The Iron Age 1891-04-09: Vol 47

THE THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1891. Engines for Cable Railway Power | massive and heavy. The bed is of the Stations. Until recent date the engines for cable railway purposes have all been of the hor- izontal variety. graving and accompanying drawings, an engine of the vertical type, fitted with Corliss Automatic Liberating Gear, two of which have been placed in the power We illustrate, in the en-| hollow box pattern, having the seatings for the main journals cast in. The shaft in the journals is 18 inches in diameter and the journals are 36 inches long. The top face of the bed is provided with planed faces for receiving the housing. The bed has been made of unusual depth, insuring ample strength and stiffness un- der the main journal. stations of the Philadelphia Traction Com-| The housing of the A frame is composed pany, Philadelphia, Pa. They were de-/ of four sections, extending from the top signed and built by Robert Wetherill & | of the bed casting to a point under the This type of engine, | cylinder, where it is faced for the recep- Co. of Chester, Pa. IRON AGE end to bracket faces inside of the housing” while the bottom ends are carried on the in™ termediate braces. The cross-head is of the box pattern, fitted with steel pin. +The lubrication is from stationary sight) feed cup through the center. The shoes, which have been given liberal wearing surface, are provided with reliable screw * and wedge adjustment. All the moving parts and lubricating attachments are readily accessible from the two galleries, which are of ample width and extend entirely around the engine. Special attention has been given to the VERTICAL CORLISS ENGINE FOR CABLE RAILWAY POWER STATION, BUILT BY ROBERT WETHERILL & CO. which is also adaptéd to the requirements | tion of the base casting in which the bot- of roliing mill, cotton mill and electric | tom cylinder head is formed. The inter- power station service, &c., will be of in-| mediate braces, which are connected to terest to those engaged in the installment | the four sides of the housing, are planed of power plants, where large power is re- | and fitted to the main or vertical sections quired in limited space, and value of floor|and secured with turned bolts fitted in space is a consideration. reamed holes, making a very rigid con- The cylinder is 40 inches diameter and | struction. oaraee 48 inches stroke, and is rated at 1000| The guide bars are provided with liberal horse-power. The engine throughout is ' wearing surfaces, and are secured at the top matter of automatic lubrication of all parts, which is so essential for the require- ments of day and night running. The valve gear is of the improved liber- ating type, with modifications to meet the requirements of the work. The valves are closed by vacuum pots mounted on brack- ets secured to the sides of the housing. The stop valve, which is for 12-inch ‘diameter pipe, is provided with by-pass ——— ewes s ee ce y { {i RRA cee = ae — eS wie neo oeie i 676 THE IRON AGE. April 9, 1891 iS HL IZ INI Side L£levation, VERTICAL CORLISS ENGINE FOR CABLE RAILWAY POWER STATION. ' April 9, 1891 THE IRON AGE. 677 | i a | ———_———— Se a | H | poe ares A — ee t | ral y Nx b — = ee ee ee — A A A SSS IR, A ach — A I A i A End Elevation. if VERTICAL CORLISS ENGINE FOR CABLE RAILWAY POWER STATION. LEE A ce aa ‘in 1859, commenced work on the Allouez 678 valve and hand-wheels on the first and second galleries. The balance-wheel ‘s 24 feet in diameter, weighs 45 tons, and is made in segments planed and fitted together. The seg- ments at the rim are secured together with forged links shrunk on. The shaft in the wheel-fit is 22 inches in diameter. The power is transmitted from the engine to a main line shaft, on which the winding drums are located, by spur gears; the wheels are with involute tooth, machine cut. The pinion on the engine shaft is 6 feet 4.39 inches pitch diameter, and the wheel on the main line shaft 21 | feet 5.83 inches pitch diameter. hc OUR COPPER RESOURCES.—II.* THE IRON AGE. copper, this was due, not to a contraction in the toanage stamped, but to a decline in the richness of the ore from 4.22 per cent. to 3.5 per cent. A large quantity of lean ore from the Black Hills Mine, which was necessarily mixed with the richer ores of the central shute, caused the falling off. The next year (1888) showed a still further decline to 3.28 per cent. of copper in the rock treated. The deepest point reached by the Calu- met and Hecla is the twenty-ninth level, which is 3750 feet trom the surface on the incline of the bed. As the dip is 374°, it makes the vertical depth 2280 feet. This depth corresponds with the fifth level of the Tamarack Mine, but the bottom of No. 4, the deepest Calumet and Hecla shaft, is 4000 feet north of the No. 1 Tam- arack shaft. It1s therefore assumed that , the Tamurack is working on the dip of the BY JAMES DOUGLAS, NEW YORK CITY. CONGLOMERATE MINES. The Albany and Boston forms just such a link between the second and third group of mines as the Copper Falls forms be- tween the first and second groups. After failing to work profitably an amygdaloid bed, the Albany and Boston made the | first experiment in 1864 in working a 2on- | glomerate bed, and thus, through unsuc- cessful itself, was the forerunner of the | most successful and important enterprise | on the lake. The Albany and Boston | should, therefore, appear at the head of ' the group of conglomerate mines, followed by the Calumet avd Hecla in 1865, and by the Allouez. which though organized | conglomerate only in 1869. The Osceola appeared in 1873, but after working for a time on so much of the remunerative por- tion of the Calumet conglomerate as lay within its lines, it transferred its opera- tions to an amygdaloid bed. The Tama- rack, which tapped the Calumet and Hecla conglomerate on the dip of the great ore shute by a vertical shaft, and commenced making copper in 1885, is the latest born of the conglomerate mines. Several conglomerate beds alternate throughout the series of the Keweenaw rocks with the unaltered traps and with the copper-bearing amygdaloid. In many places they carry traces of copper, but the only one that gives assurance of economic value is the Calumet bed, where, for about 3 miles along its strike, it outcrops on Calumet and Hecla ground, and on the northern edge of the bordering Osceola ground to the south, and the southern edge of Centennial ground tothe north. Inthe center of this long stretch Calumet shaft No. 1 was sunk in what has proved to be likewise the cen- ter of the most productive area of this vast shute of ore. Hecla shaft No. 1 ad- joins it to the south (for the two compa- nies were distinct until amalgated in 1872). Within the Calumet lines there have been sunk five shafts, from one to five, num- bered from south to north, and within the Hecla and South Hecla lines 12 shafts, numbered from north to south. The dis- astrous fires of late years crippled the deep, central shafts and shut off tempor- arily all access to the rich ores of the central zone, but previous to the fire the 700-foot level had been run south to the limit of the Calumet and Hecla property, and had travered a second chimney of ore in the southern part of the South Hecla, known as the Black Hills section of the mine. With extraordinary energy this almost unexplored territory was opened soon after the first fire occurred, and so rapidly was the work of development prosecuted that, although between the years 1886 and 1887 there was a diminution of product from 22,553 to 20,543 tons of ri DDL LLL LLL LC *Read at the New York meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. | South Hecla or Black Hills chimney, and | not on the central body. The sinking of the Tamarack vertical shaft to a depth of 2270 feet on the chance of striking the Calumet conglomerate was regarded as a piece of great audacity in mining, for when it was begun in 1882 the lower drifts of the Calumet and Hecla were far above the level at which the vertical Tamarack shaft was expected to pierce the lode. But ere the goal had been reached, in 1885, the Calumet’s deepest workings were approaching the same level; so that it became a foregone conclusion that the Tamarack hopes would be realized. To- day the Calumet and Hecla has nearly re- equipped the burnt out portion of the mine; it has also opened up a virtually new mine in the South Hecla; it has nearly reached its fortieth level, or a depth of 4000 feet, by its inclined shaft No. 4, and i¢ is sinking a vertical shaft—the Whiting—which in less than two years will touch the central shute of ore at the vertical depth of 3400 feet, or on the sixtieth level. Meanwhile the Tamarack is sinking a third and a fourth shaft, which should both intersect the central shute of the conglomerate at a depth of about 5000 feet, and Tamarack Junior, a company affiliated in ownership with the Tamarack, is sinking to thenorth of both the Calumet and Hecla and the Tamarack ground, in the hope of finding good ore below the Centennial property, a hope stimulated by the recent success of that latter compavy in striking remunerative ground to the north of their older work- ings. Within this limited range of 8 miles, besides the 25 inclinea shafts, of which eight are deeper than 3000 feet, there are sunk, or being sunk, seven ver- tical shafts, the shallowest of which is 2270 feet, and the deepest of which will be 5000 feet. By the end of this year the Calumet and Hecla will be daily ex- tracting from this limited area 3000 tons of ore, and the Tamarack 1000 tons; but these quantities, great as they are, could certainly be more than doubled within a few years, if it should be the policy of these companies to increase their produc- tion. And their neighbors, the Osceola, Centennial, Kearsarge and Tamarack Junior, will contribute in no small degree to swell the grand total. During the next generation these 9 square miles will probably produce more copper than any other equal area on the earth’s crust. It is not within the scope of my present purpose to describe the methodsof mining or of concentrating and smelting the ore; suffice it to say that the ore, though in some cases so very lean, is readily concen- trated, by automatic means, into a product carrying from 30 to 90 per cent. of me- tallic copper, and that this concentrate is smelted ard refined at one fusion. Until lately the smelting was done for the mining companies by a separate smelting company, under contract, at se much per ton of copper. Now the Calumet and April 9, 1891 Hecla company have their own smelting plant, and as one consequence, they reduce the loss of copper in the tailings by mak- ing concentrates of a lower grade. Arizona, Over 90 per cent. of all Arizona copper is derived from oxidized ores, which are found in the southern and middle sections of the territory. Nature has reduced the copper in the Keweenaw rocks of Michigan to metal. In Southern Arizona she has assisted the metallurgist by effecting a partial alteration of the ores to oxides and carbonates. In both cases the action has been attended with the elimination of cer- tain elements injurious to copper, which are almost invariably associated with the sulphureted ores of the metal, and are difficult to extract by the usual smelting methods. Hence copper made from native lake ore ranks highest in quality in the markets of the world, and that made from the oxidized ores of Arizona holds an in- termediate place between lake copper and the metal made by the ordinary methods from sulphureted ores. It can be drawn and rolled and stamped into intricate shapes, like lake copper, but it lacks the high electrical conductivity of that excep- tionally valuable metal. It possesses the qualities of the copper from the Burra- Burra and Moonta mines of South Austra- lia, which is likewise the product of oxidized ores. This ore is smelted in water-jacketed cupola furnaces, by a single fusion, into bars of 96 per cent. standard, which are sold by the pound under conditions sim- ilar to those which govern the sale of Chili bars. With insignificant exceptions, all bar copper comes from the three districts of Clifton, Bisbee and Globe. The principal mines in the Clifton district are owned b the Arizona Copper Company, a Scotc organization, and by the Detroit Copper Company. There are several groups of mines, some miles apart, the members of each group being related to one another, and forming a more or less continuous chain of deposits. The first property to be worked was the Longfellow. Though not itself the most productive mine at present, it lies in the strike of the most important series of ore masses. At Bisbee, and for miles around it, there are claims capable of producing more or less copper, but no other large ore deposit has been discovered than that which was opened as the Copper Queen Mine in 1880. At Globe, the only large producer has been the old Globe Mine, owned by the Old Dominion Co * The ore ooo {ore districts in, or adjacent to, carboniferous limestone, which has been chemically and mechanic- ally influential, in assisting the oxidation of the ore to a very considerable depth; for, through the crevices which intersect the limestone, and which have, in part, been the result of the ore decay itself, water has filtered down from the surface and decomposed the ore to a depth far below the line of decay of the adjacent feldspathic rocks, where these rocks are not themselves heavily charged with cop- per. In Bisbee the ore beds appear to be confined to the limestone, but follow no regular order in their distribution. In Clifton and Globe, on the other hand, the ore bodies, though of irregular size and occurring at irregular intervals, are gen- erally found in the plane of contact be- tween the limestone and granite, or the limestone and sandstone. Sometimes, however, and then over considerable areas, the granite and sandstone themselves are replaced by copper and associated ores. But even in these cases, the contiguous limestone has apparently played an essen- tial part in the genesis of the oxidized ore. Sulphureted ores of copper are found in all of our extensively worked carbonate April 9, 1891 THE IRON AGE, 679 mines—sometimes in large masses, which for some cause, not always assignable, have escaped decay—occasionally even at a much higher level than that at which oxidized ores occur in the same mine. The average percentage of copper in the ore is difficult to determine, since unas- sorted ore is never delivered to the fur- naces, while the grade to which it is selected is dependent in each district upon the cost of fuel and transportation. The furnace yield of Copper Queen wet ore is about 8 per cent., but almost as much very lean ore is stowed away in the stopes as is delivered to the furnace bins. The aver- age ores of the other carbovate districts are probably richer and their furnace yield is notably higher. The deeper Queen ores consist essentially of ferric oxide associated with cuprous oxide and cupric carbonate, resulting from the oxidation of iron and copper pyrites. They are consequently basic. But sufficient siliceous ore can be procured to supply the necessary acid flux for the furnace mixture. In the other districts, on the contrary, where the ore gangue consists largely of altered granites and sandstones, the siliceous and alum- inous constituents have been imperfectly eliminated, and barren limestone must be added to the furnace charge. But in none of the large producing mines does the average of the ore reach the high percent- age promised to investors in the pros- pectuses of undeveloped Southwestern mines. It will be seen from this sketch that the Arizona ore beds are as strikingly irregu- lar in their distribution as those of the lake are the reverse. The map of a lake mine is like a chessboard, laid out with mathematical precision; that of the deep Arizona mines is more like a tangle of different colored threads. The only large copper mine in the north- ern half of the territory is the Verde, in Yavapai County. There the copper occurs in lenticular masses imbedded in crystal. line schists, probably of Taconic age. Massive carbonates are found at the sur- face, but at a shallow depth occur altered sulphurets or oxisulphurets which re- semble those of the Southern States and of Butte. In this mine, as in all copper- bearing veins in this section of the terri- tory, notable quantities of precious metals accompany the copper; but the gold and silver are irregularly distributed in the same vein and bear no uniformly definite proportion to the copper. Montana. Of far greater moment than the copper mines of Arizona are those of Butte, Montana. The principal mines have been opened on a lode which has proved to be continuous and productive for over three miles. The principal mines succeed one another from west to east as follows: Gagnon, Original, Parrott, Anaconda, St. Lawrence, Mountain View, Shannon, Colusa and Hattie Harvey. The gangue of the vein is granitic and softened to a very considerable depth. It contains dis- seminated particles of ore, but most of the ore is derived from large imbedded masses. One of these in the Anaconda is said to attain a width of 150 feet of solid mineral. Two, or perhaps three, parallel veins, or as many chains of ore masses in one very wide vein are traceable throughout its ex- tent. Everywhere the copper carries sil- ver in proportions varying from 2 ounces per unit of copper to less than 4 ounce per unit. The proportion of silver to copper is greater in the western section of the vein than in .its central and eastern sections. The ores of the Gagnon mine are smelted into rich argentiferous matte at the Williams works, which ship their roduct to the Boston and Colorado Smelt- g Company, of Argo, Col. The Parrott ores contain about 60 ounces of silver to the ton of copper. The average silver contents of the Anaconda, Mountain View and Colusa ores is less. Both the Cham- bers Syndicate and the Boston and Mon- tana Company, however; make rich silver matte, but not from unmixed ores of the great lode. In following the lode from the Gagnon eastward, one ascends the western slope of a steep hill, traversing the Parrott and the Anaconda to the Mountain View, which covers the summit. In descending the eastern slope of the hill, one crosses the Shannon and the West and East Colusa. The latter is situated in the trough of a valley and was formerly sup- posed to cover the eastern limit of the lode. Bout prductive ground has recently been found far to the east of this point, extending the length of this vast lode a mile beyond its formerly supposed confines. The mines which lie at the extremities of the most productive section of the lode—viz. : the Gagnon and Original on the west and the Colusa on the east, are likewise lower in level. In them the copper o:e came to the surface, whereas in the Anaconda and the Moun- tain View, which crown the hill several hundred feet above the terminal mines, the surface ores to a depth of 400 feet carry some silver, but no notable quantity of copper. At about that depth, however, great bodies of oxisulphurets and erubes- cite were met with in the Anaconda, from which, in the early days, ores running 50 per cent. copper and over were mined by tens of thousands of tons. Subse- quently, the Mountain View commenced to yield from about the same depth the rich decomposed ores which are now as- sisting the large product of the Boston and Montana Copper Company. The same oxisulphurets come to the surface, or are found rear the surface, where the lode crops out in the valleys and on the flanks of the hill, but their depth and richness there are not as great as on the summit. Here it would seem as if the copper, leached out of the 400 feet of depleted vein, had been concentrated in the under- lying ore, and had thus produced a zone of secondary ore about 200 feet deep, which contains, as might be expected, about thrice its normal copper contents. In the decuprified surface ore, silver was retained as an insoluble chloride when the soluble copper was removed. Therefore we find that the proportion of silver to copper is less in the enriched copper zone, where an excess of copper is added to the normal silver contents, than in the unaltered ore beneath. Hence, the proportion of silver to copper increases with the depth. The Anaconda was bought as a silver mine, and preparations were being made to mill the ore when the shaft entered the copper. The experience of the Parrott and other mines confirms the theoretical anticipation that the lean unaltered ores carry a larger proportion of silver to copper than the overlying altered ores. No massive car- bonates have been discovered, but the Gagnon and Parrott in their early days yielded small quantities of an earthy car- bonate of copper, rich im silver. The altered ores of both the great lode and the smaller cross and parallel lodes consist mainly of a compact purple ore and of soft black ore with a bright metallic streak. The actual copper yield of the Boston and Montana is given in the report of the company for the year ending June 30, 1890, at 9.36 per cent. This high per- centage is the result of treating a very large proportion of the rich altered ore. Distributing the published yield of the Anaconda and the Chambers Syndicate mines over the number of tons said to have been transported from the mine to the smelting works—namely, 61,647,000 pounds of copper over 1,028,000,000 pounds of ore—we obtain, as the yield of the Anaconda, whose reserves of altered ore are not yet exhausted, 5.9 per cent. The ultimate yield of the deep copper ores of the great Butte lode and its subordinate veins will undoubtedly be lower still. Many small copper mines are being worked on the parallel veins, and on what appear to be spurs of the great lode. The oper- ators are the Chambers Syndicate, a com- pany closely connected with the Anaconda; the Boston and Montana Company, the Butte and*Boston Company and a number of individual owners. Some of the ore bodies of these subordinate lodes are large and their ores generally carry a profitable percentage of silver. In the aggregate they add largely to the present production of Butte, and, considering the great length of ground which they represent, they in- sure for Butte a longer life than would be its lot if all the companies were making their extravagant drafts on the one great lode alone. Both Arizona and Montana have in- creased their production from year to year, but in very different proportions, as the following figures, from ‘‘ The Mineral Resources of the United States,” show: Arizona. Montana. Pounds. Pounds. ee 17,984,415 9,058,284 tibicctcmaieds 23,874,963 24,664,346 ME iudiins weedadoe 26,784,345 40,612,78: SE ccusucckesata 22,706,366 61,797,864 ia face 15,657,035 57,611,621 BGs vec vce cecce cacao 97,897,968 1889... 2... ..eeeeee 231,600,000 104,200,000 (20 be continued.) I Providence Engines in Electric Railway Work. Last year the output of the Armington & Sims Engine Company of Providence, R. I., as nearly as can be estimated, was 30,000 horse-power, of which amount 20,000 horse-power was for electrical rail- way use with the overhead trolley system. A recent issue of the Electrical World in an articie on ‘‘ Statistics of Electric Lighting in Massachusetts,” says: ‘‘ The total num- ber of boilers in use in central stations was 200, which furnish power to 250 en- gines.” The books of the Armington & Sims Engine Company show a shipment of engines for electrical purposes only for the State of Massachusetts of 267 engines. In this number are not included those placed on board steamers that sail from any ports in Massachusetts, neither does it in- clude engines used for manufacturing pur- poses. Thearticle referred to states that the Edison Company of Boston leads the list in incandescents with 25,600 lights of 16- candle power, supplied from 77 dynamos. In this station there are 24 Armington & Sims engines of 150 horse-power each. Four of them are now worked up to 200 horse-power éach. They supply 800 horse- power to the West End Street Railway Company. The works have just received an addi- tional order for five of these engines which are to be used for the same purpose as those just mentioned, and will without doubt give 1000 horse-power additional, or 1800 horse-power in all. There are, inde- pendent of this station, four Armington & Sims engines, owned by the West End Company, which are located at Allston and are anderstood to be developing 300 horse-power each. From this it may be estimated that the output of both stations for the West End road will be 3000 horse- power. It seems to be still an open ques- tion whether the direct acting, single ex- pansion or compound high-speed engines are preferable to the long-stroke, low- speed, triple expansion engine, and Amer- ican practice may vary according to indi- vidual preferences in this regard for years to come. mm Cars heated by steam now run out from New York on the New Haven railroad, which is a result of the tunnel accident. 680 THE IRON AGE. aoe April 9, 1891 Hydraulic Operating Serews for Blooming Mill. The accompanying drawings show an arrangement invented by Henry Aiken of Pittsburgh, Pa., by means of which the adjustment of the rolls, whether two or three high, can be easily and quickly effected. The rolls are mounted in the usual manner in the housings, as shown in the drawings, Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the journal boxes of the lower rolls resting on the bottom of the windows in the housings, while the journal boxes of the upper roll are supported by rods extending upwardly from the crossheads on the piston rods of fluid pressure cylinders, These cylinders are connected to an accumulator, thereby providing a yielding support for the upper roll. Through the upper portions of the housings above the windows are formed threaded openings for the reception of screws, whose lower ends bear upon the upper halves of the journal boxes of the upper roll, as shown in Fig. 1. On the upper ends of these screws are held pinions in such a manner as to permit the screws to move longitudinally through them, while at the same time rotating. These pinions engage with a large gear wheel arranged between them and which is keyed to a vertical shaft mounted in suitable bearings in a frame screwed to brackets attached to the inner faces of the housings. On this shaft is a'so keyed a pinion inter- meshing with a rack bar connecting the pistons of two single-acting fluid pressure cylinders, the arrangement being as shown — 4 fi CML Fig 3—End Elevation. Fig. 2.—Side Elevation. Fig. 1.—End Elevation, HYDRAULIC OPERATING SCREWS FOR BLOOMING MII.1. April 9, 1891 in Fig 4. These cylinders are secured | on the housings, and are so placed that by admitting fluid pressure into one of them while the exhaust is taking lace from the other the rack can be shifted longitudinally and the screws ro- tated as desired. While Mr. Aiken pre- fers to employ single acting cylinders formed independently of each other with their inner adjacent ends open, as in this construction (the amount of packing re- quired is reduced to a minimum, the pis- tons being the only portions requiring a packing), it is evident that one double- acting cylinder may be employed if de- sired. In order to carry out this idea the cylinders are formed integral with each other, thereby constituting a single cylin- der, provided about midway its length with an opening through which the pinion projects, so as to engage the rack bar, | this bar being so formed and provided | with a suitable packing at its ends as| to serve as pistons. It will be observed | that the two single-acting cylinders, | having their pistons rigidly connected, | really operate as a double-acting cylinder. One of these machines is now being made | THE [IRON AGE. LAKE ORE. POSITION OF THE LAKE SUPERIOR IRON ORE TRADE. The ore situation at Cleveland is clouded with uncertainty in some respects, but in others it is very well defined. The un- certainty prevails with regard to the time | when heavy buying will begin and the quantity of ore which will be needed to The facts thus far settled are that prices will be at supply the year’s requirements, least 20 per cent. lower than the prevail- ing ratcs last year and that the output will show a heavy reduction on last year's | enormous figures. 1890 and 1891 Compared, A more complete reversal of the condi- tion of affairs, as compared with the spring of 1890, could hardly be conceived. At that time contracts had not only been made for more ore by far than had ever| ments can begin in earnest. before been produced in one year from the 681 neverthless that consumers of ore over- estimated their needs quite considerably. That the mining companies were not re- sponsible fur the great overproduction of ore is shown by the statement that only about 1,250,000 tons of the stocks re- ferred to were unsold out of the entire quantity so held on December 1. Stock of Bessemer Ore. A curious fact in connection with the unsold ore is that more of it was Bessemer |than non-Bessemer, showing that there had been more than enough Bessemer ore to go round, despite the fears of a Besse- mer ore famine early in the season. The large stocks of ore at the lower lake ports are much in excess of any previous stocks ‘at this time of the year, and some of the | docks are in such condition that no more jore can be received by them. At a few docks «#n additional supply can be han- dled, but it is safe to say that shipments to furnaces must be quite generally re- ‘sumed all along the line before lake ship- This will depend upon the resumption of activity | Lake Superior mines, but the demand for|by the Ohio and Western Pennsylvania Fig. 4.—Sectional Plan Through Hydraulic Cylinders. for the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company of Cleveland, Ohio, by William Tod & Co. of Youngstown, Obio. re Ramie Cultivation.—Jobn 8S. Will- iams, an engineer who went to Mexico to assist in the erection of new process ramie machinery on the estate of General Pacheco, brings home accounts of a pros- pective revolution in the textile world, the plant being wonderfully productive and adapted to the manufacture of a great variety of products. He says the supply of ramie is inexhaustible, as there are millions of idle acres of it throughout Mexico. At least 40,000 stocks can be planted to the acre, and the yield will be from 40,000 to 60,000 pounds in ribbons. The ‘‘ ribbon ” is really the bark. The size of the plant is from {inch to } inch in diameter. It takes about 90 days’ growth before the plant is fully matured, and from two to four crops of ramie can be gathered every year. The bark will produce about 60,000 pounds of dry fiber to each acre, worth at least six cents per pound. One man can plant from three-quarters to an acre per day, and at the end of 90 or 100 days at furthest he can begin to reap. After the ramie has been planted it needs but v little attention, and when the planter ins to reap he can somewhat vary the order of things by planting one day and reaping the next, climate per- mitting, of course. rr Proposals for postal sea service under the new Subsidy act will be expected not | ater than June. Bessemer ores especially seemed to be | furnaces, the owners of which are not only greater than the supply, and a Bessemer | waiting for the termination of the coke ore famine was seriously discussed. So | strike, but also for the adjustment on a far removed from any uncertainty about | lower basis of freight rates on coke. The disposing of their output were the mining | Mahoning and Shenango Valley furnace companies that not a few of them had | owners held a meeting the past week to oversold their capacity before the shipping | discuss the situation, and are reported to season began. contracts for ore earliest were the most fortunate, as prices steadily hardened as long as purchasers were in the market. Under the circumstances it is rather re- matkable that prices did not go much higher. This would surely have been the case but for the opening of new and very productive mines within the preceding year or two, as well as the admirable preparations made by mine managers to meet an extraordinary demand. Stock of Ore. The conditions prevailing in the ore trade at present are peculiar, a new set of problems having arisen which require solution. Among these are first the large stocks of ore pow ou the receiving docks at lower lake ports. Cn December 1 last, these stocks aggregated at all ports 3,900,000 tons in round numbers, or over 40 per cent. of the aggregate production of the Lake Superior mines in 1890. It is asserted by those in a position to form a close estimate that these stocks have not been largely reduced during the winter months and that May 1 will see over 3,000,- 000 tons still waiting to be forwarded to furnaces, The stoppage of the Mahoning and Shenango Valley furnaces and the coke strike have, of course, had much to do with the retention of the ore at the _Teceiving docks, but the fact is apparent Furnace owners who made | have stood as firmly as ever against re- ‘suming operations until they secure the ‘concessions for which they shut down_in | the first place. Southern Competition, | Another question which is a potent fac- | tor in determining the course of the lake | ore trade is the encroachment of Southern ‘pig iron in the markets which naturally | belong to the furnaces running on lake ore. The Lake Superior mining compauies find their interests identical with those of | their customers, the Northern furnacemen, and some of them go so far as to say that a new adjustment of values is conceded to be necessary in order to assist their cus- tomers to regaining complete control of the territory north of the Ohio River. To reduce the cost of pig iron to $13 or under they are prepared to mark down the price of ore, expecting at the same time to have the co operation of vessel owners, the rail- road companies hauling from mines to shipping ports, ore trimmers, manufactur- ers of coke, railroads hauling coke, &c. It is understood that no demands for a re- duction in freight rates are being made on the railroads running from lower lake ports to furnaces. Their rates are regarded as already sufficiently low. Although matters have not progressed far enough to permit a definite statem-nt to be made of the in- tentions of certain furnace companies, it Raa ee Sa ner en —_— acsceen Se -~- 2 4 ' . \ le ae 3 RT Td cs va iil coments bil BOOZE bri £ Ss cA hee ee ether Ee scl 4 & ‘ re 682 is known that as soon as they have secured the reductions now deemed certain on ores, coke and freight an aggressive palicy will be inaugurated for the renewed con- trol of Northern markets. Financial Position of the Miner, Those who may be expecting to get very cheap ores, however, as they did in 1888, when the ore market was glutted, are probably destined to be disappointed. The mining interests of the Lake Superior region are much stronger financially than ever before, and there are no hypothecated ones to be forced on the market. The eollapse of the Gogebic boom was largely responsible for the financial sales of 1888 No such condition of affairs prevails now. Whatever apprehension might have ex- isted with regard to the Schlesinger group of mines bas been completely removed by their passing into strong hands and under most ablemanagement. Relieved from any financial pressure, no property can be so easily adjusted to changing conditions of business as a mine. The Lake Superior mine owners propose to regulate their out- put this year according to the requirements of the trade. The large companies par- ticularly will be very conservative in en- deavoring to make sales. The ore com- panies state that they not only had no trouble in enforcing contracts with fur- nacemen when the market sagged last fall and winter, but that payments have been made promptly and regularly according to the settled terms, and that the cre on the docks at lower lake ports classed as sold is thus nearly all paid for, and will not have to be resold at a bargain price. This Vear’s Production. The estimates of the production of ore this year in the Lake Superior region range in the neighborhood of 6,000,000 tons. A few of the Cleveland ore dealers think these figures will be exceeded, but others who have close affiliations with iron interests and reason from aslightly differ- ent standpoint think that 6,000,000 tons will hardly be reached. In view of the very heavy stocks carried over from last year, Which was a period of enormous pig iron production, it seems not unlikely that the output ot ore may shrink to 5,000,000 tons this year with the iron trade in sucha depressed condition. The mining com- panies will certainly have no inducement during the early part of the season to hurry shipments. A small production of ore this year was, in fact, laid out by the large producers at the close of navigation. They cut down their working force from one- third to one-half, and the number of miners is not being increased as usual with the approach of the shipping season. For instance, one mine in Northern Michigan which usually employs 2000 men is now working but 1000. Another company, which employed 1800 men in November, cut the force to 1100 afterward. Many small mines have been shut down entirely, because their owners see no profit in the business, and do not propose to exhaust their deposits and waste their property merely to be known in the trade. Stock piles at the mines are very small compared with the enormous mounds ready for ship- ment at this time last year. Sales of Ore, The sales made thus far are very light, perhaps falling considerably short of 1,000,000 tons. None of the large con- sumers of Bessemer ores have yet entered the market and are not expected for some time, as they are known to have good stocks carried over from last year. The few buyers are principally independent furnacemen who recall previous expe- riences of this kind and think it is well to buy when they can supply themselves at fairly low prices. They have bought Bessemer hematites at $4.50 to $5, Besse- mer hard ores at $5 to $5.50 and non- justed for the season. The mining com- panies are endeavoring to secure reduc- tions on both the rail haul from mines to shipping docks and the vessel haul to lower lake ports. They claim that 45 cents per ton is entirely too much for a 12-mile rail haul, as, for instance, from Ishpeming to Marquette, and that 70 cents is too much for 39 miles, from the Gogebic mines to Ashland. These charges, it is claimed, are among those to be pruned down in order to put Ohio and Western Pennsylvania blast furnaces in a position to hold their own with Southern furnaces. Even 10 to 15 cents per ton is a saving not to be despised, and the mining com- panies are trying to get it. THE [RON AGE, Bessemer ores at $4.10 to $4.25. These prices are from $1 to $1.25 lower than the prices of March, 1890. The sales here 1eferred to were made from a month to six weeks back, but since then inquiries have in but few cases led to actual transac tions. A feature of the sales referred to is that the buyers were men who are somewhat acquainted with mining or interested in mines and who either knew about what it costs to produce ore or else preferred to buy rather than exhaust their own deposits without profit. From the nature of large inquiries made it seems to be quite apparent that a number of fur- naces using mainly Bessemer ores last year will consume non-Bessemers largely this year and turn their attention to the foundry trade. This is in the line of what was referred to above in connection with the question of Southern competi- tion. A buying movement in that direc- tion may set in early if the coke strike is settled. The opinion is quite generally expressed that in most instances furnace- men will buy from hand to mouth instead of making season contracts, in which case there is likely to be a period of very great activity in the fall after crop prospects are settled. History would merely repeat it- self if the winter of 1891-2 should set in with many furnaces short of ore because contracts were not placed early enough for the ore to be mined and shipped during the season. ‘ The Eastern Demand. The Eastern demand for lake ore is in about the same state as the Western demand. Inquiries have been received, and hopes are expressed that the lower prices now ruling for ore may enlarge the Eastern consumption very materially, but furnacemen will be slow to make contracts while the iron market is so depressed, The great obstacle to a large Eastern con- sumption is the high cost of transportation, but efforts are being made to have the rail rate reduced from Buffalo to the fur naces, and with the reduction assured in vessel rates a saving of some 60 cents per ton is likely to be made, which should help materially in increasing this branch of the trade, Reductions in Freight Rates. Transportation matters are as yet unad- Lake Freights. Lake freights are so far from settlement that hardly a charter has yet been made, The companies are unwilling to pay more than $1 to the head of thelakes, while the vesselmen hold out for $1.10. In any event, it seems now very unlikely that ore will begin to be received at lower lake ports before the 1st of June, as the Cleve- land vessel owners have agreed not to start their boats out before the 15th of May on account of the restricted business to be done this season. The mining companies owning vessels will co-operate by holding back their own boats until then, believing that it will be to the advantage of the ore trade to have a late opening. Vesselmen at other ports are not as yet signing the agree- ment with the Cleveland .vesselmen, but the ore companies assert that they will not April 9, 1891 load vessels from any port until the middle of May. Owners of vessels will have some compensation for their idleness during the first six weeks of the season in the rebate on their insurance, which amounts to 10 per cent. for April and 5 per cent. for two weeks of May, or 15 per cent. in all, which is perbaps more than they would clear in carrying ore in the same time. EEE The principal work on the Erie Canal by the State Engineer last year was the continuation of the lock lengthening, in accordance with the policy adopted by the Legislature of increasing to twice the present length one of each of the twin locks so as to pass without delay, at one operation, two boats fastened together. a The Forter Hydraulic Ladle Crane. The accompanying drawing shows a crane invented by Samuel Forter of Pitts- burgh, and especially designed for use in mills and furnace plants where heavy burdens have to be lifted and transported from one place to another, as, for instance, for ladle cranes in Bessemer or open- hearth steel plants. The load lifted by such cranes is generally very great, and it is desirable that the crane should be very strong and yet as light as possible con- sistent with the requisite strength, and that the power in operating the cranes should be as small as possible. With such ends in view, the crane shown in the accompanying cut has been designed. It consists of avery light mast, a step-casting attached at its bottom and a hydraulic cylinder at the top. The jib in this crane is a rocking beam and is pivotally supported by means of a strut leading from the foot of the mast and brace-rods leading to the upper portion of the mast. The rear end of the jib is con- nected by links to the crownhead of the plunger; the outer end is provided with a frame formed into hooks at the lower end to receive the ladle. The cylinder receives the water through the toptrunnion. The plunger moves downward when the load is to be lifted. The braces and jibs of the hydraulic cranes commonly used for steel and iron mills are connected to the mast at points intermediate between the top and bottom bearing and therefore require the mast to be made of very heavy beams or castings in order to withstand the great bending strain to which it is subjected. It will be noticed that the strut which extends from the foot of the mast to the pivotal point of the jib is connected with the mast in such a manner that the center line intersects the center line of the mast at or near the middle of the bearing. The same is the case with the brace rods ex- tending from the top of the mast. The consequence of this construction is that strains on the mast tending to bend it are avoided and that the mast can be con- structed very light. The vertical down- ward thrust resulting from the brace rods is counteracted by the upward pressure of the cylinder, thus creating a tensional strain in the mast. A great deal of power is consumed in ordinary cranes by the fric- tion of the rollers or shoes traveling along the mast the full length of the stroke, as in cranes of the Wellman type, or by the heavy side thrust in the stuffing box top- steadment in Holley cranes. Moreover, the dead load is in most cases very large in proportion to the net load. This, of course, necessitates a plunger largely in excess of the one needed to lift only the net load, resulting in a great waste of wer, In the Forter crane the only friction is the journal friction of the jib beam pivot and the stuffing box friction of the cylin- der, which is very small, as the stuffing box has no appreciable side thrust to sus- April 9, 1891 THE IRON AGE. 6383 tain. As the plunger moves in the oppo- | horizontally. A rocking cylinder can be | ward the mast. The gravity of the load site direction to the load, this crane can }attached to the strut, as shown in the/ always tends to bring it back to the ex- be either entirely or partly balanced. It) cut. It is a single-acting cylinder, the|treme point. The plunger is solid, in or- will, of course, be best to balance itso that | plunger of which is connected at its top| der that its weight will overcome the back the dead load is just sufficient to overcome | to two chains leading around cbain wheels ' pressure in the cylinder. 2'extra heavy pipe for lifting Cylinder Under line of Truss * —* ! | a ; ! - —*- - —-——_-- —-9¢- —- \ » iit 2 OD DIDDEES 298 TOS as ; 5 S Bs Lo 6 \ 221 Beams bs * ah ee a“g/o Ss do. at z / . / | es i tg / / ~ | 7 / / ~ / hin / / 4 / | “K/ i ' | / | | / - | ‘ | | e | | / | ! / ; i | een a ee te Leta iii ||| 3 | ae = = \ al] o | S|] ¥ y “2 3 4 Racking— - i | eee ‘d | | 2 | py 7 i | 3 | o = E ‘es t | . % | a t 2 i nx : ! | fr | my ' | | =<) if Floo? line EEE J THE FORTER HYDRAULIC LADLE CRANE. thejback pressure in the cylinder, thus|to the ladle hanger. The water for this; The dot and dash lines show the move- allowing the front end of the jib to de-| cylinder is introduced through the bottom | ment of the jib and its operating plunger, scend when the net load is taken off. trunnion of the crane. When the plunger | and also the movement of the hooks carry- It is desirable to rock the load also|is pressed upward the load is pulled to-! ing the load. re ar ee aes ee on pommel ott. 684 THE IRON AGE. April 9, 1891 The Calculation of Blast- | the darker shades of gray. It may be said (has remained the come as in the csigtnal Furnace Slags.-I. BY A. J. ROSSI, NEW YORK. There have appeared in The Iron Age within the last two months several articles on the calculation of blast-furnace slags, and in the issue of January 22, 1891, refer- ence is made to certain papers on this subject which have been read before the American Chemical Society and published in its journal (Vol. XII, Nos. 6 and 8, A. Braneman, 97 Water street). This ques- tion, of great importance at all times, has assumed at once, it would seem, a real actuality, if I am to judge from the numer- ous letters I have received from this coun- try, and even from England, soliciting in- formation as to the aforesaid papers. I have thought that a condensed remodeling of these articles, stating their general pur- pose and scope and developing from them more specially that part which treats of calculation of slags, might prove of some interest to your readers. The experiments of Caron, Berthier, Ebelmen, Percy and many others on the fusibility of silicates have established the fact that, excepting the alkaline silicates of potash and soda, which are all fusible, the single silicates of earthy bases—that is, the silicates of one base only—were either absolutely refractory, such as aluminum and magnesium silicate (fire clay and ser- pentine) and most of the calcium silicates, or only fusible at the highest temperature attainable in a blast furnace; practically, only one combination of lime and silica is really fusible. The word ‘‘ fusible,” as un- derstood by the authorities quoted, implies the idea of an extreme limit which it is possible to reach in a blast furnace, but which, practically, it would not be always safe to attain and specially to depend upon. It is not sufficient, indeed, that a slag should melt when it reaches the zone of the tuyeres; it must not run pasty nor thicken ; it must still preservea certain fluidity when it comes into contact with the fore part of the crucible or with the air. Double and, in general, multiple silicates are considerably more fusible than any sin- gle silicate, and, other things being equal, a silicate melts more readily when the silica it contains is combined with a greater number of different bases. A triple silicate is thus more fusible than a double silicate. Blast-furnace slags are essentially triple silicates of alumina, lime and mag- nesia and, more properly, polybasic sili- cates, coptaining beside these three oxides named oxides of iron and magnesia and even alkalies in very important quantities of 5 per cent. and 10 per cent. and even