be brief, Jack. This is so exciting it’ll make your headache go away.”
    Astor raised a dubious eyebrow and braced himself for the sales pitch he knew was coming. Gillette leaned down, opened his soft leather bag and started whistling. Astor wanted to throttle him; instead, he clutched the stem of the champagne glass and drank. From his bag Gillette pulled out a thin, leather bound book. Astor noticed the gold-embossed title: The Human Drift . Gillette took a fountain pen from his coat pocket, unscrewed the top, snapped the pen twice to get the ink flowing, then began inscribing the title page: “ To John Jacob Astor IV, a man of vision and foresight. The future is ours. Your