The Iron Age : Volume XLII : July to September, 1888

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. Google" books https://books.google.com Digitized by Digitized by Digitized by Digitized by Digitized by Digitized by The Iron Thursday, July 5, 1888. -tr .. . . ' Steam and Its Biyals. Prof. Robert H. Thurston, writing in the Forum for May, on the various at¬ tempts which have been made to supplant steam by some other fluid for working engines, says: A few years ago, disappointed in the hope of hieing allowed to make a careful and crucial tnal of the best recent devices of this seductive class for the beneflt of a wealthy friend, who was ready, if so ad¬ vised, to “ take a little stock,” I had a very complete study made of the several cent, better—quite too slight a difference to be considered, and probably much more than compensated by the greater waste by friction to be met with in the larger ma¬ chine. Comparing them between the tem¬ peratures customary in the steam engine as ordinarily operated the results were essentially the same, and when studied as working fluids, with the same back pres¬ sures in all cases, substantially the same results were a^in found. The flnal con¬ clusions were beyond doubt that the limit being taken as the admissable pressure, steam is the most eflScient of all, and dous waste which is apparently unavoid¬ able in our present mctnods of utilization of the grand source of artificial power, the energy of heat motion. Improyed Tail-Rope Engine. Through the courte.sy of Messrs. I. A. Finch & t^o., of Scranton, Pa., we are en¬ abled to present in this issue engravings of their improved tail-rope engine. It is of the Qouble cylinder reversing type, the cylinders measuring 12 inches by 20 Fig. 1 .—Geneinl View. IMPROVED TAIL-ROPE ENGINE, BUILT BY MESSRS. I. A. PINCH & COMPANY, SCRANTON, PA. vapors best adapted for such use, thus securing a correct scientific comparison of the possibilities, if not of the practica¬ bilities, of the several presumptive rivals of steam as a motor. Comparmg alcohol, ether, carbon-disulphide (dipulphide of carbon) and chloroform, the most promis¬ ing of the available fluids, with water and its vapor, steam, it was found that, as the well-known laws of thermo-dynamics in¬ dicate, all were of precisely equal effi¬ ciency if worked in perfect engines within the same range of temperature, with no waste occurring other than that which has already ocen described as unavoidable. If worked, in each case, through the range of pressure familiar to us as employed in the steam engine, it was found that steam required the smallest engine to do a given amount of work. It was also the most economical, with the single exception of chloroform, which was a fraction of 1 per that all the apparent advantages claimed under exceptional conditions for either of the le.s8 familiar vapors may be se¬ cured in the steam engine by that in¬ crease of initial pressure illustrated con¬ tinually in the history of that motor from the days of Watt. “ None of the non- aqueous vapors will ever successfully com¬ pete with steam.” Steam or water power 18 to-day invariably the real source of all displays of electrical energy. There is no reason so far as can be perceived at pres¬ ent for anticipating that it will ever be¬ come the pnme mover in the sense in which that term is applied to steam or to heat motors, or to water power. Never¬ theless, no one can safely assert that some coming inventor may not earn fame and fortune by conferring upon his fellows some new system of converting the ener¬ gies of nature into electrical energy, and in such manner as to evade that tremen- inches, and is built in the most sub¬ stantial manner, with every provision for high speed and severe duty. The links, as shown in Fig. 2, are of the solid pattern, sliding in blocks provided with gun-metal slides, and having screws and jam-nuts for adjusting and taking up lost motion. The cross-head slides, connecting rod and valve- stem boxes are of gun metal, with large wearing surfaces. The piston rods, valve stems, crank pins, crosshead pins and link pins are of steel. The main boxes are Babbitt-lined, bored and fitted thoroughly. The crank-shaft is of hammered iron, and all materials used in the construction of the engines are of the best possible qual¬ ity. The bed-plates are made broad, and are strongly bracketed to receive and sup¬ port the neavy stands on which rest the adjustable pedestals and boxes of the drum- shaft. This shaft is also of hammered iron, the diameter and weight depending Digitized by v^ooQle 2 THE IRON AGE. July 5, 1888. on the length of shaft remiired for the service. On this shaft, midway between the engine, is firmly keyed a spur-wheel 6 feet in diameter. This wheel is driven by a pinion on the engine shaft, the propor¬ tions being one to four. On each side of the spur-wheel is a cast iron drum run¬ ning loose on the shaft, capable of winding 6000 feet of f-inch steel wire rope. These drums are driven by friction clutches known in the coal regions as “ umbrella frictions,” a term of which the significance will become at once apparent by a glance at our engravings. These clutches are operated by screws at the ends of the shafts by means of the miter gears and shafts, which bring the hand-wheels of both drums convenient to the hands of the engineer. Fig. 3 clearly explains this. Each drum is also provided with a substantial brake, that of the left- hand^drum being controlled by the right- Steam Navigation. The semi-centennial of transatlantic steam navigation, dating from the first voyages of the steamships Sirius and Great Western, in 1838, gives a special propriety and pertinency to a retrospective glance in which we ^ther for review the records of steam navigation since the year 1813, as culled from newspapers in the United I States. As best serving this purpose we take a file of NiM Register and find therein a notice of the launch of the steamship Savannah, built by Wm. H. Brown, of New York, at his yard on the East River, and which earned distinction by making the pioneer voyage across the ' Atlantic in 1819. The experimental ef¬ forts of Fulton and Livingston have a I peculiar piquancy when considered from the standpoint of the contemporary ob- Congress refusing to grant a mail contract which would be a fair offset to the heavy subsidy received by his British competitor —w'e may date the decadence of the Amer¬ ican ocean marine. The following extracts from Niles’ Weeliy Register begin with a reference to the successes of Fulton: May 22, 1813.—Eight, and occasion¬ ally nine, steamboats are now used at New York for the transportation of passengers and goods to and from that metropolis. Several others are building. Used as ferry-boats they have almost suspended the necessity ot a bridge over the Hudson by the safety, convenience and regularity of their passage. Three go to Albany, one to Amboy, one to Tappan, one to Hobo¬ ken, one occasi(»nally to Elizabethtown (N. J.), and one is building as a packet to New Haven, Conn., besides those for ferries. Fig, 2.—Side Elevation. IMPROVED TAIL-ROPE ENGINE, BUILT BY MESSRS. I. A. FINCH & COMPANY, SCRANTON, PA. hand lever and viee versa. Thus when the rope is winding in on the right-hand drum the left-hand drum, running loose, is paying out, and is under perfect control by means of the right-hana brake lever. Those brake levers, as shown in Fig. 1, have latches by which they may be set at any point, giving any degree of resistance de- sirea. The lever shown between the brake levers is the reversing lever of the engines, and is substantially the same as the revers¬ ing lever of a locomotive. In Fig. 1 the throttle-valve is shown overhead, but in situations requiring it, as sometimes nside the mines where it is expensive to take down roofs, the throttle-valve and lever may be placed below. These engines and drums are adapted to any situations where tail-rope engines can be used. They are simple and easily man¬ aged, and are not as costly as some of the complicated machines which have been brought out for this purpose. They are built in different sizes, the largest for which patterns are completed having 16 X 24 inch cylinders. They are compact, r^uire little room, and are i>owerful and efficient machines. server. And at this later day, when Buf¬ falo, Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago are each the rendezvous of large fieets of iron steamships, and when the commerce pass¬ ing through the “Soo” Canal compares favorably in point of tonnage with the entire foreign trade of the United States, it is refreshing to read of the wild antics of the savages who fiocked to the banks of Lake Erie when they beheld the approach of the first steamer that wakened the solitudes with its screeches. Thus it happens that within the memory of men now living steam has gained the supremacy on all in¬ land waters of the United States from the lakes to the Gulf, and on the ocean as well. Instead of a forest of masts encir¬ cling New York City, as in bygone years, we have only the occasional visits of mam¬ moth iron-plated steamships as they fiit to and fro between the hemispheres. Unfor¬ tunately, while Americans may glory in the achievements of Fulton, Fitch and Livingston, they have to deplore the disas¬ ters that befel the Collins line just at the critical moment when the American eagle seemed to have won in the contest with the British lion. From that reverse—^in I June 4.—Letter to the editors of the National Intelligei^cery dated Pittsburgh, April 22, 1814: This morning the steam¬ boat Vesuvius, intended as a regular trader between New Orleans and the falls of Ohio, left Pittsburgh. A considerable freshet in the river renders it probable that notwithstanding the great size and draft of the vessel she will pass the falls without difficulty, after which she will meet with no obstruction in the rest of her passage. There is now on the stocks here just ready to be launched a boat adapted to the navif ation of the Ohio above the falls which will be finished in time to meet the Vesuvius on her return from New Orleans at the falls. The boats are built by Mr. Fulton, under the agency of Messrs. Liv¬ ingstone and Lathrope, for companies who have vested very large capitals in the estab¬ lishment. The departure of the Vesuvius is a very important event, not only for this place but for the whole western part of the Union, and its infiuences will be felt over the whole of the United States. In describing it, it is necessary to use the inflated language which, unfortunately for the credit of our trade, too often renders DinitizRd bv July 5, 1888. THE IRON AGE. real facts incredible, or at least lowers any further extent, as the navigation by 67i hours; from Shippingport to Natchez, their importance by the manner in which steam was thought to be much on a foot- 125^ hours; from Natchez to New Orleans, they are puffed into notice. ♦ ♦ ♦ ing as to practicability with the naviga- 33 hours. Total from Pittsburgh to New It does not require the ornament of tion by the reindeer in the Chancellor’s Orleans, 227 hours, metaphor to impress upon the public mind park. April 22, 1815.—A large steamboat was the incalculable advantage of an intercourse The steamboat Vesuvius went from about to be launched in England to run as by water effected in large vessels, which Pittsburgh to Louisville, 767 miles, in 67 a packet between Dover and Calais, and move with certainty and rapidity through hours 25 minutes, equal to 10 J miles per will no doubt do very well, as the one that an extent of internal navigation embracing hour! The city of New York is enjoying plies from New York to New Haven, a space almost as large as the whole conti- immense advantages from these vessels, as through the Sound, answers every expec^ Fig. 3.—Plan. IMPROVED TAIL-ROPE ENGINE, BUILT BY MESSRS. I. A. PINCH & COMPANY, SCRANTON, PA. nent of Europe, and comprising in it the packets and ferry-boats; loaded wagons ; tation, even steering well by the**compa88,, productions of almost every climate. This are hourly seen in that city from Long ' in case of fogs, notwithstanding the qyan- mtercourse, though now only in its in- Island and New Jersey. John L. Sullivan, ! tity of iron on board of her. fancy, must in a few years become of im- of Boston, has obtained a patent for the , Mai/ 20, 1815.—The steamboat' Fulton mense naa^tude. When the late Chan- use of steam-engine power in towing lug- lately proceeded from New York through wllor Livingstone applied for his grant ga^e-boats, being a new and useful appli- the Sound to Connecticut River and up for the exclusive navigation by steam on cation of steam engines, and put in prac-1 that river as far as Middletown She had North River to the Legislature of New tice by him on Merrimac River. | a band of music on board. As the boat York for 80 years, on condition that he July 9, 1814.—Astonishing Passage—I passed Petti Plague the musicians played B^uld actually accomplish it, a very sen- The steamboat Vesuvius made the follow -1 the royal airs of ‘‘God Save the Eing’^^d. the Legislature told me ing passage from Pittsburgh to New Or-1 “Rule Britannia” in compliment to'the: tnat he could easily have had a grant of leans; From Pittsburgh to Shippingport, ' defenders of that place. * o Digitized by v^ooQie 4 THE IRON AGE. July 5 , 1888. July 1, 1815.—By a letter from an offi¬ cer of the steamboat Enterprise we are informed that her last trip from New Or¬ leans to Natchez was made in four days—a distance of 818 miles—a^nst the strong current of the Mississippi, without the aid of sails. Auffust 5, 1819.—Last Saturday evening the steam was first tried on the Dispatch, another steamboat lately built at Bridge- E ort and owned, as well as the Enterprise, y the Monong^ela and Ohio Steamboat Company. We are happy to learn that she is most likely to answer the most sanguine expectations of the ingenious Mr. French, the engineer, on whose plan she is con¬ structed. It is expected, when her works are in complete operation, she will pass through the water at the rate of nine miles an hour. F^yruary 28, 1818.—The steamboats at New York have been successfully used in towing large and heavily laden ships into the harbor. One of them was towed against wind and tide at four miles an hour. April 25, 1818.—Steamboats are multi¬ plying on the Western waters. One is running between St. Louis and New Or¬ leans. My 11, 1818.—A steamboat of 820 tons, called “The United States,” was launched at Baltimore on the 4th inst. She is the largest boat on the Chesapeake —145 feet in length and 27 wide. Augmt 15, 1818.—It is stated that a two-masted steamboat is nearly completed at Philadelphia to ply as a packet between that port and Havana. August 22, 1818.—The New Orleans Chronicle gives us a list of 20 steamboats, carrying near 4000 tons, which trade from that port from the upper and adjacent country. August 29, 1818.—A large steamship called the Savannah, and intended to ply between that port and Liverpool, under command of Captain Moses Rodgers, was launched at New York on the 22d inst. September 19, 1818.—The first steamboat arrived at Kaskaskia on the ult. It was the Franklin, from New Orleans, in 18 days running. Erie, on the Lake Erie, was in like manner first visited by a steam¬ boat on the 21st ult. October 8, 1818.—The Erie steamboat, from Buffalo, arrived on her first trip to Detroit on the 27th Augiut. The Detroit Gazette observes: “ Nothing could exceed the surprise of the sons of the forest on seemg the Walking in the Water moving majestically and rapidly against a strong current, without the assistance of sails or oars. They lined the banks above Malden and expressed their astonishment by re¬ peated shouts ‘ Tai-yon nichee!’ ” October 17, 1818.—Inventor of steam¬ boats, Mr. C^umont, a naval engineer at Paris, has published a large work, entitled “ The History of the Rise and Progress of Steamboats in America, England and France.” In this work he tells us that Dr. Franklin, hrhen in Paris, suggested the idea of steamboats to several of his ac^ quaintances. The Register of October 24, 1818, gives a list of 17 steamers, comprising 8642 tons, trading to New Orleans. e/anwary 80, 1819.—The steamboat Walk ing in the Water is advertised to take a trip from Buffalo to Michilimackinac, to perform the entire trip in 12 days. April 15, 1817.—The new steamboat Chancellor Livingstone, a packet between New York and Albany, is of 500 tons burthen, and cost $110,000. Her average speed is estimated at 8 miles per hour. August 80, 1817.—Oliver Evans an¬ nounces his discovery of the possibility of constructing boilers “that cannot be ex¬ ploded by the elastic power of steam to any dangerous extent,” the editor remark¬ ing that the “ daily increasing importance of steam navigation and the weignty con¬ sequences that are depending upon it ren¬ ders its safety the common concern of all the civilized world.” October 11, 1817.—A Louisville paper states that there are nine steamboats build¬ ing on the waters of the Ohio and the Mississippi, which will complete the num¬ ber of 20 on those waters. Deceiriber 20, 1817.—The steamboat Mas¬ sachusetts has departed from Salem “ on a voyage for North Carolina on Mobile.” The Register^ in its supplements for 1815-16, copies from a report to a commit¬ tee of the British House of Commons by the engineer of a steamboat called the Thames, 72 tons, arrived at London from Glasgow, the object of the trip being to ascertain the most “ expeditious and the safest mode of conveying the mail to Dublin,” as follows: “This voyage de¬ monstrated that steam engines are applied to propel vessels at sea in all kin^ of weather; that they have the peculiar ad¬ vantage of going against winds and tides and in a calm, when another ve8.sel could not at all proceed; would go at the rate of from seven to nine knots per hour; they are more secure than vessels with sails, as they cannot be lost on a lea-shore.” The Register^ same date, copies from the New York Columbian as follows: “ Won¬ derful traveling. The steamboat Fulton, Captain Dunker, sailed from this place on Sunday morning, after 9 o’clock; arrived in Albany in 20 hours; remained there 7 hours; left there on Monday, after 12 o’clock, and got back here in 19 hours, before 7 o’clock yesterday morning, thus having performed a passage from New York to Albany, a distance of 160 miles, and back again, besides stopping at the different landings, going and coming, in 46 hours—an occurrence, we presume, never equaled in this country. The whole distance was at least 820 miles, and was run without a sail up, or any advantage whatever from the wind, in 29 hours, making a general average of 81 miles in an hour. (The engine was stopped over 20 times on passages, 8 of which, each way, were at regular landing places, and the weight on the safety-vmve averaged less than 8 pounds during the whole time, when 8 pounds would have driven the boat 9 miles an hour.) Then or even seven years ago nothing short of super¬ natural agency was supposed capable of effecting what we now see accomplished by the genius of Mr. Fulton. Since the invention of ^balloons no human contrivance has nven to motion and conveyance such speed and certainty, with equal safety and comfort as the establishment of steam¬ boats, by which a person is now carried 160 miles in one day, and brought home the next, and performs his journey in about the same time it formerly required to go to Amboy, Sandy Hook, or any dis¬ tance of 20 nules and back again. So astonishing and beneficial is this truly ad¬ mirable American invention. A Fast War Ship. —One of the fastest war ships of the world is undoubtedly the torpedo aviso Greif, of the German Navy, which on her recent voyage from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven attained* a speed of 23 knots an hour. The Greif was launched in 1886, and was built, of steel, at the Germania Yard at Kiel, from designs by the German Admiralty. Her displace¬ ment is 2000 tons, and her engines have an indicated horse-power of 5400. From these figures and her exceedingly fine lines, wmch give to the vessel the ap¬ pearance of a torpedo-boat of immense size, it will be seen that speed was the chief object aimed at in her construction. The Greif, consequently, may be looked upon as one of the fastest, if not the fastest, vessel of any maritime power, if we except the Ouragan, of the French navy, and some foreign torpedo-boats built in English yards, and which beat her record. The entire space of the Greif —of which vessel the Germans may well be proud—with the exception of the space provided for crew and stores, is taken up by boilers, engines and coal bunkers. The vessel is of the class called torpedo-boat hunters, and to aid her in that service she is provided with two powerful electric search lights, two light guns of great range, and a large number of those bugbears of torpedo boats, revolver guns. The Greif has three smoke-stacks, and carries no sails, there being only two short lookout masts. Another Submarine Tnnnel Pro¬ posed. —The question of a timnel between Sealand and Sweden, under the Sound, had not been heard of for some time till the other day the Royal Swedish CTom- missioners, who were examining M. Delancle’s application for a concession, sent in their report to the ‘Swedish Government. This exhaustive document winds up with the conclusion that a sub¬ marine railway between Sealand and Sconia would no doubt insure several ad¬ vantages to the international traffic, but that, as the building of it would require a very considerable capital, and the paying of the interest on the cost for a long series of years would necessitate heavy sub¬ ventions from both the Danish and the Swedish Governments, in addition to the profits of the traffic, which would be in¬ adequate for this purpose, the proposal for this new way of communication be abandoned for the present; that should ever, under altered circumstances, the want or the desirability of a submarine railway come into prominence, it ought to be built on account of the State. Shipbuilding on the Delaware.— The shipbuilding yards oh the Delaware are crowded with work. At John Roach’s yard at Chester is the mammoth sound boat Puritan, which will cost $1,500,000, two gunboats for the Unitea States Government, two steamships for the Ocean Steamship Company, of Savannah, and a steam yacht. Cramp’s yard is full. The latest contract cIosm is one with Cramp & Sons by Boulton, Bliss & Dallett, New York coffee importers, for ^ an iron passen^r steamship for the Red D Steam¬ ship Line, to run between New York and Venezuelian ports. The new craft will be 264 feet long, 85 feet beam and 204 feet depth of hold, with triple expansion engines and steam steering gear. The vessel will cost about $200,000. Govern¬ ment work on the new cruisers recently contracted for by the Cramps will amount to over $6,000,000. Several yards have been compelled to double their wor'jgug capacity, owing to the large contracts recently entered into. Cramp & Sons have the cruisers Newark, at $1,248,000; the Baltimore, at $1,325,000; the Phila¬ delphia, at $1,350,000; the gunboat York- town, at ^55,000, and the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius, at $250,000. In the merchant line they have a Clyde steamship for the New York and Jacksonville trade, to cost $225,000; a Morgan liner in place of the lost steamship Eureka, to cost $250,000, and a steamship for the South American passenger and coffee trade, to cost over $225,000. In addition the firm have a lot of miscellaneous work in the building of engines and boilers for hulls built elsewhere. President Elijah Smith, of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, is having built at Neafie & Levy’s works a large iron steamship for the Pacific Coast trade to cost over $175,- 000. A number of iron tugs and steam yachts are being constructed at the same yard. Digitized by Google Jaly 5, 1888. THE IRON AGE. 5 The Dutj on Wire Bods.’*' I am the bearer of a petition which 1 have the honor to present herewith, relat¬ ing to the question of a reduction or any change in the existing duties on wire rods. The petitioners received only very brief notice that a hearing would be granted to parties interested in this industry, other¬ wise the petition would have been more complete and would have borne a greater number of names. I not only represent the manufacturers and citizens of Joliet, who signed the pe¬ tition, but I also represent the Joliet Steel Company, manufacturers of Bessemer steel, who are now building a wire-rod mill capable of producing 25,000 to 80,000 tons per annum, all of which will be for sale upon the general market, as the company are not manufacturers of finished wire. Permit me briefly to review the position of this industry: The United States consumes about 350,- OOO tons of wire rods per year, requiring about 420,000 tons of pig iron or 675,000 tons of iron ore to proauce them. Under the existmg tariff laws, permit¬ ting the anomaly oi a more expensive, smaller-sized wire rod—namely. No. 6—to be imported at a lower rate of duty than the larger size. No. 5, the industry of manufacturing wire ro^ in the United States has been retarded, and about one- third of the amount required by this coun¬ try is annually imported. This would not be the case if the duty was adjusted equitably to the cost of manufacture, and, in that event, the people of the United States would be benefited by the raising of the additional iron ore, coal, limestone, &c., required to make the pig iron and by the conversion of the pig iron into the steel necessary to manufacture the home rods to supplant the imported. Reducing the matter to a merely local issue, can it be deni^ that the town of Joliet, and the suiToimding country which supplies it with the necessaries of life, would be better off if we had more diversified steel industries, instead of being limited, as we are at present, almost exclusively to the manufacture of steel rails ? It is well known that railroad building in the United States fluctuates very widely, hence in some years our mills lie partly idle and our men must submit to enforced idleness if we make nothing but rails. Such has been the case this year, when, in spite of reductions in the cost of raw ma¬ terial and labor, we have been unable to compete with the existing low price of foreign rails imported into Califorma under the present tarm. Twenty thousand tons of foreign rails have already entered Cali¬ fornia this year, thereby taking the place of the product of a large American mill for one month, throwing out of employ¬ ment for that period not less than 2000 men directly employed in the steel indus¬ try, exclusive of all those indirectly en¬ gaged in mining iron ore, coal, &c. It has been our purpose for some years past to add other branches to our busine^, and only the uncertainty of tariff legis¬ lation and the low price of imported rods debarred us from undertaking the man¬ ufacture of wire rods at an earher date. What is the so-called “ raw material ” of the rod manufacturer—billets or small blooms? Can he procure them in this country at a price to enable him to com¬ pete with foreign manufacturers of steel wire rods? Emphatically, no I for the reason that it is impossible for a manufact¬ urer at the present stage of development and at the present rates for labor in this coun¬ try to transport the varied materials re¬ quired in the manufacture of steel to any ♦Argument by W. R. StirlinK, presented before the Finance Committee of the Senate, June 18, 188a mven point and there produce a bloom or billet as cheaply as they can be produced abroad. The wire-rod manufacturer, there¬ fore, pays for his raw material a much higher price than his foreign rival, and the necessary waste incurred in the manu¬ facture of the finished product costs the wire-rod manufacturer the high price of the initial process (namely, billets), and, in addition, he has to paj very much higher wages in the rod mill than those paid by me German or English manu¬ facturer. It may be said that American ingenuity and the greater productive capacity of the American workmen counteract the draw¬ backs that 1 have named, but I can assure you that it is only the developments of American mechanical ingenuity in the processes of our rod mills and the cheap¬ ening of the costs of manufacturing steel in recent years that have made it possible to successfully embark in the manufacture of rods under the present rates of duty; at no lower rate of duty would the busi¬ ness be possible. It has been claimed by wire manufact¬ urers who have no rod mill of their own that they are at a disadvantage in compari¬ son with wire manufacturers who make their own rods. It might with equal propriety be claimed that the rod manu¬ facturers who do not convert and roll their own steel are unable fairly to compete with those who do. This argument might even be carried back to the ownership of a blast furnace and an iron-ore mine. Is that, however, a suflScient plea for handing over the market of the United States to the foreigner? Would the wire manufact¬ urers have any good reason to expect that if our rod mills be closed or no further extensions be made, that the German man¬ ufacturer, having the market of the United States at his command, would reduce his price, or even continue to sell at the exist¬ ing rates ? If history is of any value, such an expectation is undoubtedly a snare. What is it save home competition that has reduced the selling price of iron and steel rails, sheet steel, nails and merchant steel of all kinds below prices ever touched before in this country ? It has also been claimed by interested parties—namely, importers or agents of foreign firms, that basic steel rods No. 6 are necessary to the well-being of Ameri¬ can wire manufacturers and cannot be pro¬ duced in this country. It would seem to be sufiicient reply to this argument that upward of 200,000 tons of Bessemer steel wire rods have been successfully produced and made into wire in the year 1887 in the United States without any complaint aris¬ ing as to the quality of the article manu- f ictured. It is not necessary for me to trouble you with tables of comparative wages paid here and abroad, because I believe it to be an already admitted fact that the compensa¬ tion for labor in this country is from two to five times greater than in Europe, thanks to the beneficent results of protection which has fostered our magnincent and varied system of industries. I respectfully urge, therefore, that you maintain a protective tariff sufiicient to compensate the manufacturer for the dis¬ advantages under which he presently labors, enabling him to continue paying the present favorable rates of wages, and also to permit the transportation companies to pay the men employed by them nand- somely as they do now in comparison with the wages earned by their fellow workers abroad in transporting the mineral and manufactured products of foreign coun¬ tries. One of the attractions of the Brussels exhibition is a circular undulating rail¬ way, after the well-known type of the switchback railway. Cost of Electric Street Cars. The Fourth Avenue Street Car Com¬ pany, notwithstanding the adverse vote by the Common Council, have decided to run their cars from Fourteenth street up to Harlem by their new device, the electric motor. Before deciding upon the change, however, the directors appointed experts to make calculations as to the ratio of cost, gain and loss in the three methods of pro¬ pelling street cars. The following is the result: Electric. Horse. Cable. Cost of cars. Motive power. Construction of roadway.. Depreciation and repairs.. Operating expenses (includ¬ ing wages). Totals. Average. 1 0.54 0.81 1 1.46 1.06 1 0.58 2.09 1 1.47 2.04 1 8.88 1.71 5 7.87 7.74 1 1.47 1.55 There are now 60 electric street railways in the United States. The question is no longer concerning the success of the electric motor, but what kind of motor should be used—whether it shall be by continuous current or the storage batteries. The Fourth Avenue Company have selected the storage batteries and separate motors. A depot will be erected midway on the line of railway where the batteries can be re¬ charged when necessary. It is expected that one set of batteries, eight on either side of the car, will run for two consecu¬ tive trips. Since the action of the aider- men, it is stated that the board, feeling the weight of public sentiment too strong against them, are disp<Med to reconsider their action. Prices of Bare Alloys.—P. W. L. Biermann, of Hanover, Germany, who makes a specialty of the manufacture of metal alloys, has sent us the following quotations: F.o.b. Hamburg and Bremen, net cash: Aluminium metm, in lots of 100 kg., 49 marks per kg.; aluminium brass, 800 marks per 100 kg.; 2^ per cent, aluminium bronze, 800 mam; 5 per cent, aluminium bronze, 400 marks; 7^ per cent, aluminium bronze, 560 marks, and 10 per cent, aluminium bronze, 670 marks per 100 kg. He quotes 5 per cent, ferro-alu- minium, 550 marks, and 10 per cent ferro- aluminium, 650 marks; 1^ silicon bronze, 800 marks, and silicon bronze for con¬ ductor wire, 260 marks; 8 per cent, sili¬ con copper, 550 marks, and silicon copper, running from 8 to 4 per cent., 650 marks, manganese copper, 80 per cent., is quoted 475 marks, wmle 4 per cent, manganese bronze, rolled, is offered at 250 marlu, and 15 per cent, pure manganese bronze is quoted 290 marks. Metallic cadmium sells at 620 marks; phosphor-copper of 10 per cent, is quoted 320 marks, and for 15 cent, material 450 marks, while phosphor-bronze sells at 190 marks. Nickel bronze. No. 200, is quoted 180 marks per 100 kg.; Wolfram metal, 94 to 98 pure, 400 marks; chromium, 1200 marks, and Rose's metal, melting at 195® celcius, 1500 marks, and Wood’s metal, melting at 173° celcius, 1600 marks. A number of different alloys for brasses and Babbitt metal are also quoted, which are, however, of less inter¬ est than those named. Among the labor organizations of the country is the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers and Iron Ship Builders’ and Helpers’ Protective and Benevolent Union of the United States and Canada. The annual session of this body was held in Chicago recently. The following oflScers were elected: Thomas J. Curran, New York, president; Vaughn Mor^^, San Francisco, vice-president; Charles Keiffer, Reading, Pa., treasurer, Philip Starkey, Chicago, secretary. The union adjourn^ to meet in New York in June, 1889. Digitized by v^ooQle 6 THE IRON AGE. July 5, 1888. KOTARY SHAFT STRAIGHTENING ANP POLISHING MACHINE, BUILT BY THE AKRON IRON COMPANY, AKRON, OHIO. July 5, 1888. THE IRON AGE. 7 Hotary Shaft Straighteningr and Polishing Machine. We present on this and the opposite pages elevation, plan and cross sections of a rotary shaft straightening and polishing machine, designed for 4-inch shafting, and recently built by the Akron Iron Company, of Akron, Ohio, for use in their works. They now employ three machines of this kind, the smallest in use straightening and polishing on an average per day 3000 feet of shafting of from i inch to 1 inch in diameter. The part of the machine which straightens the shafting and which is termed a “ flyer,” B, is formed with hol¬ low journals and is rotated by means of the pulley F. It is further provided with straightening blocks, arranged in alternate order on opposite sides of the axis. These blocks, E, are shown more clearly in Fig. 8 , from which it will be observed that they are adjustable between the side bars of the flier and the chucks D by means of set-screws. The side bars, as shown, are slotted, enabling the chucks D to be ad¬ justed and bolted as desired. The polisher C is also formed with hol¬ low journals, and is rotated by means of the pulley /. From Fig. 4 it will be seen that it consists of two hinged parts, which contain the pol¬ ishing blocks, rubber cushions and metal followers. The polishing blocks are made of wood with the grain parallel to the axis of the polisher, and can be ad¬ justed by means of nuts and screw bolts inserted in their outer ends. They are also to some extent, self-adjusting, by means of the rubber cushions just mentioned. When the hinged parts are closed the innter ends of the polishing blocks are brought to bear against the shaft to be pplished. The two parts are locked by means of a hinged pin and thumb-nut, as shown in the cross section. There are three sets of friction wheels, G, which perform the offices of feed rolls, one of them being between the flyer and polisher, and the other two at the ends of the machine. They are rotated simul¬ taneously by the gearing H, consisting of worms and worm-wheels. The shaft to be operated upon is fed in at the left, and pas.ses out at the right. The flier and polisher are rotated independently of each other, the directions being reversed in order to lessen the tendency of the shaft to turn or twist, and the rate of speed of the former, moreover, being much higher than that of the latter. Both, however, are exactly in line. The work of the machines, we understand, is highly satisfactory. Italian engineers, we And it stated, have made use of a new principle for the pro¬ pulsion of some of their fast gunboats and torpedo catchers under construction. They have improved upon the twin screws of modem steamships by the addition of a third screw moved by a separate shaft and set of engines. The three .screws are placed in the angles of a triangular pyr¬ amid. There is one on each side of the rudder, as usual, and the third is under¬ neath, on a level with the keel-plate. It was claimed that the third screw increased the vessel’s speed by fully a third, on ac¬ count of the great gain in power from the deep immersion. - • The Tamer Steam Engine and Boiler. Our English contemporary. Industries, devotes considerable space in a recent issue to illustrations and a description of a somewhat peculiar type of engine and boiler recently designed by Mr. Henry Turner, of Liverpool. The main feature of the engine is in the arrangement of the valves, by means of which the cylin¬ ders are used alternately for steam press¬ ure, and for forcing air into the closed furnace of the boiler; and as the air is drawn round the tubes of a heater in the uptake, two objects are gained: (1) The heated air raises the temperature of the cylinder equal to or greater than that of the incoming steam; and (2) An auto¬ matic forced draft is created. In the en¬ gine which our contemporary illustrates only one pair of cylinders is shown; but it is proposed to use two, three, or more pairs as desired, each pair working on a separate crank. The high-pressure cylin¬ der is placed on the top of the low-pre.ssure cylinder, the two pistons being coupled and working one crank. The steam after having acted in the upstroke of the high- pressure cylinder passes to the low-pressure cylinder to act on the down stroke, thus acting only on one side of each piston, the vacuum acting only on the top side of the low-pressure piston. The boiler consists of a cylindrical shell with a tapered flue and a nest of return tubes. The crown of the flre-box has a tire-clay —or other refractory material—lining. The coal consumption claimed is less than 1 pound per indicated horse-]X)wer per hour, a figure which, w^e think, may be some¬ what increased ujxin further investigation. At the recent annual meeting of the Strong Locomotive Company a contract was signed for the erection of extensive works, wdth special machinery for turning out one of their improved boilers per day, the works to be completed within six months from the date of contract. With these special tools the management claim they can turn out boilers as cheap per pound as the ordinary locomotive boiler E can be constructed. ProCTess on the new engines was reported, and two of them are expected to be on the rails ready for work within 30 days. Saint Catherine’s Lighthonse. Referring to the recent inauguration of Saint Catherine’s Point Lighthouse, on the southernmost point of the Isle of Wight, the London Engineer gives an interesting description of the machinery and general equipment of this important station. The electric light is employed, a power of 60,000 candles being obtained. Some idea of the powder of this light will be con¬ veyed to the reader when we say that the carbon pencils employed in the electric arc lamps commonly used for street light¬ ing are about f-inch thickness, while those which we are considering have a diameter of 60 mm., or nearly 2^ inches. The lamp is of the modified Serrin-Berjot type, and the carbons, which are controlled by a duplex arrangement of spring and current, are not circular in section, but fluted, a valuable improvement introduced by Sir James Douglass, whereby the cen¬ trality of the arc is greatly promoted, the carbons are kept cooler, and a better sup¬ ply of air to the lamp afforded. The 16-paneled dioptric apparatus is rotated, not by clockwork as usual, but by a small vertical engine w'orked by compressed air from below. As the time of rotation is of the utmost importance, a most ingenious regulator or governor is applied to the little engine which controls the speed by the automatic application of a brake should the motion become too rapid. Three con>- pound en^nes furnish power, two of them Deing designed for driving the dynamos, while the third is used for compressing air for the fog-horn. Only one dynamo and engfine are used for the light, the other set being held in reserve in case of accident. The two dynamos were built by De Meri- tens, of Paris, and the induction arrange¬ ment of each consists of 60 permanent magnets. We may add that the Saint Catherine light is at present the most pow¬ erful electric light in the world. The Lubrication of Gas Engines.— Gas engines are generally lubricated too abundantly, especially if it be necessary for the attendant to leave the engine for some time without supervision, in which case he prefers to arrange for an excessive supply of oil rather than run the risk of a break down, owing to insufficient lubrica¬ tion. In consequence of this circumstance it becomes a matter of some importance to be able to use the oil which has once done service over again, and it is therefore of interest to note that a special apparatus has recently been brought out in Paris by M. E. Ducretet, of 75 Rue Claude Bernard, for filtering the oil as it comes from the cylinder. An engraving which is given of the device in one of our foreign exchanges shows the device placed around the ex¬ haust-pipe of the engine, so that the heat of the escaping gases is utilized to raise the temperature of the oil under treat¬ ment, in this way greatly facilitating the process. The filter itself is contained within a vessel coated on the outside with some non-conducting covering, and con¬ sists of a cylindrical vessel having a loose cover, which can be screwed down by suitably arranged thumb-nuts, so as to compress more or less the filtering medium, which is generally composed of compressed cotton. Above the filtering medium is a series of perforated plates which retain the grosser impurities. The filtered oil can be drawn off at the bottom through a cup, and, we understand, has been found very satisfactory for further service. We are told that one of these filters has been in constant use in Paris for several months past with eminently satisfactory results. Fig. S.—Sectional End Elevation. Fig. 4.—Cross Section of Polisher. ROTARY SHAFT STRAIGHTENING AND POLISHING MACHINE. Digitized by v^ooQle 8 THE IRON AGE. July 5, 1888. The Lash Open-Hearth Furnaces. BY ALFRED E. HUNT. One of the chief defects of the original open-hearth furnace was that a large por¬ tion of the superincumbent weight of the hearth in a plate-iron shell. This shell is carried on iron beams extending com¬ pletely across the furnace and resting u|)on exterior walls or columns which are inde¬ pendent of the more highly heated and perishable parts of the furnace under¬ neath. the pipe are incased in the brickwork and open into the flats of each end of the fur¬ nace from the opposite side w’alls by leav¬ ing out the space of a header in the fire- bnek at the ends of the pipe. This gaseous fuel is not diluted to fully 60 per cent, of its entire bulk with inert nitrogen, as is furnace and its charge was supported by the brick walls, between the gas and air regenerators, which were at the upper part of the regenerators, softened by being sub¬ jected often to intense heat on both sides. This fault is obviated in nearly all of the newer designed furnaces by incasing the ♦From a paoer entitled “Some Recent Im¬ provements In Open-Hearth Steel Practice,” read at the Boston meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Natural gas, in the favored regions, has been a great boon to the open-hearth steel manager; he no longer has to spend a very valuable portion of his time “ poking the gas man to poke his fires.” ^e gas is carried to the furnace in an even flow through a 3-inch gas-pipe, which branches off to both ends of the furnace in 2-inch pipes. The delivery and reversing of the gas is regulated by ordinary globe gas valves placed in the circuit. The ends of I Siemens gas, which has to be conducted in pipes of 4 feet diameter to one of the fur¬ nace gas regenerators to be preheated. Natural gas is conducted directly to the ports of the furnace, as it was found that preheating decomposed it and soon filled the checker work of the gas regener¬ ators with deposited carbon. The use of cold gas is much more than compensated for in the heat produced by the combus¬ tion of the concentrated fuel and by Avoid Digitized by v^ooQle July 6, 1888. THE IRON AGE. 9 . Fig. 5. •KcnoN ON Z'Z. no. z. •zcTioN ON v>v. no. a. LASH OPCN-MCARTH PURNACC. ing the large amount of nitrogen which is present in biemens gas. Natural gas melt- Mg furnaces are now built so that both of the rei^enerators at each end of the furnace are connected with the air inlet valve, or they are built with only one regenerator at each end of the furnace for preheating the air. In this case the air valve and air re¬ generators are built larger, with 60 per cent, greater capacity than when using Siemens gas. Natural eras is supplied in the service mains to melting furnaces in the vicinity of Pittsburgh with a pressure of about 8 ounces, and this pressure is adjusted in the service-pipes by regulators ordinarily furnished to the plants by the natural gas companies, and which they place with their connection to their mains at some suitable point about the plant. The pressure, as regulated by the valves at the large sized Lash furnaces, is at present only about 1 ounce or inches of water pressure as the gas goes into the melting furnace. The lighter the pressure, so long as the flow is kept uniform ana steady, the better the combustion, and the more intense the heat. The steady uniform flow of natural gas has made it peculiarly applicable as a fuel for melting in open-hearth furnaces and has been a very potent cause of the growing repu- tntion for regularity and uniformity, as well as for superiority in other ways, of the open-hearth steel made in the natural gas districts. The tendency up to within the past year has been to increase the size and capacity of open-hearth steel furnaces, and the newer furnaces have been of 30 and 40 tons capacity instead of 5 and 7 tons as were tnose built at first. Except for special purposes, where large steel castings are to be made, the writer believes the limit of size has been reached. Experi¬ ence with the large furnaces has led to the growing conviction at present that fur- Digitized by v^ooQle 10 THE IRON AGE. July 6, 1888. naces of about 15 to 20 tons at the maxi-1 mum, are the most economical and produce the best steel. The latest improved Lash open-hearth furnace plant the writer believes to be the best yet devised. It is peculiarly adapted to the use of natural gas, and there are, at the present writing, 12 furnaces now erected in Pittsburgh on the Lash system, four of 40 tons, five of 30 tons, one of 20 tons and two of 15 tons, and there are four 15-ton furnace buildings. See Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, in which the parts are numbered for reference. The hearth of the furnace (1) is made circular or, preferably, elliptical with major axis of 18 feet of hearth inside the linings and minor axis of 15 feet for a 15-tou furnace. This hearth is supported on beams resting on suitable walls or piers of such a hight that the charging-doors are accessible from the ground level. The retaining shell of ^ inch thick steel plates extends from the top of the side walls down to a broad connecting band (4) a short distance below the charging-doors; from this, the shell slopes inward to the bottom plates of the hearth. The lining of the hearth conforms to the shape of the shell, and since the bottom plates and sup¬ porting beams prevent any vertical move¬ ment downward, the conical shape of the outer walls of the lower portion of the melting chamber prevents almost all of the outward movement due to the expan¬ sion of the lining, thus preventing the rupture of the lower side-walls of the fur¬ nace. The single flues (9) in natural gas fur¬ naces at either end of the melting chamber are 5 'feet wide and are simply large pas¬ sages inclined down toward the bath at a pitch of about 4 inches to the foot, to give the flame a strong guide downward upon the metal. In order to provide a firm support for the arched roofs of the melting cham¬ ber and flues leading into it, a water-bosh. Fig. 7, made of ^-inch thick steel plate, is put in the form of a keystone in the arch of each roof, that of the melting cham