The Iron Age 1889-07-25: Vol 44

IRON AGE ‘THE JULY 25, 1889. , THURSDAY WILLIAM TOD & CO. BY BUILT BLOWING-ENGINE, OF ELEVATION SECTIONAL 3 2 ; 2S SS | OL AON sie i A kill D5 i AB Al A A ET EE ATE ATLL LLL LLB LLLL LLL A ’ ‘ - = <er- S =e ~< a - Sia Soot te — - =< = (Gen em eee f am - wae ee \—__ eee eee be — ne Ae ee adie Pl punta - ~ SEL 6 BEE OEE! TEE EB BBE BEA A Biwi Ct » hy Bs ¥ — 532 eh YF «A a 1 a — im os nm / ae oe oss : | t= see, \ he gare owners << ee emia oe oa men ta 1)8 THE IRON AGE. July 25, 1889 Blowing-Engine. jor cylinders. Both steam cylinder-heads | length in the adjustment of the connect- i, are movable, without disturbing any other | ing- -rods. The accompanying drawings show the/| part. The piston-rod is continuous from The connecting-rods are of the improved most essential features of a blowing-engine | one piston-head to the other, and is at-| form now used on the best modern hori- of new design built by William Tod &|tached to the crosshead by a large sted | zontal engines,. as shown in the illustra- Co., of Youngstown, Ohio, for the Shenan- pin, the rod being enlarged at the pin-/| tions, having solid ends slotted out for the TTA 4 om 1 a PUT uJ Side Elevation, End Elevation, BLOWING-ENGINE, BUILT BY WILLIAM TOD & CO. doah Furnace Company, of Milnes, Va. It is of the familiar vertical type, having | steam -cylinder 38 inches in diameter, | blowing-cylinder 84 inches in diameter and a stroke of 48 inches. Perhaps the most noticeable external | feature is the employment of a piston- | valve on the steam-cylinder. This form | of valve is very popular in marine prac- tice, and is getting to be largely used in this country on high-speed engines. It possesses the advant: ages of being per- fectly balanced, and is therefore easily worked by hand, and of being without balance plates or other loose pieces, of being extremely simple, and consequently not liable to derangement, and of enabling the exhaust to be made at the ends of the valve, thereby avoiding the necessity of packing the valve-stems against steam- pressure. The form of the valve and the steam-passages are plainly shown in the} hole to maintain the section. The cross-|brasses. The inlet air-valves are round sectional elevation. head is a steel casting, very heavy, and | steel plates, faced with leather, placed in The bed-plate of the engine is| flanged to an I-veam section. Being free | the cylinder heads, opening vertically into very deep and is so constructed that | to move in a plane of the center lines of | the cylinder, and closed by springs. The the shaft may be raised out of the|the guides, it avoids the possibility of outlet-valves are similar in construc- bearings without disturbing the housings | cramping the rod by any difference of!tion and of the same size as the inlet- Seotional Plan through Steam-Cylinder. July 25, 1889 5 Att Sth Hl LH $20 eC PL IG A PLLLLLPLLLLPD Inlet- Valve valves, but made of bronze, with leather face. The air-valves are made as light as is consistent with strength, with light, closing springs, so as to open fully with very little pressure. These valves and their seats are all easily removable inde- pendently of each other. It will be no- ticed that this arrangement of the air-valves gives the least possible waste space or | clearance in the blowing-cylinder, and the most direct ingress and egress for the blast. In this engine the total clearance is less than 2 percent. of the piston dis- placement. en - The Basie Steel Process. We take the following extracts from an article contributed by Jacob Reese, of Pittsburgh, to the Bulletin of the Ameri- can Iron and Steel Association: The basic process is so called because it is con- ducted in a basic-lined vessel and in the! presence of a basic slag, while the Besse- mer process is conducted in an acid-lined vessel and in the presence of an acid slag. Basic material is the oxide of metals, acid material is the oxide of metalloids. In the practice of the Bessemer process the vessel is lined with ganister, a kind of sand rock. This old Bessemer process re- quires pig-iron high in silicon to develop heat while burning it out in the converter. | In converting the metal into steel this sili- con is changed to silica. made always contains all of the phosphorus contained in the pig-iron, fuel and fluxes from which it was made and a considera- ble quantity of silicon and other impurities. In the practice of the basic process gan- ister lining is not used, but lime, magne- site, chrome ore, or other basic material. The blast-furnace is worked in such a manner as to produce pig-iron for use in the basic process low in silicon, and by this means we aveid making the dirty slag in the converter that the acid process does in burning out a large amount of | silicon. In order to develop the required heat in the basic converter we make the pig-iron high in phosphorus, and by burn- ing the phosphorus into phosphoric acid The steel so} | | } | we not only develop sufficient heat, but | ee ee THE IRON AGE. 119 degree. Thus, by working the metal in } a vessel having a pure lining and a pure | basic slag, a purer and consequently a | softer and more ductile steel is produced | than can possibly be made by the Besse- |mer or by any other process where a | silicious slag is produced and maintained. The basic process may be practiced in different ways. When practiced in a | basic-lined Bessemer converter it is called | the basic Bessemer process, and requires a | metal containing not less than 2 per cent. | of phosphorus and less than 2 per cent of | silicon; preferably 3 per cent. of phos- | phorus and less than one-half of 1 per cent. of silicon. The time required in | making a heat is 20 minutes. When the basic pr cess is conducted in |a basic-lined open hearth it is called the | basic open hearth process, and may be | practiced on metal containing phosphorus |in all degrees and silicon in all degrees; | preferably with phosphorus from 2 to 3 per | cent and silicon below 0.50 per cent. The | steel produced by the basic open hearth | requires from 7 to 12 hours to a heat. .- > | The basic duplex process consists in | blowing molten metal with an air-blast | while held in an acid-lined converter until | the silicon is eliminated and the carbon is reduced to about one-half of 1 per cent., then transferring the desiliconized metal (minus the slag) into a basic-lined open hearth, and there boiling out the carbon | and dephosphorizing the metal in the pres- |ence of a basic slag. This process will | work metal of any and every quality. The Outlet- Valve. -4--- h~-—-—15 -—_—-—-- -710- - - — — -- —_— as tencattalpencentttintinae santatnemimanmeniil Plan and Section through Valve-Chamber. the metal is cleansed of all its impurities, | time required to make a heat by the basic and a sufficient amount of that valuable} duplex process is from three to four hours. fertilizer, phosphate of lime, is produced} The basic Bessemer process may be prac- to reduce the cost of converting in a large|ticed to advantage at Pottstown, Harris- wale A I It BE AEN Nr Ne renee ro a e Sey pe ar as ere ? F 120 THE IRON AGE. July 25, 1889 burg and at Pine Grove, Pa; at Waynes- boro, Green Forest, Roanoke and ‘New River, Va; at Knoxville, Athens, Cleve- land and Chattanooga, Tenn.; from Dal- | ton to Rome, Ga., and from Rome to Bir- mingham, Ala.; on Lake Champlain, | N. Y.; at Portsmouth and Moxahala, Ohio, and in many other places where metal con- taining from 2 to 3 per cent. of phos- phorus can be made to advantage. Mil- waukee, Wis., is especially adapted to this process, there being a bed of iron ore 15 feet thick within 50 miles of the city which contains 54 per cent. of iron and 1.53 per cent. of phosphorus. The basic open-hearth process may be practiced at all points in the United States where the acid open-hearth process is practiced. At Pittsburgh, Pa., Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps & Co., Limited, are making all their purest and best plate steel by means of this*process. The Pennsyl- vania Steel Company have also adopted this process. The asic duplex process may be prac- ticed to advantage at Pittsburgh, Harris- burg and in Eastern Pennsylvania; at Richmond, Lynchburg, Low Moor, Milnes, Roanoke and Pulaski, Va.; from Knox- ville to South Pittsburg, Tenn., and at all points where pig-iron can be made to advantage in Alabama and Georgia. It is especially adapted to make steel from the AMERICAN ENGINEERS IN GERMANY. (Editorial Correspondence.) The heavy strain of sight-seeing, im- portant business interests, the attractions of Paris or the charms of travel in France, Switzerland or Belgium made it impossible for the majority who had been the recipi- ents of courtesies in Paris to accept the hospitality tendered by the engineers of Western Germany. A corporal’s guard only gathered at the Nord station in Paris on their way to Aix-la-Chapelle, where the first meeting was to be held. Some of them stopped at Liége to visit the Cock- | erill Works at Seraing; others made a <é- tour via Bruxelles, and a few started to see the Robert process at Stenay. A small number, therefore, only were present at Aix-la-Chapelle. Still, by the time Diis- seldorf, the final objective point, was reached, there were more than 40 engi- neers and their ladies who were fortunate enough to enjoy a fitting climax of their whole European trip. The party being smaller and consisting largely of men in- terested in iron and _ steel Its members became individually far bet- ter acquainted with their hosts. The days were spent in a business way, work | 0.01 in the pig, manufacture | was more homogeneous and manageable. | | that the results as embodied in their plant have done very much toward raising it to the rank it occupies as the largest basic producer in the world. They are now making regularly from 3000 to 3500 tons of basic Bessemer steel per week. While this is certainly not a large product con- sidering the size of the plant, it must be taken into account that practically it takes three converters running on the basic process to keep two constantly in shape for work. The item of repairs, therefore, remains a very serious one, but on the other hand, German steel managers agree in stating that the range of raw material is not so restricted as is generally believed, in America at least. A few years since it was widely stated that the basic process |ealled for pig-iron as definite in compo- sition as does the acid processs. German engineers have learned during the past four years to handle a large variety of iron. They purchase supplies from a wider range of sources. Practically two con- siderations guide them in their choice, high phosphorus and low sulphur. The latter should not reach the maximum of though to some extent it can be counteracted by manganese, which is costly. Phosphorus should be 2 to 24 per cent. for mild steel. The element which was once so dreaded by the steel- maker is now regarded as his ‘best friend; being crowded into them which taxed the energies of the guests without apparently in ‘the least impairing the endurance of the hosts, who generally contrived to send the American engineers to rest completely tired out but well content with their day’s work in fact, the German steel trade is threat: ened with a phosphorus famine, queer as that may sound. The oidinary ore mixt- ures available, notably those of the great | Minette district of Luxemburg, yield iron carrying only from 1 to 1.5 per cent. pig-iron made at Bessemer, Birmingham, and Sheffield, Ala. Basic steel is in great demand for tin- plates, thin sheets for stampinz into trays and domestic utensils, such as enameled and nickel-plated ware, for wire drawing, BL) Ra) hl ee eee — ’ os we #2 =F and drop forgings, because it is softer, and enjoyment. Americans are generally | Double that quantity is necessary, the ij tougher, and more ductile than the less credited with an exceptional facility in combustion of the phosphorus during the pure steels made in the presence ot dirty | accommodating themselves to whatever| blow being required to supply the heat to | slags. It is also used largely for wire conditions they may be called upon to carry on the operation to a successful nails, boiler-plates and rivets, because of meet. They proved it by doing justice issue. That additional quantity must be its homogeneousness and toughness. every day to at least two and generally | furnished, either by bog-ores rich in : more mid-day collations, with liquid re-| phosphorus or by puddle cinder. Banks intervals till after A particularly earnest effort 'freshments at hourly of the latter which happen to have accu- midnight. Coke-Workers Ask an Advance. mulated without being mixed with clinker, omwenase LS TR was made to impress upon the visitors the| ashes, old brick, &c., have proved very Lo |merits of German champagne. It was| valuable property, but the supply is prac- if eh A delegate meeting of the organized | obviously assumed that the taste could] tically exhausted now. Some of the : ; and unorganized coke-workers of ate et only be acquired after frequent and German works have been forced, therefore, 7 nellsville region was held at Scottdale, a., | thorough trial. Your correspondent is} to import puddle cinder from England, on the 17th inst. The greater part 4 the : : inclined to believe that the converts were time was occupied in discussing the ques- and it is not without the range of possi- numerous. But seriously, the captivat- bility that high phosphorus ores low in apt tion of an advance in wages. Several | ing charm of the hospitality of the German sulphur may become very precious in the ! "hi resolutions were adopted, among them be- | | engineers was its sincerity and its hearti-| future. Another point was strikingly il- rit ‘\ ing the following: | ness, to which was added the fact that} lustrated during the visits paid to a num- many spoke English very fluently, while nearly all could express themselves suffi- ciently well in the foreign tongue to make \ Resolved, That it is the sense of this joint | convention that the Conference Committee | selected by this body be authorized to demand ber of the German works, The same plant is used at different times to run the acid or the basic process. Nor was any disposi- RT I TS atl — AP ALS CTA ATEN LMM: GB! AEs BE 2 MS ABBE BARE AG BAAR A ee SO ke Ae an F ‘ iH ence to be hell at ee intercourse with their guests easy, while it| tion shown, as far as your correspondent 4 “it , 1889; that if our employers ignore our com- | had the zest due to the slight uncertainties | could discover, to restrict the basic process it Fae lites eat upon all workingmen in the re- | and hesitations of such conversations. to the manufacture of mild steel. It is a! ~~ a — phe — oe —_ After a short drive the party, on Tues-| employed, too, for the higher carbons—for eT and quit work on the Ist day of August; that | day morning, July 2, reached the famous | insts i 2 i he it is the opinion of this convention that the fol- 8 ” ae - = = It is ae, thy lowing should be the minimum rates of wages | ROTHE ERDE WORKS eee 2 ° ? een Seen hich hit for the different classes of work: $1 per 100 A _ _ | called upon to deliver the tonnage whic : bushels for mining room coal; $1.20 per 100|of the Aachener Huetten Actien Verein, | our American works find it economical to — eae coal. and all eer | remarkable for the high perfection to|run on when making rails, they would ¢ dvbeete, shan pat he nae Oaohor oe which the basic Bessemer process has | prefer the acid process, since the quanti- ia éoaike enn eel rope- riders: chargers, 436 cents | been carried and its conversion into a wide | ties made per converter per unit of time per oven; 60 cents per 100 bushels of coal | range of finished products. The works| are greater. Your correspondent was in- i ' ; charged for coke-drawing; 1014 cents per oven | are the outgrowth of an establishment| formed by one of the Westphalian engi- j : > , : ~ : . - . { f for leveling; blacksmiths, $2.50; carpenters, | founded in 1845, and like many others in| neers that 10 per cent. increase of product i ' $2.25; helpers, $1.85; car greasers, $1.75, and | 4; : . v : : { all other work to be paid in proportion to the different countries have beea largely built | represented the difference between the two above prices. out of profits. To-day the capital is far| methods of working. This is, however, ! . ; below the ac sums invested i -asuri , y ; i The coke operators do not view the res- | * lo w the ac tual sums in) ested in plant. | measuring them both by German standards, ' (ie olutions with any alarm, as they claim The engineers were first conducted to At the Rothe Erde the converters, whose 1 eae there is no danger ae strike t aking iat “ that part of the plant most interesting to| diameter is 3 m. (9 feet 10 inches) inside ) tee té @ . . } R them, the basic Bessemer mill. Thethree| the shell, lined up to about 2.2 m. (7 feet 4 a They further state that it will be impos- : : : ; ) it sible to grant any advance in wages until | C°MVeTters are placed side by side, their | 2 inches), have a capacity of 12 tons anda bes cee MEA tc, Tinian rs ee axes, however, converging toward the| yield of 104 tons of ingots. At Rothe BP there is an improvement in the price of , : : . > : 7 ae hn a center of the pit. The latter, which is| Erde, and in fact at all the works, the coke. From the present condition of the : : 2) sess ° coos a aa ee ae deep as compared with the majority of our} basic lining is rammed and the bottoms es market and the outlook this will not occur . i \ te actions iain own modern works, is served by a ladle-! are made in the same manner. The dolo- aim ; crane and 12 smaller cranes. Back of the | mite is calcined in a cupola furnace at a % converters are five cupolas 3 m. (9 feet 10} high heat, the consumption of coke being " A pump worked by wave-power sup- | inches) in diameter inside the die ll, one of | 10 per cent. It is then ground toa powder es plies sait water from the ocean to sprinkle | them being sufficient to melt all the iron| and is mixed with 7 per cent. of tar, pre- “ the streets of Ocean Grove, N. J. The required. The officers of the works state| viously boiled to get rid of those lighter : waves push backward and forward a that their basic Bessemer mill was designed hydrocarbons which have not been ex- swinging-door connected with the piston, | a few years since after thorough study of | pelled before delivery. The tar is raised t thus lifting the water, | American practice, and they acknowledge to the mixing tank by a Korting in- ~ we AS oe ' ' July 25, 1889 — 7 paeenneneaens —— — THE IRON AGE. jector. For making bottoms the dolo- mite and tar are rammed by hand in an iron form in place. by ramming around 84 4-inch iron rods, the thickness of the bottom being about 24 inches. The rammed bottom, resting on a car, is run into an oven very similar to a| Entering at the cool end it is | core oven. gradually transferred to the hotter end, and is thoroughly baked in a number of | days. It is then a hard mass, having a metallic ring. The bottoms are lifted into place by a hydraulic ram, the joint being made by pouring in a few buck- ets of tar. At its maximum width this joint is 15 mm. (,,3, inches). The life of a bottom is given as 20 to 22 blows. The body of the converter is lined fiom the bottom up, first with six courses of 25 em. (9,5, inches) basic brick, rammed in forms and baked in the same way as the bottom. The rest of the lining is rammed in in place, over a sectional iron form. Its life is reported to be about 150 blows. The Rothe Erde Works propose at an early day to give atrial for ramming bottoms to a mechanical apparatus, which it is hoped will prolong the life of the bottoms and lessen the cost. During the blow from 18 to 20 per cent. of lime is added, being dropped into the converter through overhead shutes. The steel is cast into ingots, varying in size according to the weight of the product to be made, the works going further in that direction than is usual in American Besse- mer mills. The length of the after- blow varies according to the phosphorus contents of the metal. The blower pos- sesses no direct means of indicating its end by the change in the color or bright- ness of the flame. It perience. <A forging test of a sample is made, and that asa guide. Every carload of pig-iron re- ceived is analyzed for phosphorus and for | The tuyeres are inade | Is a matter of ex-| small | alone can serve | | The works possess, besides, a 650-mm. | 254-inch) train for billets, slabs and I-| beams, driven by a 1700 horse-power en- gine, and a 650-mm., (254-inch) train for | rails, ties, angle-bars, &c. The latter rolls | 120 to 150 tons three-length rails, 32 kg. weight per m. passes, from a 380-mm. (14,°;-inch) square 'section. A third 650-mm. (254-inch) train and two 550-mm, (21,°,-inch) trains, driven by engines of 10°0, 900 and 800 horse- power respectively, are employed for mak- ing shapes of medium weight. Two smaller trains are used for merchant iron. An old muck train is occasionally needed to handle a small quantity of puddle bars made annually. The entire equipment may seem very ex- tensive in view of the tonnage made. It is the result, however, of the fact that or- ders for different sizes are small, so that rolls must be frequently changed. As a matter of fact, one of the three trains on smaller sizes is always off, changing rolls. In addition to the plant referred to, the mill has a Belgian rod train. Starting with a 2-inch square billet the train rolls to a No. 6 rod in seven roughing and nine finishing passes, the finishing-mill deliver- ing at the speed of about 10 feet a second. The product is about 25 to 30 tons per ten hours with one furnace. Seven men and two boys are at the mill. The train is operated by a two-cylinder engine running at 80 to 84 revolutions, with. a 25-foot fly- wheel, and rope transmission of 2 to 1 to the finishing and 24 to 1 to the roughing rolls. The works have, besides, a wire-mill and wire-nail works, foundry and repair shops. An older three 7-ton converter Bessemer plant has been idle since the new basic plant has been 1n successful opera- tion, | To the American engineers one of the | most interesting department was sulphur, and a phosphorus determination | is made of every cast of steel. ingot is rolled down toa rod, and is sub- jected to torsion and tensile tests, varying | of course with the character of the product and the specifications prescribed for it. The Rothe Erde Works roll I-beams up to 400 mm. in hight (15,7, inches) and are preparing to go up to 500 mm. (19,5; inehes). The present train is three-high, with 800-mm. (31,4;-inch) rolls. On the rollers’ side there are large hydraulic lift- | ing roller tables on the first and second roughers’ sets, there being no lifting table at the finishing. A set of reversible rollers at the floor level carries the material to the saws and then on the hot-bed. A pull-out on the hot-bed with fingers car- ries the material off the saw-bed to the cooling-bed. On the catchers’ side of the beam mill there are no lifting tables, but an overhead lifting run at each set of rolls. The work is done with ordinary hooks in the finishing mill, and on the catchers’ side a beam is suspended from the run which is guided by twomen. The train is driven by a 2000 horse-power horizontal engine, and is served by two heating furnaces | which, like all the others in the mill, are designed on the Bicheroux system, The company are building a new 950- mm. (37}-inch) reversing blooming mill, | driven by a horizontal two-cylinder 44 x 50 inch engine, geared 1 to 2}. A partic- ularly interesting feature of the design is that the whole of the train and the tables are commanded by a 10-ton over- | head traveling crane. The housings are closed in at the top; they have no cap and are wide enough to pass the boxes. In| this manner the rolls can be changed by moving them sidewise through the ends of the boxes. officers of the Rothe Erde Works, expect to effect a very considerable saving of time through this arrangement, the usual construction requiring about two days to | change rolls. A sample The designers of this mill, | THE BASIC-SLAG GRINDING MILL. All the slag made in the converters is cast into tank-cars and is hauled to the grinding mill, the practice of many of the German basic works being to place this subsidiary department in the hands of outside parties. At Rothe Erde, however, the company run their own mill, selling the ground product to a contractor. The slag as it comes to the mill is still partly liquid. It it is poured in iron plates in a thin stream, which facilitates breaking. The material is then charged into rock- breakers, from which it is carried by bucket elevators to the upper story of the mill. It is, of course, mixed with pieces of steel, and shots of the latter permeate the mass. Since these are highly de- structive to the grinding machinery, they must be picked out as thoroughly as pos- sible. Preliminary cobbing before break- smaller shots must be taken out by ma- chinery. This is effected by magnetic separation. At Rothe Erde two machines are in use, both built by Kessler, of Ober- sists of two drums, over which passes a broad leather belt studded with flat fingers of soft iron about 1 inch broad, + inch thick and 2 inches high. A core in one— | the larger—drum is rendered magnetic by a dynamo. While within its range the studs onthe belt are capable of holding the shots and pieces of steel which fall upon them with the cinder. They drop them away from the latter as they recede from the magnetic drum. Another machine, used for finer stuff, is built on the same general principle, except that the studs themselves are permanent magnets, from which the adhering bits of steel are brushed off when they pass over the periphery of that drum which lies op- posite to the drum upon which the stuff is delivered. These machines do good ! (about 70 pounds) in 19} has been greatly reduced. lahnstein. The first, for coarser stuff, con- | ‘work, but yet do not succeed in removing ' 121 all the particles of steel. After being thus cleansed so far as practicable the coarse cinder is ground on ordinary burr stones, the requirement being that 75 per cent. of the ground product must pass through a screen having 900 meshes per square em. (,',°; inch). In spite of an elabo- rate and effective system of exhausting the dust from the machines in use by fans the wear and tear is excessive. We under- stand that the life of the plant, costing about 70,000 marks ($17,500), exclusive of engine, is not greater than two years, the fine grit cutting bearings, &c., very rapidly. Still the utilization of basic cin- der for agricultural purposes, containing asit does from 16 to 17 per cent. of phos- phorie acid, has proved a valuable source of revenue to the German works, the ground stuff selling at 20 to 25 marks a ton, while the cost of grinding is only about 14 to 15 marks. What would other- wise be a cumbersome by - product has become valuable. It should be stated, however, that from the consumer’s point of view the new fertilizer is not all that it has been credited with being. The tests were often made with cinder produced with special care to avoid the use of an excess of lime in blowing. Now, the steel-works cannot afford to take any chances on the removal of phosphorus by running close on the quaiity of lime additions. They must be lberal for safety’s sake, so that the cinder always contains an excess of lime. When that is hurtful or unneces- sary from the farmer’s stand-point the use of raw ground basic cinder must be re- stricted. The Rothe Erde Works rank among the largest in Germany. In 1888 the product was 141,486 tons of basic ingots and 11,- 746 tons of puddled blooms. The rolling- mills turned out 152,254 metric tons (2204 pounds each) of merchantable goods and 1150 tons of drawn wire and wire nails. They consumed 185,913 tons of pig, 98,529 tons of coal, 19,205 tons of coke, 6458 tons of dolomite, 26,519 tons of lime and 3882 tons of limestone; paying in wages and salaries 2,210,552 marks to about 2300 employees. After making the rounds of the works, the engineers gathered in the handsome office building and partook of a collation, which was followed by English and German speeches. It was here that our hosts for the first time heard the ring- ing three cheers with the puzzling ‘‘ tiger,” in which, through the frequency of the thanks it was intended to express, the American visitors acquired a startling pre- cision. =i sie New Iron Works in Algeria.—It is said that the company owning the mag- netic iron-ore mines of Mokta-el-Hadid, in s | Algeria, are about to build blast-furnaces ing may remove the larger masses, but the | to smelt it on the spot. This scheme has been rendered practicable by the progress made in recent years whereby the con- sumption of coke per ton of pig smelted The ore is not sufficiently rich to bear the costs of long carriage. The furnaces are to be built at the port of Beni-Saf, in the province of Algiers, near the frontier of Morocco, and the coke or perhaps the coal for the manu- facture of coke is to be imported from England. For the present the pig will not be consumed on the spot, but at a later period works for the production of finished iron may be erected. I Increased postal service, as compared with last year, indicates an increasing ac- tivity, but not more than would be ex- pected from the growing population. Thirty of the larger post-offices in the country report for the quarter ended June 30 aggregate receipts equal to $5,402,706, which is 8 per cent. more than for the same time in 1888. wy a oe “ oe eR NRE a A i te RE $e wren & : REBT a ee ee ae =< ‘=e @ a 7s i ¥ ; =" nee * se ere eo — ss x SES ap en Me Bass. tw! SLE EE a + el a ee ee ee ee ) i. eee ei Gk be Ohm Tee Relea Soe aaa S80 6 BE | tts MH 4 BBE SAMS, Am Mhteems ib rv. ewe woe siemens ae i OR Rs OEE TP Ca a b/ TE a me tls eS ne a 99 4 1 This machine is designed for cutting | off work of any shape, and has, therefore, a much wider range than those machines which are only capable of cutting round stock. In this machine stock of any shape is cut off by means of a large milling- cutter or saw which can be used for cut- ting off perfectly square, or to an exact Cold Saw Cutting-Off Machines, | Maine is pretty well scattered along the THE IRON AGE. Mr. Palmer, in speaking of the matter, said that at one time he despaired of getting the work sublet. As it is now issued it is in the hands of specialists. | This is not only cheaper for the Quintards, but it insures better work. The furnaces, for instance, are being made by the only | firm doing such work in the United States. | Th» engines of the Maine will be arnong | coast. Fig. 1.—Cold Saw Cutting-Off Machine with 18%%-Inch Saw. angle, or cutting the work off to exact lengths. An important point in the con- struction of the machine is the method of clamping the saw to the spindle. The saw is clamped between two collars, the back collar being made with a thread to screw | on the end of the spindle. When re- quired the collars can be unscrewed from the end of the spindle and a large face- cutter can be screwed in its place, to be used for milling off the ends of work when desired. The machine can then be used as an ordinary face-milling machine or rotary planer when not in use as a cutting- off tool. lubricates the cutter. The spindle is of hammered steel, extra large, and is driven by a worm-gear, as shown in the engrav: | ings. Both of the machines of which we present cuts have automatic variable feed and automatic quick return. In that rep- resented by Fig. 1 the saw is 18} inches in diameter and will cut off 4-inch round and 4-inch square or an I-beam 16 x 44 inches. In the second machine the saw is 30 inches in diameter and will cut off square or round up to 7 inches or an I- beam 32 x 8 inches. These machines are made by the New- ton Machine Tool Works, of Philadel- phia, Pa. _ rT The sublet work on the engines of the armored cruiser Maine has been issued by the Quintards, of this city. The Standard Steel Company have been awarded the making of all the steel castings for the Maine’s machinery. The Bethlehem Iron Company have secured all the work for the shafting and heavy steel forgings. The Linden Steel Company, of Pittsburgh, are making the steel boiler-plates and steel | The | blooms for miscellaneous forgings. Tyler Steel Tube Company, of Boston, have been awarded the making of the steel boiler-tubes. The Continental Iron Works, of Brooklyn, are making the corrugated furnaces. The Southwark Foundry and Machine Company are doing the cylinder work. The South Brooklyn Steam En- gine Works are making the condensers. It will be seen that the work for the The milling cutters or saws are | hollow-ground and run in a bath of oil or soda-water, which keeps them cold and the most powerful ever turned out in this |country. Some idea can be had of their | cost when it is known that the contract | price, according to specifications, is $700, - 000. cm Coal and Iron in British Columbia. From a report on the mineral wealth of July 25, 1889 gan in earnest at Nanaimo in 1852, and before the close of 1853 2000 tons are re- ported to have been shipped, chiefly to San Francisco, The price of coal st Na- |naimo was at this time $11 and at San Francisco $28 a ton. The Hudson Bay Com- | pany, under the name of the Nanaimo Coal Company, continued to work the mines |thus opened till 1861, when these were |sold to the Vancouver Coal Mining and |Land Company, Limited, by whom they /are still operated. The total shipments | from October, 1852, to November, 1859, are returned at 25,398 tons. The Welling- ton Mines, situated a short distance inland from Departure Bay, near Nanaimo, began to produce coal in 1871, and several hun- dred tons of coal were shipped in that year. This colliery, like the last, has since continued in active operation, with yearly- increasing output, and from the various openings belonging to these two enterprises by far the greater part of the coal product |of the province is obtained. In 1871 |mining operations were in progress at | Cowgitz, Queen Charlotte Islands, and |several hundred tons of anthracite were | shipped, but the work was not continued. The annual production of coal by all the mines of British Columbia since 1874 | has been as follows in tons of 2000 pounds: Tons. Merl peh atte id gouprmieer er ers 81,547 PP Stes SRG CSL ERENEREES ow eaeeed 110,145 Pais we eau wa showed Ge aials Becearaeaae 139,192 ER i Mio cediele Kab ia ake oe ae ee 154,052 a ciakc. un ages wee eo saw sane he ale ete 180,846 DM Hicks ash buawex Beane ee aweee ere 241,301 SN jc saed cad eeeweeianceneussreeeey en 267,595 as ai eh ioe alae a wa ate bak aint 228,357 ee errr ere ee 282,139 RPLG ss dni bones panned eseeveceae eis 213,299 BE Reco Sale: ie beeen ae ee 394,070 NG Wikio euch iets oditaraien cae cea kate ain 365,596 DD cci(shniew iva hREKG Reva daels eRe Rae we 326,636 DOE akon nda iwhavicwak caw hue tn cas eeeae 413,360 Pe Rock Med vase edawukurenawureaeies 489,301 The series of mineral fuels presented by British Columbia range from anthracites which compare favorably with those of of Pennsylvania and Wales, to lignites, in sritish Columbia made by George M. | which the original woody structure is still Dawson to Dr. Alfred R. C. Selwyn, di- 9 “ Fig. rector of tae Geological tory Survey of Canada, | lowing references to coal COAL, The discovery of coal in British Colum- | bia antedated that of gold by more than | 20 years, but did not at first produce any | effect comparable with that of gold upon ithe history of the country. Dr. W. F. |Tolmie was the first to make known the existence of coal on the coast of the prov- ince in 1835. Specimens of coal were brought to him by Indians from the north- | east coast of Vancouver Island, Work be- and Natural-His- we take the fol- and iron ore: ‘clearly preserved. .—Cold Saw Cutting-Off Machine The beds containing prays al with 30-Inch Saw. {the anthracite are almost vertical, and it is evidently on account of the disturbance and local alteration which it has suffered | that the coal has passed into the condition of anthracite. The best seam found had a maximum thickness of a little over 6 feet, ‘while a second outcrop showed 2 feet 5 inches, and. other less important outcrops also occur. Mr. Richardson was originally of opinion that several distinct seams exist at this place, but it now ap- pears more probable that the various out- crops represent a single seam, repeated by folding. In composition, the anthracite July 25, 1889 THE IRON AGE. 123 of the Queen Charlotte Islands compares | built, and excellent arrangements made|from Victoria, near the coast, and well favorably with that from Pennsylvania. | for mining and shipping. The Comox and Nanaimo coal-fields are the most important in the province, and the latter 1s that from which almost all the coal so far raised has been obtained. The cretaceous rocks constituting these coal- tields border the southwestern side of the Strait of Georgia, forming a belt of com- paratively low rolling or hilly country between the mountainous region of the interior of Vancouver Island and the coast. The quality of the Comox coals is equal if not somewhat superior to that of those of Nanaimo. They contain but a small percentage of water and the ash is also often very low. Several of them yield strong cokes. The area of the Nanaimo coal-field is estimated at about 200 square miles. There are at least two distinct seams of workable thickness in this area, but in consequence of folds and faults it is not easy to fix the equivalency of beds in its various parts. Three collieries are at present in operation here, the Nanaimo, Wellington and East Wellington. The works of the two first-named are on a very extensive scale, embracing numerous shafts and inclines, provided with good ma- chinery, railways and wharves. Vancouver colliery the principal workings In the | are upon a seam which averages from 6 to | 10 feet in thickness. A second seam, over- laying the last and separated from it by 140 feet of sandstone, is 7 feet thick. The | seam worked in the Wellington colliery | in thickness, and | averages about 9 feet yields a rather dry steam coal which does not afford a strong coke. the Vancouver colliery, on the contrary, gives a good coke and produces a large | quantity of illuminating gas. TRON ORE. Comparatively little attention has yet been given to iron ores in British Col- | umbia, in consequence of tke impression that under the present conditions they possess little or no value. Most of the ores of iron so far found in quantity are magnetites, which occur in association with the older metamorphic rocks of the province. are, however, of frequent occurrence in the coal series of Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands as well as in the tertiary rocks of the interior. The only iron-ore deposits which have yet been worked are those of the south- | west side of Texada Island, the largest exposures of ore occurring about three miles northwest of Gillies Bay. Here the ore mass is seen to be from 20 to 25 feet thick, and constitutes a somewhat irregular con- tact deposit between limestone or marble and granite, thin veins of the ores being occasionally found reticulating the lime- stone. From this point to the northward, for nearly a mile, the ore is occasionally seen, and at one place there is a continuous exposure about 250 feet long and from 1 foot to 10 feet thick. As regards mining and -shipment, the ore is most favorably situated. The ore is a magnetite of excellent quality. A partial analysis by Dr. B. J. Harrington, in the laboratory of the survey, shows 68.40 per cent. of iron, with only 0.003 per cent. of phosphorus. A _ partial analysis by Whitfield, representing a lot of 600 tons, shows iron, 65.71; phosphor- us, 0.013. A more detailed analysis carried out by Messrs. P. C. Gilchrist and E. Riley, on specimens sent to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886, is as fol- lows: tao ns nencwusee sun kes ecko ae wKs 69.85 SEE AI EDA IE ES .. trace SE i cncaucackes caasios wave 2.75 BE Ie i daccersse Ku ness ere ae 0.06 WNIO GOW ic vcn oki cd caswiineveswed trace I oo dc onde cs cdenbarccdecesadaa trace At the principal deposit of ore, situated | deposits are on sections 79 and 83, been | as ubove described, a wharf has The coal from | Clay iron-stones | | gross tons; in 1886, 3941 tons; in The ore is brought to the wharf by an incline nearly a quarter of a mile in length from the point at which it is quarried out, about 250 feet above the sea-level. Considerable quantities of ore have been shipped from time to time to the works of the Puget Sound Iron Company, situated at Iron- dale, Wash. Ter. The Texada ore is there mixed with from one-ninth to three-tenths Fig. 1.—The Williams High-Speed Vertical Enyine. bog-ore, found near Irondale, and _ pro- duces thus or when smelted alone an ex- cellent quality of foundry pig. The shipments in 1885 amounted to 190 1887 to 1410 tons, and in 1888 to 7300 tons, valued at $18,400. Iron-ore deposits of the same character and in considerable mass are again found Fig. 2.—Side View of Governor. on the opposite or northeast shore of Texada Island, and very probably are more or less continuously developed along the contact ot the granites and _ limestones elsewhere in the island. Magnetic iron ores of somewhat similar character occur in the hills to the east of Sooke Harbor, Vancouver Sooke district, at a distance of about 20 miles Db i this ore. situated for shipment. The deposit is rather of the nature of a stoke-work than a true vein, but can be traced for some distance in a northeast-southwest direction, and in places shows from 10 to 20 feet of nearly pure ore. The country rock is a coarsely crystalline diorite (?), containing much hornblende. Magnetic iron ore occurs in considerable mass in the Queen Charlotte Islands, on the east side of the entrance to Harriet Harbor, Skinkuttle Inlet. No attempt has, however, yet been made to utilize Occasional strings of pyrites traverse the ore, but it is, as a rule, re- | markably pure. Specimens of an average character, collected by myself in 1878 and examined in the laboratory of the survey, proved to contain 58.06 per cent. of me- tallic iron, while an exceptionally good fragment yielded 69.88 per cent. Very pure specimens of magnetite have also been brought from an island in the Walker group, in Queen Charlotte Sound, near the north end of Vancouver Island. These proved to contain 71.57 per cent. of metallic iron. Another specimen of a similar ore comes from a deposit, which is reported to be extensive, on the north side of Rivers Inlet, about 25 miles up | from its entrance. i eee Vertical High-Speed Engine. The accompanying engraving represents a new design of vertical high-speed engine, | built in three sizes of 4, 8 and 12 horse- | power by the Williams Engine Works, of | Baltimore, Md. The piston 1s a hollow casting shrunk on the rod and is provided with plain spring rings. The connecting- rod is so constructed that as the brasses wear it retains its original length, thereby preventing any liability of the piston strik- ing either end, in which the clearance spaces are unusually small. The valve is | balanced and consists of a flat plate work- ing between two parallel faces, one of which is an adjustable plate placed in in- clined ways in the bonnet and provided with a relief plate in the back. Steam passes in through the central port and ex- erts a pressure on the plate, which is kept down to the valve. The wear of the valve can be taken up by meane of a set- screw, which can be adjusted to move the plate down the inclined way until it comes in contact with the valve. This adjust- | ment is best done while the engine is run- |the other weight being behind it. |eccentric has two arms, D E, cast on it, | ning. The governor, shown in side view, con- | sists of two weights, A B, and one eccen- | tric, C. The weights are hung on large steel pins set in two arms of the wheels, one weight being ahead of its fulcrum and The lin the end of each of which is secured a | steel pin which fits a hole in each weight. As the weights travel downward the ec- centric is carried across the shaft in a | straight line, so varying the travel of the | valve. The lead always remains constant. | An important feature of the governor is Island. The} that it can be oiled while running. Each engine, before being sent out, is tested under steam with friction brake, and is indicated to ascertain its exact condition. a i —_ Consul Smithers, at Tien-Tsin, China, says that if American manufacturers of cotton sheetings and drills expect longer to control that market they must oppose English imitations by producing a cheaper article expressly to meet the wants of the poorer classes. In this cheap trade the English are practically without a rival. The same remark in reference to adapta- tion to the wants of consumers applies equally well to other markets and other descriptions of merchandise. Ve weg ee Sg rent ~~ AERA AALS Le A se PIR AY At LOIRE A At AEE A mer ay St er nr . a Z a wrene He el «ae 5 eae AA A Nl) + al a rec ee ee ee 2 <a eee - 48) see ee ee ee ee °é is nee year 5 ewe —— ee ee ee ee — oe ae ene ~* a: = ya wns <= en we Ses ee ~ we me + Re ENB 6 ee oe eer ee a =a 124 THE IRON AGE. The Mullins Silica Process. The discussion in iron circles of the use of high-silicon pig-iron to soften foundry mixtures is constantly widening. Few foundry men are to-day ignorant of the results following the use of pig-iron con- taining a good percentage of silicon. cellent results are reported to have been accomplished in the same line by the use of silica in place of high-silicon pig-iron. The Mullins Silicated Iron and Steel Com- pany have sufficiently introduced their process among manufacturers of iron and steel to claim that it has now been well established. From a pamphlet issued by the company we have obtained a few facts regarding it. The silica process 1s a simple and novel use of comparatively pure silica (Si Ox.) | as a helper in the manufacture of superior | iron and steel. It needs no special plant nor any additional machinery, and is not confined to any particular de- partment of the iron industries, but is ap- plicable to all processes for the production of cast-iron, wrought-iron, steel and cast- steel. By ‘‘silicated iron and steel” is meant that the metal bas been specially treated with silica. G. G. Mullins, the inventor of this process, claims to have discoveied a regu- lar and scientific way to use silica as an ally to help purify, change and strengthen metal—to render both iron and _ steel homogeneous, fine-grained and compara- tively free from porosity. The following benefits are named as the direct and indirect results of his silica treatment: It makes an acid slag and re- moves the oxide of iron; lessens the amount of carbon in the iron; promotes the formation of graphitic carbon and an- tagonizes the formation of combined car- bon: changes the hard, white irons, the combined-carbon irons, old burnt-out irons and inferior scrap into soft, tough gray irons; liberates the occluded gases, leaves the molten metal quiet in bath, ladle or mold, and renders the product comparatively free from porosity; helps | the elimination of sulphur and phosporus; it diminishes the tendency to shrinkage and cracking in castings; leaves the cast- ings cleaner when they come from the molds ; dimin‘shes fully one-third the quantity of ferromanganese used in steel- making; augments the electrical conduct- ivity of steel wire, and increases the tensile and resilient strength of iron and steel. cupola practice, made in 1887, showed very important results. First, a number of heats were made with 20 per cent. of silicon pig in the mixture, and tests were made of the product. Then the same number of heats were made, treating the same mixture, 20 per cent. of silicon pig and all, with pure silica, and again the product was tested. The operations were witnessed and the tests made by disinter- | ested parties. The result showed that the silica process had improved the product an average of 15 per cent. in tensile strength and 40 per cent. in resilience. Prof. J. B. Johnston, of Washington University, made a large number of tests of this precess in 1888. In cast-iron he obtained the following results, showing | Ex- | A series of comparative trials in | | The greatest increase of strength was from 19,410 to 28,800, or an increase of 48 per cent. The least increase of strength was from 23,500 to 24,590, or an increase of 5 per cent., as a result of the silicated treatment, the mixtures otherwise remain- | ing the same. Resilience tests on identical mixtures of | cast-iron showed the following results: | Total number of tests.. 16 | Total number of silicated. 8 | Total number of non-silicated 8 | Average resilience of silicated. 107.5 Average resilience of non-silicated oa ao | Excess of silicated over non-silicated. .50.9 = 90% | Greatest resilience, silicated .. 140.0 | Greatest resilience, non-silicated. 111.0 | Least resilience, silicated.......... 48.0 Least resilience, non-silicated...... 23.0 ‘*the silicated process increased the ability of these eight mixtures of cast-iron to with- stand shock by an average of 90 per cent., or it nearly doubled the strength of the iron, if it were to be broken by shocks or blows of any kind. Or in common lan- guage we might say it makes the iron more malleable.” which have tested the process and their recommendations of its efficiency. Among them are the Butchers’ Supply Company, the Smith Feed-Water