The Iron Age 1892-10-27: Vol 50

The Hereules Forging and Bending} Machine. The Hercules Iron Works of Chicago are building a new design of forging and | bending machine. It is designed more as a forging than a bending machine, al- though it will do all the bender’s work. It has an adjustable stroke, so that work re quiring a great pressure can be done and! tirely avoided. The strength of the bed and the changeable stroke admit of nearly all bending being done cold. The die plate for holding forms and dies ‘THE THURSDAY. OCTOBER 27, 1892. which a steam cylinder can be attached, so that the machine may be driven by steam direct if wanted. The manufactur- ers of these tools make six sizes of ma- chines, ranging in weight from 4000 to 40,000 pounds if wanted. ee A Big Sound Boat. Oa Tuesday the 18th inst., at the ship- building and Engine Works, Chester, Pa., the first section of keel was laid for a new steamer for the Old Colony Steamboat Company of New York, which is designed IRON AGE sinkable. The motive power will be sup- plied by 8000 horse-power double inclined compound engines, working side wheels with feathering buckets, and the boat will be fitted with ten Scotch boilers and two smoke stacks. The speed expected to be obtained is 22 knots per hour. Accommo- dation is planned for about 1500 passen- gers in between 400 and 500 state rooms; while the freight carrying capacity will be 1000 tons or more. The general design and arrangements are almost similar to those of the ‘‘ Puritan,” with the excep- tion of the saloon, which will be placed on the main deck aft, instead of below. The cost is calculated to reach the neighbor- the danger of breakage of gearing be en- yard of the Delaware River Iron Ship- has a depression or jaw into which the | to beat the record for size, speed and carry- | hood of $1,250,000; and it is stated that aa Pil J | HH ill oe THE HERCULES FORGING AND BENDING MACHINE. bottom of the die drops, and admits|ing powers of any vessel of her class at; the boat when completed will be far ahead of the use of a lighter die than was for-| present afloat. The new vessel is to sup-| of any hitherto launched for similar serv- merly used, and is so arranged that one or | plement the company’s Sound fleet, which| ice. “Work will be pushed on as rapidly more forms or dies can be used at the | includes the fine well-known boats ‘‘ Puri-| as possible; all the resources of the ship- same time. The die is adjusted by a} tan,” ‘‘ Pilgrim” and ‘‘ Plymouth,” all of| yard being used to enable the vessel to double wedge block, drawn crosswise of | which were built at the Delaware River | take the water by next July, if possible. the machine at the back of the die plate. | Shipyard, and are splendid specimens | = It will resist heavy strain without injury | of maritime architecture. to the screws supporting the die. Upon The following are the principal dimen- | Pintsch Gas Lighting. the back of the machine and acting onthe} sions of the ship in question: Length, | main gear is a pawl that allows the ma_ | over all, 440 feet (or 20 feet more than the| Prof. J. E. Denton of Stevens Institute chine being stopped at its extreme back- | ‘ Puritan,” at present the longest similar| of Technology has been making thorough ward stroke. This will prevent a dropping | vessel); length on water-line 424 feet;| experiments testing the candle-power of down of the cranks to the bottom quarter! depth of hull, 20 feet 6 inches; depth| Pintsch gas and oil lamps. The substance and the throwing forward of the head on | from top of dome, 58 feet; beam, over| of the report shows that Pintsch gas is the slides after the clutch has been thrown | hull, 52 feet; beam, over barge, 92 feet. | capable of affording an illumination of 40 out. Attached to the main shaft near the| The vessel will be constructed entirely of | candle power, continuously, in an ordinary main gear, and not shown in the engrav-/|steel, and will be absolutely fire proof. | 4-flame lamp, without requiring anything ing, is an automatic stop, that can be ar- | She will have a double hull on the bracket | more than the ordinary attention to lamps ranged to stop the machine at any point. | system, divided into 58 water-tight com | by railroad employees; whereas the latest At the back of the bed is a flat plate to! partments, which will render her non-| improved argand burners with oil cannot Ps ¥; Lie & Ye See =e a ee 7 MLB 6 ee THE IRON AGE. be made to give more than 16 candles per burner, and with the best form of flat flame, double wick lamps, not more than 8 candles per burner. This shows an average of 24 to 5 times more illumination by the gas than by the oil, and the tests further show that the heat generated from the oil is 50 per cent. greater than that from the Pintsch gas. THE INDIANA GAS REGION The American Tin Plate Company of Elwood is the most recent complete tin-plate plant erected in this country. It is characterized ss complete because it embraces the manufacture of black plates as well as the tinning process. There are four trains of rolls now in use, rolling steel tin- plate bars into sheets for tinning. The engine and other appliances, how ever, have been built to operate six trains, and the company intend to add the other two trains atan early day. The cold-roll- ing mills for cold rolling the sheets have been built in the same way, with a view to extension. The tinning house contains ten stacks, but not all of them are yet occu- pied by pots. The company are introduc- ing the most improved machinery for tin- ning, and have therefore been in no hurry to fill up their plant with old-fashioned appliances which they may soon be called upon to discard. A Thomas & White tinning machine has just been installed, from which very rapid work is expected. Several of Norton’s new automatic tinning machines have been ordered, but they have not yet been received from the man ufacturer in Chicago. Within a very short time the output of the works is ex- pected to be from 2500 to 2750 boxes weekly. The product of the plant is al- ready under contract for the rest of this year. The works occupy a most delight- ful location on high ground, with a stream flowing along the border of the property, affording excellent drainage. It is an attractive place for the employees, to whom pleasant surroundings are as desir- able as remunerative employment. A. L. Conger is president; John F. Hazen, vice- president; W. B. Leeds, treasurer, and C. S. Tarlton, secretary, The Midland Stee] Company of Muncie have just completed their works for the manufacture of light steel sheets. They have four 25-inch trains of rolls, which are run by a Corliss engine, 34 x 60 inch, double geared, and located in the center. Nine heating furnaces are used in connection with these rolls, all of them arranged along one side of the mill in line with the rolls. This part of the plant is now actively at work, with orders booked for the entire output for the next six or eight weeks. The company have under construction an open hearth steel works and a universal mill, which will be used for blooming ingots. The open-hearth works will contain two 25-ton furnaces, with room for a third, which will be added when needed. The universal mill is placed between the steel works and the sheet mill, and will have 24-inch rolls, with tables, designed by President Beatty. The construction of the steel works is being actively pushed, and they will be in op- eration early in November. The entire works are new in every respect, thoroughly modern machinery has been secured for every department, the buildings are of a most substantial character, and the build ers regard the plant as a model of its kind, No provision has been made for the manu- facture of iron. The product will be ex- clusively of steel. are completed the output will comprise high-grade, open hearth steel sheets, uni ersal plates, tin-plate bars, billets and sheets for tinning. R. J. Beatty, formerly with the W. Dewecs Wood Company, is president, John A. McVoy of Chicago is vice-president, James Collord of Pitts- burgh is treasurer, George Abel is secre tary and John Darrall is manager of the finishing mill. Immediately adjoining the Midland works is the John MeVoy Galvanizing Works, which have been removed to Muncie from East Chicago. The sharp competition in the galvanized iron trade has made it necessary for manufacturers to get as close to their raw material as possible, and these works are now by the side of a sheet mill from which they will obtain most of the sheets needed to supply their requirements. The capacity of the new plant is double that of the old works at East Chicago. The Davies automatic gal- vanizing process will be used. The indiana Iron Company of Muncie have a ing mill, composed equipment formerly in use at Lancas ter, Ohio. They have 24 puddling furnaces, 5 heating furnaces and 3 trains of rolls—18, 16 and 10 inch. The works are running full time and turning out an excellent quality of bar and guide iron. Three fire brick and iron buildings are in course of erection in connection with the rolling-mill plant, in which will be installed the machinery of the works hitherto known as the Toledo Bolt and Nut Works of Toledo, Ohio, now owned by the Indiana Iron Company. George O. Cromwell is general manager. very good roll- principally of the The Muncie Nail Company of Muncie have as yet taken no steps to rebuild their cut-nail factory, which was recently burned. For the present no de- cision has been made on tbis point, as there are important questions to be de termined first. In the meantime the com- pany are exclusively manufacturing muck bar, their puddling furnaces and muck mill having been saved. They are turn- ing out 50 tons daily, for which they find a ready sale. The White River Iron Company of Muncie havea rolling mill containing two heating furnaces and two trains of rolls, 8 and 9 inch, removed this year from Anderson, where the plant had been in operation but a short time. They man- ufacture bar iron. The City Enterprise Company of Muncie have been remarkably success- ful this year in bringing new enterprises to the city. The members of this com- pany are business men of Muncie, who have contributed $200,000 for this pur- pose. Their affairs are managed by a board of directors, who carefully investigate all candidates for their favor, and, if ap- proved, they then turn them over for ad ditional investigation by an advisory committee, composed of the presidents of the local banks and other prominent busi ness men. If their report is favorable, steps are taken to induce the parties to locate in Muncie. Owners of land are communicated with, citizens are asked to subscribe for stock, and in some cases a cash bonus is advanced from the fund. A large number of important factories have already been secured, and only $50,000 has so far been expended from the company’s funds. One of the largest enterprises thus obtained is the After the steel works | Whitely Harvesting Machine Com- pany, whose works are now being removed to Muncie from Springfield, Ohio. William N. Whitely, the head of this establishment, has 350 patents on improvements in har- > October 27, 1892 vesting machinery and now has 52 appli- cations pending in the Patent Office, cov- ering the new ideas in machines to be made in Muncie. The construction of this factory is after a peculiar and pet plan of Mr. Whitely’s, adopted as the most practical factory building for the purpose after his years of experience. Every build- ing will be one story and of uniform width —40 feet. Every floor will be on an exact level; trucks loaded with tons of material can be moved on train tracks over the whole plant by one man with little effort. There will be no expensive elevators, but every floor will be on an exact level with the car floor as it stands on the track to load or unload. The main building wil} be 40 x 600 feet, from which two wings 40 x 600 feet will extend. From each of these wings five small wings 40 x 200 feet will be built, making a total floor space of over 152,000 feet. The roofs of the shops will be high, supported by single trusses with no supporting posts. The windows will be large and more than 1200 of them, The whole building, it is claimed, will be the best lighted, best heated and best ventilated, most comfort- able for the men and most economical for the proprietors of any similar plant in the world. Mr. Whitely hopes to be able to employ 500 men within four or five months, and to reach 1000 by the harvest of 1898. This force will be increased to 2000 men when the whole plant is com- pleted, Mr. Whitely has built three large shops in Springtieid, and has built and operated large works in Lancaster, Pa., in Hamil- ton, Ohio, in Maryland, in Missouri, in Wis- consin, and two immense establishments in Canada, and now he says he has come to the gas fields of Indiana for the crown- ing, supreme effort of his life. He will manufacture binders, mowers, hay rakes, hay tedders, corn harvesters and lawn mowers. Several other large Springfield industries are reported to be arranging to locate at Muncie. Other Muncie Factories are the Muncie Wheel Company, manu- facturing carriage wheels; Common Sense Engine Company, agricultural implements ; Muncie Rivet and Tack Company, rivets, tacks, &:.; Ohio Wagon Works, wagons, ambulances, &c.; Boyer & Kandel Car- riage Company, carriages. The Akron Steam Forge Company of Akron, Ohio, have just completed nego- tions for a location at Muncie, avd expect to have their works in operation there by January. They will manufacture car axles and heavy iron and steel forgings. The Bonney Rapid Vise Company of Marion occupy a brick two-story struct. ure, equipped with planers, lathes, drills, milling machines, jigs, &c., for the manu- facture of vises and other specialties. They make 33 different styles of vises, their leading product being the Bonney rapid vise. Steel bars are used only in these vises, most of the bars being cold- rolled steel. Their pipe vises have proved very popular, and are now in use in many of the best machine shops in the country. A very neut arrangement has been devised for holding brass jaws in the rapid vise. Two holes are drilled in the stems of each jaw just below the shoulder, A brass plate with two prongs extending below it at right angles is then slipped on each of the vise jaws, and the prongs entering the holes securely hold the brass plates in position, so that they cannot fall out when the jaws are being moved forward and backward. A lathe dog is manufactured which holds round work on a lathe by means of a screw easily adjusted by hand. A new cheap lathe will soon be brought out. The bed plate and head and tail October 27, 1892 the vises made by this company are inter- changeable. A neat 20-page catalogue is published, giving cuts and descriptions of the company’s products. The Westerman Natural Gas Iron Company of Marion manufacture bar iron exclu- sively from scrap. They have four heat- ing furnaces and two trains of rolls. Carefully selected scrap is used, and it is cleaned in tumbling barrels before being piled, so as to divest it of all dirt. Toes and calks are cut from old horseshoes to avoid any admixture of steel. The iron turned out after such careful preparation is of high grade, and is used for bridge work, screws, rivets, staybolts, horse- shoe bars, &c. The demand for the com- pany’s product has latterly been so heavy that the mill is now running double turn. George Westerman is president and super- intendent, and 8. N. Gallup is secretary and treasurer. The Sweet & Clark Company of Marion make malleable castings, curry combs and saddlery hardware specialties. Their malleable castings are furnished to car builders, agricultural implement man- ufacturers and other large consumers. The buildings now in use cover some 4 acres. There are eight structures in all, built of brick and very substantial. The company claim to be the only concern in the country running malleable works ex- clusively with gas. They use no coke or coal in any part of the plant except in a small cupola used for making pots for annealing. The air furnace operated by gas was designed and patented by the superintendent of the works. The pres- ent capacity of the plant is 350 tons of castings per month. The works have been running up to their full capacity for the whole year, and the enlargement of the plant is contemplated in the near future, as the demand seems destined to increase rather than to decline. Wm. M. Peck- ham is president and Charles J. Clark treasurer. The Columbia Zinc Works have just been started at Marion. The plant is of d new type in many respects, embodying improvements introduced by the superintendent, Wm. F. Oe¢esterle, formerly of Rich Hill, Mo. The roasting of the ore is done in revolving cylinders. The heating of the retorts is part Belgian and part Siemens. The smelter contains 800 retorts, arranged in two tiers, with gas heating apparatus in the center. They are divided into six sections. The charge in each case is 50 pounds of cal- cined ore and coke. Ore is brought from Missouri. Only refined spelter is made, and the daily capacity of the works is 8tons. James La Tourette is sole propri- etor. The Marion Handle Works of Marion manufacture all kinds of D handles. Their business has increased largely since the works were started, but they now manufacture, as another line, boxes for packing glass. The location of numerous glass factories in the vicinity has developed a heavy demand for such boxes. The Smith Mfg. Company stocks are cast in one piece. All parts of THE IRON AGE. steadily in operation. A reorganization is about to be perfected, when the manage- ment will be entirely changed. Gas mixers are now being manufactured as an additional line. The business of the past year has not been as heavy as it should have been, but a vigorous push for trade will be made after the reorganization. The Standard Hub and Block Company of Marion have just completed a very fine brick factory which is to be used in the manufacture of hub blocks by a newly patented process. The building 1s 125 by 60 feet, with annexes for offices and other purposes. The process usel by this company takes the place of natural sea- soning, which requires from one to seven years. They turn out hub blocks in 24 hours which have been pronounced by the trade to be thoroughly satisfactory. The process was first used some two years since in Philadelphia, so that the blocks have been well tried. By means of pow- erful machinery blocks 7 inches in diam- eter are reduced to 6 inches, thus hardening and solidifying the fiber. The company claim that hubs made by their process will not check, and the testi- monials they show from wheelmakers seem to thoroughly confirm their position. The new plant is being magnificently equipped with most expensive machinery. The company are a Pennsylvania organ- ization. M. H. Harrington of Phila- delphia is president; D. G. Evans, vice- president; Robert Boone, secretary and treasurer; H. L. Dubois, superintendent, and H. J. Scheid, assistant superin- tendent. Gas City, five miles east of Marion, is coming to the front as an industrial center. The Gas City Land Company control the project, and are offering inducements to manu- facturers to locate there. The town lies on the Panhandle Railroad, with the Big Four in easy reach and a belt railroad pro- jected to connect the two systems. The Gas City Land Company have issued a great deal of literature relative to the pros- pects of their industrial town scheme, giving the natural gas resources, advan- tages of the location for reaching the mar- kets of the country, proximity to needed raw materials, &c. Although the project was only started in March of the present year, nine factories have already been se- cured and more are making negotiations. These factories are principally glas+ works, but among them are the Morewood & Co. tin-plate works, which are projected on a scale of greater magnitude than any of the other establishments. E. Morewood & Co, propose to build at Gas City six 25-ton open-hearth steel furnaces, 20 trains of rolls and the requisite cold rolls and tin- ning stacks, besides machine shops for the manufacture of tin: plate machinery. They have already begun the foundations for the plant, and have ordered much of the machinery, some of which is now on the way. Their plans contemplate the ex- penditure of $1,000,000, and the erection of the largest tin plate works in the world. ———_ The National Harrow Company, com- of Marion are manufacturers of glass oil} p-sed of 23 of the leading firms manufact- cans with tin jackets, under patents con- trolled by the company, and are building up a large trade. The Barton Bell Company of Marion are manufacturers of sleigh bells and small gongs. The company’s affairs have been managed by a receiver since August 17, but the works have been uring harrows in the United States and representing a capitalization of $500,000, held a two days’ meeting in Buffalo last week and elected these officers for the coming year: President, Charles H. Childs, Utica; vice-president, A.O Bennett, Lan- sing, Mich.; secretary, William Brinker- hoff, Auburn; treasurer, Edward Norris, Utica; attorney, C. H. Dernell, Syracuse, Captain Coe’s Address. The annual meeting of the United Forge Masters’ Association was held at the Im- perial Hotel, New York City, Wednesday and Thursday, October 12 and 13. All members were present. The following officers were elected for the coming year : L M. Coe of Cleveland, Ohio, president; W. 3S. Sizer of Buffalo, N. Y., vice-presi- dent; F. L. Alcott of Cleveland. Ohio, commissioner; Joseph Howard of Buffalo, N. Y., D. S. Bissell of Pittsburgh, Pa., Jas. Johnston of Paterson, N. J., Execu- tive Committee. The usual routine busi- ness was transacted, and President Coe delivered the following address : No one can study with care the last census report of the United States without feeling genuine pride and gratification at the growing prosperity and encrmous wealth of our country. The development of commerce, the as- tonishing extension of our manufacturing interests placing us first in rank among the nations of the earth ; the splendid output of our gold, silver, copper and iron mines; the vast increase of agricultural products enabling us to supply at a moment’s notice the markets of the world—all excite our wonder and admiration. We have 44 States owing allegiance to one common flag—a flag everywhere recognized as the symbol of a mighty nation—the home of 65,000,000 of freemen, a land of liberty protected by law, the best product of modern Christian civilization. Among the great associations of the United States which have kept pace with the marvelous development of our land, we can point with pride to our own. There is no ocean, sea, lake or commercial river in the world where the products of our skill, capital and labor cannot be found. We no longer dread or care for foreign competition, the day for that has passed forever. Slowly, surely, patiently we have gone on step by step, fighting bravely unlimited foreign capital, experi- ence and the highest mechanical skill, until we have demonstrated that American enter- prise, American ingenuity, American per- sistance, American labor rules the world of manufactures, and to-day in our own field of industry we can challenge mankind to produce a successful rival. ‘As we look back over the history of our organization, we are constrained to admit that its aims, objecis and dearest wishes have been largely gratified. Prosperity has welcomed its footsteps, union made for it power, dignity and force. Agreement has banished rivalry and strife, honorable competition, regulated by the laws of our own enacting, has elevated the standard of excellence in product and controlled a market at uniform prices that have proved remunerative and satisfactory in character. Weare justly proud of these results, and they demonstrate beyond question the wisdom, usefulness and value of our great association. It is true, and it is to be regretted, that our union does not comprise all the forges engaged in our industry; but is it not far wiser to try and induce them to join this body and unite their fortunes with us than for us to dissolve our organization and go back to the days of sharp competi- tion, cut prices, scramble for trade, some- times of inferior production ? From my point of view, any other than the first named will prove suicidal to our highest inter- ests. As I reflect upon the past and look forward confidently to the future, I can- not but congratulate each of you, as well as myself, upon the condition of this highly favored land. The march of the nation is forward and upward, and no tongue can foretell its future power and greatness. We are in the midst of a popular election and at this moment en- gaged in choosing the highest rulers of = Se at ‘ie thee - ioe ee = a —s 2 . we OL DP hile r > 4 OS Fo Ee Oya FS £ — oF, 770 THE TRON AGE. October 27, 1892 the land; yet not a ripple disturbs the peace of the community, for law and order are our daily handmaids. It is my earnest bope that our descend- ants shall be as patriotic as their ances- tors; that they shall love, honor and rev- erence their country and its inhabitants, and that you, gentlemen, who have added so largely to its credit and honor may enjoy the fruits you have nobly earned, and that your last days mav be crowned with content, affection and the conscious- ness of duty well done; and when our brief voyage of life is over, may we all find a safe and pleasant harbor on the other side of the great river. —_— Sel — The Bridgman Ore-Sampling Machines. The correct sampling of ores is a sub ject of far greater importance than is usu ally conceded to it. So-called machine sampling may be accomplished in two radically different ways: 1, part of the stream of material is taken for the whole time; 2, the whole stream of material is taken for part of the time. Under the first case the stream, as it issues from the delivery spout of the crusher, is cut con- tinuously in any given proportion, such as one tenth, one-fourth or one half, by some fixed apparatus, which, as it contains no moving parts, is strictly speaking not a machine at all, but may be termed an ap pliance. The principle under which these appliances operate is now pretty generally conceded to be wrong, because of the practical impossibility of cutting such a stream continuously, in such a way as to obtain a proper proportion not only of the stream itself, but particularly of its ‘*coarse”’ and ‘‘ fine” parts. In all sampling operations, whether by hand or machine, certain fundamental truths are recognized, the most important of which is doubtless the proposition that the more uniform the material sampled the truer will be the sample. Such uni formity may be natural or it may be pro duced by crushing and mixing. The finer the former and the more thorough the lat- ter, the better the 1esult. It is theoreti- cally correct to precede each quartering or cutting down by a crushing, coarse at first and finer with each succeeding cut. In practice, however, rarely more than two crushings are «employed, and these are moderately fine, no matter how many cuts may be made. Some works screen their material as it is crushed, returning the ‘*coarse”’ until all has been reduced to a certain maximum size. This is notably true of hard iron ores. This practice is entirely wrong. The result of the screen- ing is a more or less decided separation of the material into its component parts, as, for instance, into quartz and iron oxide, thus giving, not the desired nor thorough mixture, but a practical undoing of the natural mixture already existing. Of course, remixing may be resorted to; but it would be preferable to crush the entire material once as fine as possible or as may be desirable, and then to sample it, per- mitting nothing to come between the crushing and the sampling. This latter point is always important, and hence sampling machines should be set di- rectly below the crushing plant, thus avoiding much unnecessary cleaning and risk of ‘‘ salting * subsequent samples. The assertion that very wet ores can only be sampled by hand is an error. Anything that can be crushed can be sampled by a suitable machine, and material that is too wet to crush cannot be properly sampled, even by hand. Up to the present time no machine has been introduced which does more than the first portion of the work of sampling. H. L. Bridgman of Blue Island, IIl., has de- signed a rotary machine which takes the whole stream for part of the time, and which, in a single passage of the material through it : 1. Gives two or more absolutely inde- pendent samples (double samples). 2. Cuts down (quarters) each of these samples a sufficient rumber of times to give the smallest final samples desirable without recrushing. Vig. 1.—The THE BRIDGMAN ORE-SAMPLING These two principal features are pos- sessed by no other machine of this class, ing 10 per cent. and over of moisture offers no difficulties; nor does the presence of strings, pieces of wood, and other extrane- ous substances affect the general result. The quickness with which the cumples are obtained makes it possible to use the machine samples for the determina- tion of the moisture, as well as of the metallic and other constituents, which is, of course, a decided advantage. ___ st A Machine. MACHINES. 6. This quickness, moreover, makes it possible to sample all material as soon as and are supplemented by the following received, with the consequent avoidance hardly less important ones: 3. It is adjustable to give different | sized samples, according to the grade and character of the material treated. The} | | of demurrage on cars, and other expensive and annoying delays. 7. The machine gives good results under | any ordinary working conditions; it takes lower the grade, the more uniform the|its feed directly from crusher or rolls, character, and the finer the size of the material, the smaller the final sample may be. 4. All the passages being large and straight, its capacity is very great (from 15 to 25 tons an hour), and it will sample any material that can be fed to it. Ore carry- regularly or irregularly, fast or slow, as the case may be; it requires no attention, except for cleaning out and for the re- moval of samples, and, in fact, it transfers the important function of sampling from the domain of watchful care and discre- tjon to that of mere routine, Being per- October 27, 1892 THE IRON AGE. 771 fectly impartial, and giving samples, it removes ground for disputes, and renders ‘‘salting” practically impos- sible. 8. It requires less than one-tenth as much space as hand sampling, ard delivers way that it can be disposed of by elevator or similar means, requiring no hand labor. double | before crushing—these ores seldom requir-}to 1 : |come of running the ore dry, as no men | are about who can be injuriously affected, | nor can the flying dust have any marked the discarded part of the sample in such a | effect on the sample, and certainly not on| |any subsequent samples. ing moisture determinations. Should such moistening be undesirable, little harm can Wet ores, of course, make little or no dust. Fig. 2.—Elevation of Sampling Machine. THE BRIDGMAN 9. It is entirely self-contained, and very compact. 10. It may be carefully and fully in- spected while at work, without the neces- sity for the near approach of any person, so that the most suspicious ore seller may easily assure himself of the fairness of the operation. 11. It may be thoroughly cleaned by one man in 15 minutes or less, and, if desir- able, may be washed out with a water hose. 12. It may be inclosed in a dust-case. This, however, is rarely necessary, as it is usually better slightly to moisten dry ores eee ORE-SAMPLING MACHINES. 13. It is very inexpensive, both to oper- ate and to maintain, the total cost of |sampling with this machine being only | about one-tenth that of hand work. It is | provided everywhere with ball bearings and graphite bushings, which require practically no lubrication (with its accom- panying dirt and annoyance) and make it possible to run the machine with much less power than may be continuously ex- erted by one map. All parts exposed to wear are heavy, while ample provision is made for repairs, duplicate parts being readily obtainable. 14. It is preferable to crush the material inch or less, but, if necessary, much coarser product may be run. ~~~ Fraser & Chalmers of Chicago build’a number of different sizes of machines of Mr. Bridgman’s design. Machine A may be chosen, as typical, to illustrate and de- scribe the construction and method of operation. This machine occupies a floor space of 3 x 4 feet, and has a total hight |Of 7 feet 6 inches. It is self-contained, requiring only to be bolted to the floor and to have feed, discharge and belt con- nections made. Fig. 1 shows the machine | as it is built, while Figs. 2 and 3 give the |diagraphic sections and details, some minor changes and omissions having been made for the sake of clearness. The ma- | chine consists essentially of three appor- tioners, I, II and III, all driven by the one pulley, X (usually tight and loose pulleys), and three stationary, concentric recepta- cles, Ri, R2 and H, soconstructed that any material falling into them will pass out through the spouts T; and T, into the sample buckets Z, and Z., or through the spout S, which discharges the rejected portion of the sample. Apportioners I and III revolve in the same direction, ap- portioner II in the opposite direction; I at about 5, II at about 15, and III at about 45 revolutions a minute. That is to say, each apportioner moves actually three times as fast as the one above it, and in the contrary direction, or, relatively, four times as fast. By the use of this expedi- ent of contrary revolution the same rela- tive speeds are obtained as though, all re- volving in the same direction, the actual speeds were respectively 5, 25 and 125, at which latter speed centrifugal force would become very troublesome. The upper apportioner, I, consists of two concentric rings, divided by eight partitions into eight equal topless and bot- tomless compartments, L, from each one of which leads an adjustable spout, either as M1 or as M2, or as MD. Set in rota- tion, spout M1 would describe a certain circular path, 1 1; spout M2 a certain other path, 2 2, and spout MD a third path, W (see Fig. 3). The intermediate apportioner II is merely a conical funnel, having, besides the large outlet W, four vertical shoots, N, N, and N; Na, through its sloping sides, as shown in Fig. 3; each one of these shoots forms one eighth of the circular paths covered by the spouts M1 and M2, respectively. The lower apportioner III is of the same construction as II and bears the same rela- tion to it that II bears to I. The Bridgman sampler now at work in the Chicago Copper and Refining Com- pany at Blue Island, Ill., is placed di- rectly under the crusher. The samples are delivered into two bins on the lower floor and the ‘‘ discard” goes direct to an elevator. Forty thousand pounds have been put through this machine in one hour and a correct sample taken, and a building 16 feet square and two stories high is ample room for sampling this large amount. From the head of the elevator the ore can be run into bins or spouted di- rectly into cars for shipment, the only hand work required being to get the ore from the car to the crusher. All the ore passes through the sampler and duplicate samples are taken. This is an important feature, and one of the strongest safeguards against errors or fraud. The skill and faithfulness of the workmen are not factors in the correct- ness of the work, as the machine is auto- matic and must give a correct duplicate sample of every pound that is fed into it. The saving in the first cost of building will more than pay for the ‘‘sampler” where any considerable amount of work is to be done. With a proper arrangement of tracks to get the greatest economy in un- loading and loading cars, an actual cost of less than 25 cents per ton will give correct i) See Se Th = wi Pts ee, S, “S LEES 2 A a a On at ~, gg. + et ones one eae aoe Vee . - € / a oo at @eo-s s tO WS PS oe ~ 772 THE IRON AGE. duplicate samples of ore or matte, includ-} The machine samples of car 5416 ing the whole expense of unloading and reloading the cars. At the Chicago Cop- per Refining Company’s works the ore is wheeled on scales in barrows, elevated to the crusher and fed in by hand, and the total cost of getting a correct duplicate sample is an average of only 24 cents per ton. From the records of regular work being done at the Chicago Copper Refin- October 27, 1892 weighed 600-664 pounds and assayed as above. The whole was fed through the crusher by one man shoveling in six hours and was crushed to about #-inch size. To check on the machine samples the ‘‘ dis- card’ was run on to the lower floor and shoveled to the elevator by one man, cut- ting out ,', for each hand sample. Each hand sample weighed 4800 pounds, and Ty Fig. 3.—Plan of Apportioners. THE BRIDGMAN ORE- Ing Company's works we append the fol- lowing : Material— Copper Matte. Giving assays from hand samples sent in by the consignor, and from the Bridgman sampler, with a second hand sample of one car made as a check on the Bridgman sampler. SAMPLING MACHINES. | was cut down in two and a half hours by two men, four cuts to each, to 329-352 | pounds, Hand sample. Per Oz. Au. ae Car 5,385.. 1) zu 94,389 Car 5,416 (2) v.20 Averagt U.20 cent. | Oz. Au Oz. Ag Cu. | a > ( (1) 0.25 6S.7 62.4 | Car 5,416... 1 (2) 0.35 689 624 | i - . » Average ‘ 0.25 68.8 62.4 Their hand samp les. Contents of lot. %e r Oz. cent. Oz. Pounds Ag. Cu Au. Oz. Ag. Cu. 6Y.7 62.3 9,439 3,289.46 58,852 69.7 62.4 | 69.7 62.35 Each car was sampled separately through the Bridgman sampler. Tap RK 2am G4 t , (I 25 Car 5,385, 64,598 pounds ») 035 a Average . O25 . / , (1) 0.25 1 pounds....,. (2) 0.25 Car 5,416, 47.7$ Average _ ite tebe a 0.25 69.6 63.4.1 « nox “0.2 62.4 (2-825 1,628.60 29,077 69.9 62.4 69.6 62.4) = ao» apn & = | a8 623 ¢ D974 1,666.71 26,798 69.70 62.35 11.799 8,295.31 58,875 The Rock Drill Applied to Opening the Tapping Hole of a Blast Fur- nace. * BY DAVID BAKER, SPARROW’S POINT, MD. Devices for saving labor in immediate connection with the operation of the iron blast furnace have received comparatively little attention. Machines for hoisting and blowing, always employed in some form, have been improved, but charging, tap ping, casting and handling the pig iron in the beds are still performed chiefly by manual labor. At almost all furnaces fill- ing is done with the handbarrow of 25 years ago, and it is only recently that here and there chills have been employed in the cast house instead of the usual sand beds to lessen the lubor of handling the pig, as well as to secure its greater purity. The manual labor of opening and clos- ing the tapping hole has been, so far as I know, rather increased than diminished. The enlarged hearths and greater capacity of the modern furnace render it more difficult to ‘*keep the tap hole back,” as furnacemen say. In the old-fashioned smaller furnaces, the slacking of the blast pressure and the introduction of a single ball of clay, involving (for closed fronts) an average stoppage of not more than three minutes, sufficed for plugging the hole, and opening it was correspondingly easy. No care was taken in the selection of material for the purpose, ordinary brick clay being found sufficiently refractory. At present fire clay, mixed with graphite, is sometimes used, or the material of old black-lead crucibles is rammed in with balls of clay, and instead of one ball a wheelbarrow load is often required. In- deed, in ‘‘ putting in a new hole,” three or four barrows of clay balls, with a bar- row of fire brick, may be required. To make a large hearth safe against ‘‘ break outs,” the clay stopping should be ‘‘ kept back” 3 feet from the outside of the tap hole. To open at casting time one of these deeply and thoroughly stopped iron notches requires the labor of eight or ten men, drilling with a heavy bar for from ten to thirty minutes, sometimes even 60 minutes, according to the condition of the furnace. This work is exhausting, and it is usual to call the men from the stock house to assist in opening the hole, as well as in special work in the cast house, while the iron isrunning. Probably the main rea- son for the general absence of attempts to diminish the manual labor at the tapping hole has been the presence of a large num- ber of ‘‘ fillers’ available at casting time for work before the furnace. But, on the other hand, this extra work imposed on the fillers has stood in the way of a reduc- tion of their number. At the blast furnaces of the Maryland Steel Company, the adoption of a new system of furnace charging rendered it practicable to reduce the labor required for filling; and the contemplated delivery of the molten iron direct to the Bessemer converter would reduce the labor needed in connection with casting. But to secure the full advantage of both these improve- ments, it was necessary to do away with the requirement of many workmen for hand drilling at the furnace front. This | consideration led to experiments with the percussion rock drill as a tap-hole opener. | The first trial was made in the autumn ‘of 1890. The drill employed was the | Little Giant, No. 4, of the Rand Drill |Company, a somewhat heavier machine | than is usually adopted for work in rock. | It was mounted on the regular swivel base, |clamped to a horizontal bar, which was | swung from a column as a crane. The | * Read at the Schuylkill Valley meeting of 'the American Institute of Mining Engineers. October 27, 1892 THE IRON AGE. 773 eS eee difficulties with this mounting were the | steam to pass from the front end of the short feed, and the long time required to withdraw the bit, after the hole had been drilled. We modified this arrangement by increas ing the radius of the crane on which the drill was clamped, and by simplifying the fastening, so as to permit a quicker re moval. The result, however, wasstill un- satisfactory. We burned too many bits. The present method of mounting, de- scribed below, has been entirely successful. The feed is long enough to enable the bit to penetrate through the clay stopping in all cases; and the bit can be retired in stantly without danger to it. In case of a very ‘‘hard” hole, the withdrawal may be made frequently, and the bit may be cooled in water without greater loss of time than in hand drilling. The feeding is accomplished by a cylin- der*containing a piston and rod attached cylinder to the drilling machive. L isthe hollow piston rod connecting with the valve chest of the drill by means of a steel tee and pipe, 0. M is a friction clamp shown in detail in Fig. 2, which grips the piston rod and thus may be used to regulate feed. The macbine may be counterbalanced by weights so as to be easily pushed up by hand when not in use; or the chains may be attached to the piston of a hydraulic or steam cylinder. While in use the frame stands as shown in Fig. 1; A (an elevation), the angle de- pending on the condition of the hearth of the blast furnance. The operation of tap-hole drilling is as follows: When it is time to cast, the frame is lowered to the right position ; steam is admitted ; and the three-way cock is turned as shown in Fig. 3. The effective hole ; that is, more nearly a true circle. We have found that this tends to make the tapping hole stand longer against cut- ting out by the hot iron and cinder. 2. The percussion drill itself is useful for other purposes. Even when the fur- pace is out of blast it can be mounted on a tripod and employed, to the saving of much time, in drilling the salamander. 3. The most important saving, how- ever, is the labor before the furnace—the ‘* helpers.” Since the adoption of the steam drill we have been able to save one man at each turn, or two men a day; and we ex- pect, as soon as the pig metal is all taken direct to the Bessemer converter, to make a greater saving than is apparent now. I a The once famous gossan lead of Vir- ‘ginia is losing much of its glory. The A, MOUNTING OF ROCK to the drill where the usual feed screw is fastened. Toe piston rod is hollow, and serves both to feed or withdraw the drill and as a channel conveying steam to the operating cylinder. In Fig. 1, A is the section of a part of the hearth of the blast furnace; B the tap hole, and C a cross bar arranged with guides to slide on vertical bars attached to the columns E. F is the frame, consisting of two parallel angle bars attached to the horizontal cross bar C. @Q@ is the drilling machine, which travels in suitable guides bolted to the angle iron frame. H is the feed cylinder, made of wrought-iron pipe, bored out, or of brass pipe, which does not require boring. I is the supply pipe, which is connected with the pipe at the column by hos: or by wrought iron pipe provided with swivel joints. One branch of the supply pipe I connects with the front head of the cylinder at A; the other with the back at A’. In the branch hkud- ing to the back of the cylinder is placed a three-way cock, J. K is the piston of the feed cylinder, axially cored to allow | feed cylinder. DRILL FOR CPENING pressure in the rear of the piston being greater than that in the front, the drill is fed up to the work, but is prevented from going too far by the clamp M. A cock in the valve chest of the drill is now turned, and the drilling is begun. The feed may be controlled by the friction clamp. As soon as the melted iron is reached, the friction clamp is loosened and the three-way cock is turned into the posi- tion shown in Fig. 4, thus allowing the steam to exhaust from the rear end of the This removes the bit from tap hole at once, and the tap hole being open, the machine is pushed up about 10 feet out of the way. In practice we have found it nece:sary to put a spring in the rear end of the feed cylinder to take the shock from the head in case the piston should be allowed to go back so fast as to become uncon- trollable. The advantages of the power drill over the old hand drill are: 1. It is much quicker and cuts a better BLAST-FURNACE TAPPING HOLE. ore shipped has been running so lean of late that one after the other of the Vir- ginia blast furnaces has thrown it out of its mixtures. On the other hand, Duck- town, Tenn., gossan is appearing in the stockhouses of Virginia furnaces. Last week 32 steel workers left Knox- ville, Tenn., for the Homestead Steel Works. They were all white men and claimed to be thorough workmen. They had gone South when the iron industry was on a boom in Alabama and Tennessee and had worked at Sheffield, Birmingham and Knoxville, but on account of the de- pression in the iron trade they had been out of work for several months. They state that a number of steel workers who went South are anxious to get back to the | North. The Northern Pacific Steamship Com- pany are now fully equipped as a first-class passenger and freight line, to operate in conjunction with the railroad between Tacoma and Chinese and Japanese ports. = , ke Lhe SS eee LF “) , bi = “ ~ eA a oe as oat” igme ~ ELS tS s (t&! 4 . ; ; ' a tt neg s | 5% ee re Fi ~7 ~T oo THE IRON AGE. October 27, 1892 Random Shop Notes. A recent visit to the Builders’ Iron Foundry of Providence, R. I., and a trip through the establishment revealed many machines and processes of unusual in- terest. As our readers are well aware, one of the principal works carried on here, independent of the regular foundry opera tions, is the manufacture of 12-inch cast iron steel-hooped mortars for the Govern- ment, and also the carriages for the mortars. In general, the mortar carriage, which we trust to be able to describe very fully in an carly issue, consists of a couple of heavy circular bed plates, upon which it is necessary to perform considerable turn- ing for the tracks. This is accomplished by means of a boring mill made in the establishment, and almost wholly out of material on hand that was of little or no use. The center plate consists of the face plate of a large lathe and is held in posi tion by I-beams extending to a circular rack which was cast in segments, En- gaging with this circular rack is the driving pinion operating the table. A simple device, also picked up about the shop, serves as a tool carriage, which, while not having all the various feeds now thought desirable in a boring mill, has suf- ficient for fully carrying out the work here in hand. Extending vertically through the center of the face plate is a long spindle, whose upper end is held by a Y- shaped frame extending from one of the upper floor beams. Although the machine is crude to look atand limited in its capac- ity, it has been found to be admirably adapted to this special work for which it was designed. In another department we noticed a lathe having an unusually long bed, and on which provision had been made for utilizing a certain length of the tail stock end, which, a large part of the time, would otherwise be idle. Mounted on this end, and serving as a head stock, was the driv- ing head of a pipethreader. This, together with a temporary foot stock, which could be placed at any desired distance between the pipe threader and the original head stock of the lathe, served every purpose and permitted the utilization of the tool at all times when the work was of such length as to come between the centers. In the main machine shop is a large planer, which was at first driven by quar- ter turn belt from an overhead shaft, and as usual much tr