The Iron Age 1889-06-13: Vol 43

Power Traveling Crane. The power traveling crane of which we herewith present engravings of the princi- pal parts consists of two strong plate- girders securely connected at the ends and across the top, thus securing the necessary lateral strength required for high speeds of travel. It is carried at each end upon two large wheels with heavy steel tires and double flanges, and is moved and kept! TH square by means of spur-wheels engaging into cast-iron racks on each side of the runway. This feature of driving both sides of the bridge positively the makers of this crane found to be essential for safe and certain action at the high speeds of traverse used. The trolleys are carried entirely within the bridge, thus economizing hight and enabling the greatest lift to be ob- tained with the greatest clearance under the bridge. The load on the trolley is sustained by four strands of chain so ar- ranged as to lift always in a vertical line, with no tendency .to deviate sidewise—a very important feature for many purposes, as in a foundry for setting cores, drawing patterns, &c., and machine-erecting shops for assembling work, &c. The crane is THURSDAY, JUNE 1. driven by a square shaft parallel to the run- way, which shaft is carried in improved drop-hangers supporting it in a securely locked capped bearing of ample length The cap over the bearing is provided with oil and grease cups, insuring lubrication and protection from dirt. Power is trans- mitted through spur-gearing and improved friction-clutches of large size and ample power. Few bevel-wheels are used and no worm-wheels. All the movements of the UT The Main Operating Gear. E SELLERS POWER TRAVELING bridge with two trolleys are controlled by only eight levers, one for traversing the | bridge, one to change the speed or entirely disconnect the machinery in the bridge} from the main driving-shaft, which may | * ‘ ~ | run continuously ; and three for the trolleys, | one to change speeds, one to traverse and one to hoist and lower. controlled by five levers. These levers are conveniently operated from a hanging cage or platform, giving the operator full view of the entire space covered by the crane. | Crane with 5-ton or larger trolleys will | lift its maximum capacity at 10 feet per minute, or one-quarter its capacity at 40 feet perminute. Crane with 2}-ton trolley iwill lift its maximum capacity at 20 In a bridge with} only one trolley the same movements are | IRON AGE feet per minute, or one-half its capacity at 40 feet per minute. The load is raised and lowered by power and is at all times automatically sustained, no hand or foot brake being required. The machinery is all easily accessible, and full provision is made for easy lubrication. Brass oil cups are furnished where needed. Power is transmitted to the trolley by square shafts in the bridge, which shafts are also carried in improved drop-hangers holding OT TT it “ | mn CRANE. |the shafts above and below and having long capped bearings to insure against | wear. The crane has fast and slow gear- ing, giving the following maximum speeds, but variable at the will of the operator from maximum to zero : Bridge travel, fast gear. ..200 feet per minute. Bridge travel, slow gear. ..100 feet per minute. Trolley travel, fast gear. ..100 feet per minute. Trolley travel, slow gear.. 50 feet per minute. An important feature is the fact that the change from fast to slow or slow to fast speeds requires no change in the speed of |the main driving-shaft, but is accom- plished in the crane itself by simply shift- ing a lever; consequently it is possible to use more than one crane on the same run- way, each one entirely independent of the 4 a \ 19, n h f Rn) % £ - pie rt ~ al \) iy co Gee ‘ £ » an, pet iets eat West ban Ai) las, a a % wh 1h or Aa ne ~<Ve Br a oo ) pare a" her te, ' ~ » * #3)) ™ “aE, ~<c” a me ik tlt ed .* fae o~ ent. af a. Ake? Ap ih ij RE Cs <ite oe + ~ ss ivi tine eee Oe a sie neti ae we ee >. : of = 878 THE IRON AGE. other, and can be used slow or fast, at whatever speed the service may demand, without in any way interfering with or affecting the action or speed of the other crane or cranes that may be driven from the same shaft. Briefly stated, the promi- nent superior features of this crane, which is manufactured by Wm. Sellers & Co., In- corporated, of Philadelphia, Pa., are: High speeds of traverse and hoist under perfect contro] and variable to the slowest speed that can possibly be required. Load automatically sustained at all times, thus avoiding absolutely the great danger and anxiety which are inseparable from the use of those cranes which require the operator to apply the brake. All movements are accomplished by very few Jevers. Capped and locked tumbler bearings thoroughly lubricated. All machinery easily acces- sible. Load raised or lowered always in a vertical line. Character of bridge giving great lateral strength and permitting max- imum hight of hoist and clearance under the bridge. Complete independence of each crane when two or more cranes are used on the same runway and driven from the same shaft. Cupolas for Remelting Cast-Lron. Ata late convention of the Institution of Engineers Mr. Charles Hornung, of Mid- dlesborough, England, read a paper upon the subject of cupolas adapted for re- melting iron which is of sufficient inter- est to command the attention of many of our readers, and we therefore reprint it herewith: During recent years many improvements have been made and patented with the object of reducing the cost of remelting iron in foundry cupolas, and have met with various degrees of success. The lin- ing has been more carefully shaped ac- cording to the requirements of the furnace. In some cases hot blast has been used, and the waste gases have been carried away by flues fur the purpose of heating either boilers or the metal to be charged into the furnace. The object of this paper is to give a short sketch of a few of these im- provements, together with some of the re- sults obtained. Originally cupolas were square, round, or oval in section, and pro- : . . 2 *s | vided with a single tuyere only, the lining | being composed of a refractory sand | rammed up around a metal core to the de- sired shape. But this lining was found to wear away very rapidly and required fre- | quent repairs; hence it came about that the sand was gradually replaced by fire- brick. The hight of these cupolas was usually only about 6 feet, and the con- | sumption of fuel reached as much as 10 ewt. per ton of metal melted. pacity of these cupolas was found inade- quate for all but the lightest work; so, in order to collect a larger quantity of iron in the crucible, or lower part of the furnace, five or six tuyeres were placed on either side of the cupola, one above the other, about 10 inches apart, and connected outside by vertical pipes, only one tuyere being used at atime. When the blast was turned on all the tuyere holes excepting the lowest ene were closed; then as the melted metal in the crucible rose up to the level of this bottom tuyere it was stopped up and the | next above it opened, and so on in rotation until the top tuyere was open and those be- neath it all stopped up, after which the metal was tapped out in the ordinary way. At one time cupolas were simply cylin drical in shape, the inside diameter of the | lining being the same from top to bottom; but about the year 1860 Mr. Ireland | patented a cupola, the lining of which was made smaller in diameter at the tuyeres. The superiority of the working of this fur- | nace over those generally in use at that time was due to the more careful system of charging adopted and to the better pro- portioning of the internal shape. The The ca-| method of working as described by Ireland was as follows: After lighting up and heating the cupola by means of a small fire kindled in the usual way 7 ewt. of coke were charged, and on the top of this 1 ton of pig-iron, broken up into pieces about 10 inches long, next 2 ewt. of coke and 1 ten of iron, the subsequent charges being about 14 cwt. of coke and 1 ton of pig-iron, ac- pee — cu HHH charging level, about 6 tons of pig-iron and 15 cwt., or 12} per cent.,of coke. Un- | doubtedly Ireland effected very great im- provement in the working of cupolas, and | he deserves recognition “for having been | the first to give properly directed consider- | ation to this important branch of the iron trade; but I have not been able to find that the results obtained in the actual working of his cupolas were quite as favor- able in respect of coke consumption as he ly June 13, 1889 said they ought to be. Owing to the gradual narrowing toward the tuyeres of the internal diameter of the Ireland furnace the charges obtained a regular descent, and owing to the combustion being concen- trated in a smaller space for the same amount of coke burnt, the temperature immediately in front of the tuyeres was much higher than in the ordinary cupola NIH a Wi HH IH i aaah TTT tl —— } Peron om “aE BY Fy Hane i Es—F 69 HH aT Transverse Section through Trolley. | cording to the quantity of metal required. | with parallel sides, In order to allow of col- The cupola contained, when full up to | lecting and keeping a good supply of melted metal Ireland increased the diameter of the lower portion of his cupola, generally termed the crucible or well. The tuyeres were placed in two horizontal rows, 16 tuyeres of about 3 inches in diameter in the upper and four tuyeres of 8 inches in diameter in the lower row. This does not seem to have effected much economy, but only to have increased the melting zone. The Stewart cupola, commonly known as Stewart’s rapid cupola, is provided with June 13, 1889 THE IRON AGE. 879 three rows of tuyeres close together, which | become clogged up with slag, and has to | of an engine and fan, but it is doubtful if produce an effect exactly similar to that | be cleaned out entirely every night, which | the actual results were as good as those just described. Further, the melting zone | being increased, the metal has to pass through a greater space, where it is sub- jected to the oxidizing influences of the incoming blast. To some extent this oxidization of the molten metal is pre- vented by raising the hearth of the fur- nace up to within a few inches of the tuyeres, and having, in place of the well or crucible for the melted metal, a separate receiver connected to the cupola by means of a brick-lined spout from its hearth SAASANOAAS, ee Fi } TLIO SAAAAASAARNAA (ARAN ie (3 - ++ = LLEY TRAVEL = K/h a 5 : is a great inconvenience in the case of | working right through for two or three Otherwise | come into general use. days with the same furnace. the metal obtained is good and clean. * Heaton patented a cupola worked by means of the draft caused only by the hight of the chimney and the ascensive | power of hot air, instead of forced blast; but this method was slow and entirely un- suited for intermittent working. Woodward’s ¢upola was worked by means of an induced current created by a i\ [) cur OFF } ae. | fang ee = =) Longitudinal Section of Power Traveling Crane. Transverse Section. Z g Y rosé tts level. This receiver is entirely lined out and roofed with fire-brick, and is provided with the necessary tapping and slagging holes. Leading off from the roof of the receiver to about the center of the charge in the cupola is a pipe, lined with fire- clay to about 2 inches diameter. This pipe carries away the heated gases from off the surface of the molten metal, and delivers them into the center of the de- scending @harge, which is thereby partially heated before arriving at the melting zone. Owing to the depth from the hearth level being so very much smaller than in other cupolas, the coke for lighting up is con- siderably reduced. The difficulty of Stewart’s arrangement, however, seems to be in the receiver itself. This is apt to steam jet blowing up the chimney. There were two rows of rectangular tuyeres, or rather holes, for the admission of the air, usually eight in the upper and four in the ‘lower range. The jet was a simple con- bottom of the chimney, about 4 feet above ithe charging level. The steam jet for creating the draft was said not to be greater than would be required for driving an en- gine and fan. Woodward claimed that the coke consumption in one of his cupolas for ordinary work was about 10 per cent. of the metal charged, including lighting up. The charge was introduced by means of a hopper at the side of the turnace. The first cost of such a cupola and plant was much reduced, owing to the absence tracted nozzle, fixed in the center at the| given in some accounts; at all events, this system of working seems never to have Then, again, the distribution of oxygen was irregular, and, consequently, the combustion was incom- plete; the tuyeres were also too small. Some of these difficulties appear to have been quite recently overcome in the Her- bertz cupola, which, in the place of tuyeres, is provided with an annular open- ing so constructed that it can be varied in hight as required according to the work- 2 CUT Te Oo toes acai ing of the furnace. Steam consumption is given as about 303 pounds per hour, with a jet 2 inch in diameter, and a com- parison of this with a cupola of similar dimensions worked with forced blast from a 3 horse-power Root blower, needing to drive it about 198 pounds of steam per hour, shows there is no economy obtained by means of the jet. Consumption of coke in two experiments mentioned in the Ger- man periodical Stahl und Eisen, in June, 1886, was 5 per cent. and 10.2 per cent. for melting only, and 9.9 per cent. and 12.7 per cent. total, including lighting up, or, taking the mean, equaled over 2 cwt. of coke per ton of metal melted. The use of the annular opening or slit effects a more even distribution of air inside of the cupola than is possible in Woodward's system; but the above-mentioned result does not show a very marked saving in fuel, and this I attribute to the low press- ure at which the air enters, namely, 2} to 3 inches water-column, instead of 10 to 20 inches, as in the case of an ordinary cupola with a Root blower. Also, the pressure being weak, the oxygen of the air drawn in does not readily penetrate the pores of the coke, and therefore is apt to cause only a superficial combustion. Anal- yses of the gases at the top of a Herbertz cupola in the experiments above referred to show carbonic acid 10.7 per cent. to 11.5 per cent., carbonic oxide 0 per cent. to 3.4 per cent., and oxygen 6.7 per cent. to 8.2 per cent., or an average of 7.5 per | cent. of oxygen. This 7.5 per cent. of |oxygenis in excess of that required for combustion, and robs the furnace of con- siderably more heat than would escape at the top of the charge of 2.55 per cent. to 11.73 per cent of carbonic oxide. The | | ? \ } Ps ove tera saa “3 oo : = 3 ye i) Hh) enernageenteenss ie i) Y) nr ses r aa (22 mbit thie oe ste sah ~ Ay >... * ®» ' 4 880 THE IRON AGE, June 13, 1889 excess of oxygen in an ordinary cupola causes extensive decarburization of the metal, but in the Herbertz system its action is not so injurious, owing to the melting zone being smaller, and the iron being con- sequently exposed to the action of the gases for a shorter time. Krigar’s cupola, with a receiver and in- duced current, was arranged so that the air, instead of passing up the shaft of the cupola, entered at two or three different levels below the top of the charge, and was drawn downward toward the melting zone by means of a steam jet placed in a chimney on the roof of the receiver. The gases helped to keep up the heat of the metal collected in the receiver, but the charge arrived at the melting zone almost cold after the passage through it of the cold air. The consumption of coke aver- aged about 13 per cent. as compared with the melted metal. The waste of iron was reduced by this system, because the molten metal was not subjected to any oxidizing atmosphere of ascending air. I cannot discover that this system has been tried in England; if it has, it has not met with much favor. In districts where the price of good coke is high founders have sought to overcome this disadvantage by melting the iron with gas obtained from a gas pro- ducer, and so to use an inferior fuel with- out interfering with the quality of the castings. Dufréné patented an arrange- ment of a gas producer connected direct to an ordinary cupola. The air for the combustion of the producer gas circulated round the sides of the producer, and so became heated previous to uniting with the gas inside the cupola. The gas was admitted at the top of the crucible por- tion of the furnace, about the hight at which the tuyeres are usually placed ; just above this gas port was a grating, com- posed of refractory material, on which the pig-iron to be melted was piaced. An arrangement of Siemens regenera- tors working in connection with a cupola was brought out in 1884 by Mr. Bramall, of Sheffield. Each of the regenerators was alternately heated by means of the waste gases from the cupola, previous to the introduction of the producer gas, This appears, however, to be based on a wrong system, for, in order to heat the re- generators, the waste gases must be at a relatively high temperature, which would only be the case when the cupola was work- ing badly. Another cupola working on a similar system was brought out by Henry Krigar, of Hanover. It consisted of two distinct shafts and a receiver. The pig- iron and scrap were charged into the shaft most remote from the receiver, which shaft was left open at the top, the fuel being charged into the second shaft, which was closed at the top. Blast, admitted into the stack of fuel only, passed through the lower portion of the coke and ascended the shaft containing the pig-iron; by this means the melted metal came in contact with the coke previous to passing into the receiver. The working of this furnace has not been attended with any success that I can hear of. Atone time the utilization of waste heat at the topof the charge was considered to be one of the most impor- tant points in the economical working of a cupola. This was effected in various ways. First, the blast was passed through a series of pipes placed in the chimney of the cu- pola, but this arrangement was costly com- pared with the results obtained. Then the waste heat was made to traverse a cham- ber in which the iron and coke were stacked previous to being charged into the fur- nace; but very little, if any, economy was derived. At Woolwich a cupola was erected having a blast box extending over its entire hight from the tapping hole to the charging level; the blast entered at the top and was raised in temperature by the heat radiating from the walls of the furnace. Attempts have also been made to utilize the waste heat for raising the | utilization of the carbonic oxide. The steam necessary for driving the fans, &c. | samples were taken from the waste gases g ’ & But none of these ideas have proved suc- cessful, owing to the irregular and inter- mittent working of foundry cupolas. eIn the different systems already men- tioned, with the exception of Ireland’s, this fundamental fact seems to have been entirely disregarded, namely, that carbonic acid coming in contact with red-hot fuel just above the charge, near the inside lining, of two cupolas at the works of the Anderston Foundry Company. One of the cupolas was of the ordinary first-class foundry pattern; the other was a similar cupola altered to Greiner and Erpf’s system, Greiner and combines with a certain quantity of carbon a — . : 5 . 1a. cup . to form carbonic oxide, thereby robbing P } iE fj "i 5 er cent. Per cent. . re 3 > 2 © ° s iy - vs ~ ~ ~ the coke of some of its tarbon ; the com- | Nitrogen............. 7h5 79,92 plete conversion of the coke into carbonic | Carbonic oxide....... 11.5 1.25 acid seems to have been only a secondary | Carbonic acid..... .. 12.5 18,75 consideration. In an ordinary cupola, | Hydrogen............ 0.9 0.08 with one row of tuyeres—usually placed i 100 100 ubout 2 feet 6 inches above the metal in the crucible, the carbonic oxide formed by the combustion of the coke in front of the tuyeres comes in contact, just above, with a layer of incandescent fuel, and a con- siderable portion is converted into carbonic oxide, which, having no oxygen to com- bine with, rises to the surface of the charge, and, meeting with the oxygen of the atmosphere, burns, if hot enough, with its characteristic blue flame, or if too cold to ignite passes away invisibly. Accord- ing to the experiments of Favre and Silber- mann, the calorific power of 1 pound of carbon burning to carbonic acid is about 14,040 heat units, while that of carbon burning to carbonic oxide is only 4450, or 9590 heat units less; therefore, unless this carbonic oxide can be burnt so that the heat of its combustion can be utilized in raising the temperature of the descending charge a serious waste of fuel must, of necessity, take place. As the formation of carbonic oxide cannot be prevented, ob- viously the requirement is a sufficient quantity of air to burn the gas above the point of its formation. M. Voisin was one of the first to direct his attention to this point, and later Ireland brought out his cupola, which has been previously men- tioned. Voisin employed two rows of tuyeres, the upper row being placed at the level at which the formation of carbonic oxide was greatest, this level being ascer- tained by taking the temperature at differ- ent hights. Undoubtedly he was on the right road, and deserves all the credit due to a pioneer; but his efforts met with only partial success, and this from a very simple reason, viz., that the combustion of the carbonic oxide at once ignited the hot coke, and, in fact, caused an upper zone of fusion, above which the original process was repeated by the absorption by the car- bonic acid of an equivalent of carbon from the glowing fuel, and the consequent re- duction to carbonic oxide and loss of heat. Since then several scientists have made attempts to more completely utilize the waste gas, but they have _ invariably stumbled at the crucial point, which was to burn the gas without attacking the solid fuel. This difficulty would, how- ever, at last appear to have been over- come, and that in a smail town in Hun- gary, where the engineers, Arthur Greiner and Thuisco Erpf, wevt on quietly experi- menting until they hit on the plan of arranging a number of small blast inlets over an extended upper zone of the body of the cupola, through which, by careful manipulation of the blast, they managed to convert practically the whole of the car- bonic oxide into carbonic acid below the surface of the charge. In the words of M. A. Gouvy, in a paper read before the Société des Ingénieurs Civils, Paris, in May last year: ‘‘ This system is such a de- cided advance on all previously known methods of cupola-working, and in the direction of true economy, that it may be well to devote rather more time to its con- sideration.” Greiner and Erpf’s cupola was desciibed and illustrated in Jron of July 29, 1887. The analyses made by Messrs. Pattinson and Stead show that this inven- tion effects in a very complete manner the Messrs. Pattinson and Stead, in a note on these analyses, say: *‘ The results show that the heat developed in the cupola, where the gas produced at the main tuyere is burnt by air injected above, is about 30 per cent. greater than is developed in the ordinary cupola. For many reasons the practical saving of coke in large cu- polas will not reach that point, but the results prove beyond doubt that the sys- tem is a correct one, and must result in considerable economy of fuel.” From these analyses we find that in the ordinary cupola 9438.2 heat units are de- veloped per pound of carbon. Taking the melting-point of cast iron as 2780° F., .ts specific heat as 0.13 and 40° F. as the average temperature of a pig of metal, coke containing 89 per cent. carbon, we get ona 2740 x 0.13 x 22.40 2780 — 40 = =— SaaS = 3m — = 95 pounds, the amount of coke required to melt 1 ton of cast-iron, To this must be added the following: Melting slag and burning limestone. . ) Carbon burning to CO...... ........ ( 2.87 Ib. 20 Ib. slag per ton of metal ..... .... Carried off by waste gases at temper- ature 770° b einen ae earns akeae eee 9.9 Ib. 6 per cent. for radiation... .......... 5.7 Ib. Total coke per ton of metal melted 113.47 lb. In a similar manner from the analysis of the waste gas from Greiner and Erpf's cupola we find 13,465 heat units devel- oped per pound of carbon, and using the same calculations we get: 2740 x 0.13 x 2240 13465 x 0.89 Adding the tollowing: 2780 —40 = = 66.6 lb. coke. Melting slag and burning limestone... ; Carbon burning to CQ,.............. - 1.9 ]b. 20 lb. slag per ton of metal........... \ Carried off by waste gas at 770° F.... 9.9 Ib. 6 per cent. for radiation.............. 4.0 Ib. Total coke per ton of metal melted. 82.4 Ib. Or a reduction in coke consumption of about 27 per cent. as compared with the ordinary cupola, Some of the results obtained in the Greiner and Erpf cupola are indeed re- markable. Ata foundry in Magdeburg it is stated that the consumption of coke, exclusive of the bed coke, has been brought down to 3.2 per cent., or 72 pounds of coke per ton of iron melted. I confess that this seems to me inconceivable, but at several of the German works they ciaim now to be working with 4 per cent. and 44 per cent. of coke—i. ¢., 90 and 100 pounds per ton, and I have ascertained that from 100 to 130 pounds is now the regular consumption in several cupolas to which this system of utilizing the combus- tible gases has been applied in this coun- try. In conclusion, I will again use the words employed by M. Gouvy in his paper before mentioned. Hesays: ‘* The con- sideration of the different methods em- ployed for melting iron in the cupola leads me to the conviction that the best results, as regards the cost of production, have been obtained with the apparatus in which June 13, 1889 THE IRON AGE. 881 the complete combustion of the carbonic acid has been chiefly considered. The use| Charleston put to sea and attempted to of hot air, the utilization of the gases|run her engines under false draft her from the top of the furnace, the replacing | guide-shoes and motion - bars of the blast under pressure by a natural or | heated and she had to be stopped. Every- | induced current, the injection at the| thing had worked smoothly under natural) tuyeres of a foreign matter such as pulver- | draft with no signs of heat; but as soon| be sent to the Eastern market until the ized coal, &c., do not appear to have given | as an attempt was made to force her these any actual economy.”’ | engines ran as before. $——a—_— The adjustments Exhaust Tumbling Barrel. steel guide-shoes would heat whenever an — attempt was made to run at high speed. | The engraving here presented shows a} The vessel was taken back to San Fran- new form of tumbling barrel designed for cisco for the purpose of replacing the their own use by the Stover Mfg. Com- guide-shoes with white metal, and just pany, of Freeport, Ill. After having thor- about this time one ot the naval officers oughly tested the working qualities of the ran across an account of the experience of barrel the makers decided!to place it upon the Naniwa-Kan, which, had it been barrel is an exhaust-pipe connected to the trouble. It was found in a paper read hollow journal; at the opposite end is a before the Northeast Coast Institute of tight and loose pulley. The barrel is pro-| Engineers and Ship-builders by Mr. F. C. vided with a sectional lining of hard iron, Marshall, the designer of the Naniwa- which can be easily replaced when worn Kan’s engines, in which he says: out. A current of air is forced through In the case of the horizontal engines of the barrel by an exhaust fan, which re-| the type shown in plate III (the Naniwa- THE STOVER EXHAUST TUMBLING BARREL. moves the dust and carries it out through! Kan), in the first instance they had con- pipes arranged for the purpose. The siderable trouble with the guide-shoes and makers claim that it does more and better | motion-bars, but that arose, they found, work, takes up less room and fewer bar- from the fact that they had adopted the rels are required for a given amount of same principle and material for the guide- work than any other on the market. shoes of motion-bars, which are of steel, as they did when the bars were of cast- iron, as was the common practice in ordi- nary merchant vessels. They found that the bars heated when worked above a cer- A Washington correspondent of the | tin velocity. The oil burned off and the New York Times savs: application of water rendered the absaded Letters from the naval officers in charge | Surfaces so hard that no tool could be of the trial of the new steel cruiser made to cut them, and they had great dif- Charleston, at San Francisco, show that ficulty with them. ; The guide-bar shoes she is having exactly the same trouble that | Were subsequently fitted with white metal her prototype, the Naniwa-Kan, had during and with special arrangements for supply- her many trials, and it could all have been | “5 oil, and the result was that they had avoided had the Navy Department or the "°t the least difficulty even with a work- contractors been given the benefit of the | ing velocity of 850 feet per minute. —_— = — The Experimental Stage of High- Speed Cruisers. | parts heated, though all the rest of the | | at the rate of over 200 per cent. The result was, then, that when the] preference to closing their works, have been shipping coke to the West and stocking that market. When arrangements quickly | are completed for sending coke East, ship- ments to the West will be stopped for a few days, and all the coke produced will supply equals the demand. There will be no advance in prices on account of the | temporary scarcity. were all right, but it was found that the | cL - Enormous Ore Shipments. From the Marquette (Mich.) Mining Journal of the 1st inst. we take the follow- ing: The shipments of iron ore from the mines of Lake Superior for the month of | May by water have undoubtedly slightly the market. At one end of the egg-shaped known before, would have saved al! the | : oe = exceeded 1,200,000 tons. Our shipping report shows that on the 29th a total of 1,166,887 tons had gone forward by lake from the mines of the four great ranges, and the shipments for the last three days of the month have certainly carried the aggregate for May beyond the figure named. For the corresponding period last year the quantity of ore shipped by lake from the same ports was 374, 948 tons, the gain over 1888 being 791,938 tons, or This is a marvelous showing, and would give au- gury of a tremendous season’s output if there were any likelihood of the May rate of shipments being maintained from now on to the close of navigation; but, of course, that is quite impossible, for even if the mines could furnish the ore the market could not take such a quantity. The shipments for the week ended Wed- nesday amounted to 242,664 tons, this being the largest week’s work on record, Of this total 46,655 tons went from Mar- quette, 103,984 from Escanaba, 1945 from St. Ignace, 52,846 from Ashland and 37,234 from Two Harbors. The shipments from Marquette were appreciably affected by the strike on the ore docks here that began on Monday and has since continued, as a large fleet of vessels was held here for a couple of days in the early part of the week, and the destination of others that were bound for this port was changed as soon as it became known that the railroad company were having trouble with the force of men employed on the ore docks, else the total for the week would have reached even a larger figure than the foot- ing shown in our statement of shipments. EE The American engineers were hospita- bly received on their arrival in Liverpool. They reached the Mersey on the 5th inst. in two detachments, the first being the members of the American Society of Civil Engineers and party, who came by the City of New York, and the second repre- sentative members and their friends of the Mechanical and Mining Engineers, who arrived by the City of Richmond. A gen- eral reception committee, embracing most of the prominent men in Liverpool, was formed, and with them were combined a distinguished deputation from the Insti- tution of Civil Engineers and other tech- nical societies of Great Britain and Ire- land, and representatives of the Liverpool Enginecring Society,to welcome the Amer- icans on their arrival in England. An in- teresting feature was an excursion to Laird Brothers’ Birkenhead Iron Works and to the Mersey Tunnel Railway, fol- experience of that vessel. The building of modern high-speed cruisers is still in the experimental stage, and when the Arm- strongs sold Secretary Whitney the plans and specifications of the Naniwa-Kan, either by accident or design they failed to communicate to him the result of their experience in her 23 trials, as, in fact, they carefully avoided telling him that the vessel had made 22 failures before her final success, SS . s . lowed by an official reception by the Mayor of Liverpool in the Town Hall. There is a considerable scarcity of coke in the East, caused by the inability of the railroads to make shipments to that point.| Advertisements issued by the Navy The operators at the coke works state that | Department call for proposals for furnish- this will be remedied in a few days, and | ing about 428 tons of steel protective deck- coke will be sent East by a roundabout | plates, 40 pounds per square foot, for the way over the Allegheny Valley Railroad. | armored cruiser Maine. The deliveries Some of the works in the Connellsville| are to be completed within 60 days after region have been closed down until this|the contract is made, and proposals will arrangement can be made, while others, in| be received up to July 8. D _- oe ee. “Ss } mi} vane i SN y $82 New Electric Plant at Salem, Mass. | The Salem (Mass.) Electric Light Com- | pany, finding their present station en-| tirely inadequate to the needs of their rapidly increasing business, are now erecting a new one designed by the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. The new station will be a model of its kind, and in its construction are combined many new features and improvements in central station work. Owing to the shape of the lot of land owned by the company it was deemed expedient to erect two build - | ings. The boiler-house, therefore, has been made independent of the building containing the engines and dynamos. The engine and dynamo house is two stories higi, the first story, where the engines are situated, being 14 feet, and the second, where the electrical apparatus is placed, being 12 feet. This building is built of brick throughout and is 102 feet long and 56 feet wide. The boiler-house is 92 feet long, 54 feet 4 inches wide and 23 feet high. The chimney is 130 feet high, 6 feet inside diameter, and 13 feet square at the base. The foundations are rubble stone placed on piling capped with con- crete; 798 spruce piles were used under the main building and 52 oak piles under the chimney. The steam plant, which is compound condensing, consists of one 350 horse-power double tandem compound engine, made by McIntosh & Seymour, and one 150 horse- power high-pressure Fitchburg, now in use at the present station. The boilers were made by the Cunningham Iron Works, and are three in number, 6 feet in diameter, 17 feet long, and 125 horse-power capacity each. The auxiliary steam apparatus con- sists of one 1200 horse-power surface condenser, a Knowles air and circulating pump, and a feed-water heater situated in the smoke-flue. The station is built to allow the addition of 1000 horse-power, and there is room for 9 additional boilers and another line of shafting. The station has a capacity of 42 dynamos, At present there will be 14 in use, 11 of which will be are and 2 alternating current machives, and 1 will be a generator for railway work. On thesecond floor are the store and testing rooms and superintend- ent’s office. A coal-shed will be built in the rear of the boiler-house, which will | have a capacity of 1500 tons, and a track constructed for bringing coal from the shed to the boilers. The company inform us that no pains will be spared to make this sta- tion complete even to the smallest detail, so that it will be one of the finest electric light and power stations in the New Eng- land States. rE Sergeant Stewart, in charge of the Sig- nal Service Bureau, says that the fall of water on the Conemaugh shed at Johns- town up to the time of the flood was probably 2,5; inches. He believes it was much heavier in the mountains. The country drained by the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek covers an area of about ; 100 square miles. The bureau, figuring on this basis and 2,5, inches of rainfall, find that 464,640,000 cubic feet of water was precipitated toward Johnstown in its last hours. This is independent of the great volume of water in the lake, which was not less than 250,000,000 cubic feet. It appears that the actual rainfall on the | Conemaugh water-shed registered on Fri- day up to the time of the catastrophe was about 24 inches. Colonel T. P. Roberts, a leading engineer, estimates that the lake drained 25 square miles, and gives | some interesting data on the probable /V amount of water it contained, arriving at | the conclusion that the total flood of | jing a suitable outlet. THE | IRON AGE. water was 390, 000,000 cubic feet, based on a rainfall of about 8 inches over the entire area. seal tatiaiaiaianicte The Stratton Steam Separator. The advantage to be derived from the employment of dry steam is well known | The ap-| and appreciated by engineers. paratus of which we herewith present en- gravings is designed to separate the par- varried over by the steam and to deliver dry steam | ticles of water ¢ from the boiler June 13, 1889 ‘clearly shown in the sectional view, from which also an idea may be obtained of the ‘course taken by the steam in its passage ‘through the separator. Depending cen- \trally from the top of the separator is a cylindrical pipe which ends about at the |middle of the shell. This pipe forms a continuation of the outlet-pipe. The steam enters at the top of one side of this pipe and in its downward journey follows a spiral course around the pipe. Naturally, the particles of water carried by the steam, being the heivier, are thrown by centrif- THE STRATTON SEPARATOR,.—VIEW to the engine. The perspective view on this page shows the method of connecting the separator. The top of the separator is placed in the steam-supply pipe as near the engine as may be convenient. From the bottom of the separator extends a pipe leading to the sewer. A short distance from the separator this pipe is tapped to form a connection with a steam-trap hav- The water taken from the steam which is passing to the engine collects in the bottom of the sepa- rator, from which it is automatically drawn | | by the action of the trap. If from any cause the trap should refuse to work the water may be drawn off by closing the valve in the pipe leading to the trap and) | then opening the valve in the main pipe. The construction of the separator is SHOWING THE CONNECTIONS. ugal force against the sides of the shell, down which they trickle and collect at the bottom. The lower half of the shell is widened in order to prevent those particles which are still held in suspension by the steam from being carried out with it. The dry steam then passes upward through the cylinder and on to the engine. A glass gauge indicates the quantity of water col- lected a> d tells when it should be drawn. For small sizes the separator is made in a single casting, as shown in both the per- spective view and the section. The other view represents a large-size separator, in which the top is of cast-iron and the shell of riveted steel plates. This separator em- bodies the latest improvements made by the Stratton Separator Company, of 32 | Cortlandt street, New York City. June 13, 1889 The Vermillion Range Mines. We have interviewed John Birkinbine,|in their own interest any boom which | of Philadelphia, with regard to the re- ported danger of a craze in Vermillion range mining stocks. Mr. Birkinbine is well informed concerning matters in the Minnesota iron-ore district and speaks from personal knowledge obtained through frequent visits to that section. He says: I have just returned from Duluth and can only say that if, as The Iron Age says, there is ‘‘ danger of a mining-stock craze” in the Vermillion range of Minnesota ‘‘ similar to the disastrous Gogebic specu- lation which prevailed some two years since,” there are few local indications of it. There are, of course, boomers Sectional View of Separator. and speculators on the gui vive to take advantage of any opportunity for starting such a craze, but the chances of | success are small. The properties are held by numerous owners, and in many cases there are disputed titles, which will act as barriers to any wild schemes being de- veloped. The Chicago and Minnesota Ore Company, lately the Minnesota Explora- tion Company, have a corps of men con- stantly engaged in explorations, and it is hardly to be expected that a company with $2,000,000 capital which is now pro- ducing from its Chandler Mine 1000 tons | of ore per Jay and whose stock now com- mands 60 per cent. of its par value will stand idly by and see good properties pass | into irresponsible hands. The Minnesota Iron Company are pro- ducing from their town mines 2000 tons of ore per day, and carrying it and the ore from the Chandler Mine over their rail- road, and those who control the $14,000, - | 000 capital of this company, which is re- THE IRON AGE. 883 | ported in demand now at 75 per cent. of its par value, will frown down and expose would react upon their own investments. The conditions in the Vermillion range are vastly different from those on the |Gogebic range in 1886, and the story of |the Gogebic is too fresh for repetition. Several attempts to get up big deals on the Vermillion range have failed, and it is probable that the developments in the | future will be on a moderate scale and the | | . . . |money invested will be employed for ju- dicious development. That there is excellent ore in Min- |nesota along the iron range is beyond ;doubt, and there are undoubtedly large 'deposits as yet undiscovered or unde- Separator for 12-Inch Pipe. |veloped. These deposits will be the |means of bringing handsome returns to those who invest judiciously in them. There are also many properties whose de- velopment will cause disappointment to the owners, but oniy actual work will demonstrate one or the other. There will | also be efforts made in certain localities to float companies on small bases, but there appears to-day little reason to believe that | this will reach a craze in the Vermillion range. One basis for the rumor of a mining- stock craze may be the fact that in order to control more than 5000 acres (the limit allowed by the State), the parties interested pany have organized seven or eight differ- ent companies, and few outsiders know |anything concerning these corporations; hence they are each counted as separate organizations de facto, while they are really merely formed so as to legalize a | large land ownership. in the Chicago and Minnesota Ore Com- | Apprentices in German Machine- Shops. | In the report of Commercial Agent Smith, at Mayence, the system of educa- tion in German machine-works is dwelt on as follows: In the machine-shops and such works apprentices are generally taken either for a particular kind of work, such as smith, planer, turner, &c., or are trained principally for this work, and then in the last year of the apprenticeship introduced |to machine-building and intrusted with work in all divisions of the factory. The apprentices are generally placed under the supervision of a head workman, foreman or boss. In the well-known Marienhiitte, at Kolzenau, they are usually put in charge of a particular workman. The agreement is in writing, and the apprentices must all attend a trade school run by the works. At the Wilhelmshiitte, in the same district (Breslau-Liegritz), the apprenticeship is for four years, by written indentures. The apprentices receive neither board, |lodging nor clothing, but are paid such wages as the managers of the works think just. Each week 12 cents are withheld from the wages as security against the de- parture ot the apprentice, and if he leaves the works before the apprenticeship ex- pires he forfeits what has been thus de- ducted from his wages and $12 in addi- tion; but if he serves out the apprentice- | ship what has been weekly withheld from him is paid to him in a lump sum, with interest. The workmen all keep an eye on the apprentices, both within and with- out the workshops, and they are instructed in all the branches of work of the com- pany, passing gradually from one grade of work to another. Special attention is given to the train- ing of apprentices in the Deutzer Gas- Motor Factory, where 10 to 15 apprentices a year are taken. The length of appren- ticeship is four years, and the instruction is given by the bosses and elder foremen. To the aptest of the apprentices oppor- tunity is given to learn all the branches of work carried on in the establishment. In the evening the apprentices have to at- tend an industrial school connected with the factory. The training of the apprentices in the railway repair shops is said to be admir- able, and they are given a much more general training than occurs in many private establishments, in which they generally get a more or less one-sided training. At the large shops of the State railways not more than eight or ten ap- prentices are taken a year as a rule. They must not be Jess than 14 years old and not more than 16, though in excep- tional cases they may be up to 18 years old, and the sons of the ordinary railway ‘employees and permanent workmen are taken in preference to others. During the apprenticeship, which is four years in length, they live with their families or in good families of the place of work. They are paid small wages, but not up to the lowest wages earned by a journeyman in their line of work, and of these wages a tenth is withheld unti] the conclusion of the apprenticeship. Grave misconduct on the part of an apprentice shuts him out from future employment in any of the workshops of the State. —— - The new steel’ screw steamer Lumen, built specially for carrying petroleum in bulk, by W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co., of Newcastle, takes a cargo from Bayonne, N. J., to Rotterdam. Her dimensions are as follows: Length, 304 feet; breadth of beam, 37 feet 9 inches; depth, 27 feet 9 inches; her carrying capacity is estimated lat 3500 tens. The engines are of the triple-expansion type. The Lumen on her trial trip attained a mean speed of 104 ‘knots per hour. AONE ae r =e Ye, ee i} lane eS ae SS + oe ; f = ise ora ¢ ie: ere pete ee ne BDF) Sn a a a erenet whine oat a = Te Je eae ® “ CLE D4 iP ae . (22 2 it oe <= ay : Bh o & A hid ppp “ a ~—eett eet y sim en - nd 3h ; ie alte sed , 884 THE IRON AGE. June 13, 1889 mS SS ———— ————————————————_ The American Tinned Plate Associa- tion. A special meeting of the American Tinned Plate Association was held in their office, in the Lewis Block, Pittsburgh, on the afternoon of the 4th inst. This was the first meeting held by the association for over two years. The object of the meeting was to receive the resignation of the secretary, John Jarrett, who has been appointed consul to Birmingham, England. The meeting was well attended, but the members from the East could not be pres- ent owing to the bad condition of the railroads. They sent telegrams and let- ters, which were read, announcing the cause of their absence. President W. H. Lewis was inthe chair. After an informal talk on the condition of the iron and steel trade, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: Whereas, Our worthy secretary, Mr. John Jarrett, has been appointed consul to Birming- ham, England, by the President of the United States: therefore Resolved, That we, the Tinned Plate Asso- ciation, accept his resignation with feelings of sincere regret; and / Resolved, That we bear testimony to the loyal enthusiasm with which he has so zeal- | ously guarded the interests of American indus- tries, and his upright career through all the va- rious gradations from an iron-worker to his present eminently honorable position of con- | sul. It was resolved to continue the associa- tion and to retain the present office in the Lewis Block. M. C. Cronemeyer, of the United States Iron and Tin Plate Com- pany, Limited, was elected to succeed Mr. Jarrett as secretary, and will be assisted by Charles Gilpin, of the M. Dewees Wood Company, of McKeesport, Pa., one of the vice-presidents of the association. on a Canadian Tariff Changes in the Direc- tion of Free Materials. The Treasury Department has received the full text of the changes in the Cana- dian tariff law recently promulgated by orders in council. The changes seem to be designed to encourage Canadian manv- | facturers by making free to them the ma- terials used in their products. In the | metal schedule the following articles are made free, subject to the conditions in each case stated: Wire of iron or steel, Nos. 13 and 14| gauge, flattened and corrugated, used in connection with a machine known as the wire-grip machine for the manufacture of boots and shoes and leather belting, to be used for those purposes only in their own facto