The Iron Age 1900-01-18: Vol 65 Iss 3

‘THE IRON AGE. THUuRsDAY, JANUARY 18, 1900. The First Coaling Station for the United States Navy. Navy Yard, New London, Conn. For several years the Navy Department has been giving careful consideration to the establishment of per- manent coaling stations at the most important strategic points, appreciating the necessity of having an accumu- lation of coal on hand for emergency; of protecting the fuel from deterioration resulting from exposure to weather, and constructing mechanical devices to handle coal from store to vessel with the greatest rapidity. The accompanying engraving represents the first com- pleted plant of this kind, just finished at the Naval Station, New London, Conn., by J. W. Hoffman & Co., engineers and contractors, of Philadelphia, now suc- contact with the metal. This is also prevented in case of the central columns by jacketing them with sheet iron and filling the space with carefully rammed concrete; so that in no case does the coal come in contact with the metal. The lantern top to the roof protects the standard gauge railroad tracks, running the entire length of the building, and also contains the mechanism for opening and closing the hatches, as well as lighting and ven- tilating the building. As shown, there are 14 hatches on each side of the building, each having independent open- ing mechanism, giving a continuous line of openings available. The covering of the building is corrugated metal, and no wood is used in the construction. A concrete sea wall extends the entire length of the building, carrying a single line of rail on which the in- shore legs of the conveyors travel. To carry the con- THE FIRST COALING STATION FOR THE UNITED STATES NAVY. ceeded in this branch of business by the Hoffman En- gineering & Contracting Company. The building has a storage capacity of 10,000 tons, its general dimensions being: Building— Conveyor— LONBth ....0ccce-+cecee. 200 feet. Outboard end........... 35 feet. J FESR. 97 feet.| Clearspan.............. 198 feet. Capacity .....0:cccees 10,000 tons. Iuboard end,........ 69 feet. Hight of coal,..... .... 35 feet. Capacity...... 100 tons per hour. As it was necessarily located near the water’s edge and on unreliable ground, the foundations necessary to carry the load required careful consideration. After ex- cavation to low tide level the entire area was piled, some 1260 piles being required. These piles were then capped with 12 x 12 timber, with a superimposed close grillage of 12 x 12 timber: above this grillage were gravel and sand filling, well puddled, and a concrete floor, grano- lithic finish, 12 inches thick. ‘Under the walls and under the center lines of columns supporting the roof and the railroad tracks running through the building. the piles were more closely spaced. The walls are granite, range ashlar, and 5 feet 6 inches above the floor. The pitch of the roof is sufficient to prevent the coal from coming into veyor machinery it was necessary to rebuild a portion of the dock. Steel piles 80 feet long were required, securely capped and braced with steel beams, angles, &c. The Conveying and Handling Plant, The coal conveying and handling plant consists of two of Brown’s bridge tramways, which, in conjunction with the steel shed as shown, will enable boats of vari- ous sizes and with different numbers of hatches to be unloaded economically and quickly, and the coal trans- ported to and deposited into any portion of the coal stor- age shed. The coal can also be dumped anywhere be- tween the pier and the shed if desired, and transferred direct from small lighters (which can float in the water space behind the pier) to vessels in front of the pier. The coal can also be rehandled through any hatch of the shed to any hatch in vessels or lighters either in front or behind the pier. Coal can also be rehandled from the storage shed by the automatic grab buckets furnished, or it can be shoveled by hand into the dump- ing buckets. Bags may also be filled in the building and trans- 9 / ported on crates mounted on wheels, and these crates ean in turn be lifted through the hatches of the build- ing and conveyed to and lowered through the hatches of the vessels. The arrangement shown makes it also possible to load or unload any other kind of material anywhere within range of the machines and within their eapacity, and this material can be conveyed and de- posited to any position within their range, or can be transferred to wagons or cars, or to lighters beyond the pier, or between the piers and the shore. In other words, the hoisting and conveying machinery is not only a complete coal handling apparatus in itself, but it also constitutes as well a perfect traveling crane for handling any material along its entire length, as well as over the entire length of wharf over which it travels. The front piers of these conveyors contain machinery, engine and boiler housed, movable with them, and travel on rails, as indicated in the photograph near the front of the wharf, and the rear piers supporting the opposite end of the bridges travel on a rail on the foundation wall at the side of the coal shed. The whole structure, to- gether with the engine and operator’s houses, is entirely of iron and steel. All the motions of hoisting and con- veying may be performed in either direction at will of the operator. The engine power of each tramway is guaranteed to hoist 3000 pounds at the rate of 350 feet per minute. The front piers containing the boilers and engines are arranged to be propelled along the dock by power at the rate of 50 to 75 feet per minute. The back pier is arranged to be operated by hand. Both front and back piers have clamps for fastening them to the rails when necessary. Both piers are mounted on wheels of chilled charcoal iron ground true to tread. There are 10 wheels under each double pier and four wheels under each sin- - gle pier. With each bridge is furnished one special 5-ton Fairbanks scale, so located along the length of the tramway that each load carried by the trolley can be weighed while moving along the bridge in its regular course with the scale beam on top of the bridges, or at any other convenient point. In general, each of the bridges has sufficient power and strength of mechanism so that it will be able to take a loaded bucket from the hold of the vessel, hoist it and transport it to any distance on the bridge tramway, dump the load and return it to the hold of the vessel in one minute. The general factor of safety for the bridge construction is five for the moving load, and four for the dead and wind loads. _ —_—— Advice to English Machine Tool Builders.—In con- cluding a series of articles on the development of the American machine tool business in Great Britain, a writer in the Engineer says: “To sum the matter up, if we are to maintain supremacy in the machine tool trade in the future, the following points must be borne in mind: 1. A more intimate knowledge of what is being done by others is essential. The time for concealing methods of manufacture has gone by, and a constant intercourse between makers is necessary to stimulate ideas, besides greatly increasing the opportunities of economic manu- facture. 2, The system of specializing and confining one’s attention to a limited variety of work is necessary for the perfecting of any class of machine, and for the reduction of cost of manufacture. 3. Those principles of trades unionism which tend to limit the capabilities of our work- ingman, destroy his individuality and independence, or limit his capacity for production, must be eradi- cated. 4. Our workmen must be prepared to extend their hours of labor to a number per week at least equal to those of other countries. 5. Encouragement must be given to our workmen in suggesting improvements, and any legitimate ambition to better their position which they may possess should be cultivated. It is not too much to say that a very large portion of the success achieved by American machinery is due to the efforts of the American workingman. Indeed, if the origin of many of the ingenious attachments on their tools be in- vestigated, the larger portion of them will be found to have emanated from the workshop rather than from the drawing office; while a number of the principals of the best manufacturing concerns in America at the pres- ent day have risen from among the ranks of this class.” THE IRON AGE. January 18, 1900 Protecting Iron Construction from Corrosion. At a discussion of the Franklin Institute not long since, W. C. Furber, in speaking on the structural design of buildings, said: On the question of rust protection, I may be taking advanced ground when I say I believe that entirely too little attention has been paid to this matter by designers, yet the liability of corrosion is so great, through ex- posure and improper covering and the lack of prepara- tion of the metal to receive and hold the covering, that I think the use of the sand blast or some equally effi- cient means to remove the mill scale and permit the di- rect application of the protective covering to the actual surface of the metal is not only justifiable but impera- tive. When the skeleton is once inclosed, examination is difficult and repair practically impossible, and as the life of the building is coincident with the life of the frame work, and the value of the investment is determined pri- marily by the integrity of the finished structure, a short- sighted and temporarily apparent economy should not be allowed to curtail a proper expenditure on the skele- ton, which, if intelligently made, will assure the build- ing a practically indefinite existence. As to the best means of providing against rust, the information already at our disposal seems to me suffi- cient to indicate a safe course to pursue. Ledebur, in an * Essay on Oxidation of Iron and its Admixtures, Rusting, and the Influence of Liquids upon Iron,” points out that three factors are required to produce rust—that is, the hydrated oxide—viz., water, pure oxygen and an acid. Portland cement, by furnishing a base for the ab- sorption of any acid likely to be found, will eliminate one of these factors, and will thereby prevent rust. So that, with the other valuable qualities it possesses, it forms a protective covering of great value. But while this is true if the cement is in direct contact with the metal, we know that as the shapes come from the shops they are covered with mill scale, and that any covering applied to them adheres to the scale, and that a mechan- ical separation of the scale is easily possible. Should water penetrate the cement or other covering, through cracks, and find its way between the scale and the actual surface of the metal, the scale being electro- negative to the body of the metal, the elements of a bat- tery exist, and the degree of corrosion is a matter of time. We also know that as concrete is frequently put in place the voids are not filled up, and spaces are left for the accumulation of water, which may be present, forming, with the scale already there, rust producing factors. It is not an uncommon thing, where iron footings are placed below the water level, to find that the water has aissolved and washed out all the cement which the con- crete originally contained. I have seen more than one building standing with its feet wet, the cement having been washed out before the concrete set, leaving but the stone and sand remaining. 1 believe, and have followed it out in my own prac- tice, in placing all iron above the line of saturation if at all possible, and in the Harrison Building, which has been referred to here to-night, and for which I was the designing engineer, the grillage of I-beams in the foot- ings is above the water level, the foundations below this being entirely of concrete; but when for any reason the grillage or underground metal work has to be placed be- low the water level most extraordinary care should be used to see that the metal work is free from scale and unpainted; that the trenches or pits are so lined that no part of the excavation comes in contact with the beams; that the concrete contains a large proportion of cement, with the aggregate or filler in small particles, so as to allow being rammed easily into a dense mass without voids. In the placing of long girders underground it is not an uncommon thing to see the earth fall in around the girders, and to see the concrete filled in without the earth being removed. It is needless, perhaps, to say that whenever this occurs a fault is formed in the concrete, and rust must inevitably follow. On the structural work above ground the danger of corrosion is not so great, but is sufficient, I think, to warrant the use of a concrete envelope around the col- umns and external girders, for the masonry covering is not always thick enough or tight enough to exclude moisture. If concrete is used the metal work should be temporarily protected by a coat of oil, which will be worn away by the time the building is ready for closing in. _ ——_—— The Secretary of the Navy has sent a letter to Chair- man Hale of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, ad- vocating the passage of a bill authorizing the use of stone instead of timber in the construction of the dry docks to be built at League Island, Philadelphia, and Mare Island, San Francisco, Cal. January 18, 1900 The Most Perfect Machine Shop.*—IIl. Building No. 16 of the Schenectady Works of the General Electric Company. BY S. D. V. BURR. Boring and Turning Mill. The engraving, Fig. 21, illustrates a Bement, Miles & Co.’s 14 x 20 foot vertical boring and turning mill, elec- trically driven. The changes in the drive made indis- pensable by the introduction of the motor are shown in the plan view, Fig. 22, and the sectional front and end elevations Figs. 23 and 24. In the machine as originally designed and set up power was applied to a step cone = OA S I\SA\ 7 A) ‘eo THE IRON AGE. 3 a coarse feed is being used by the other. Hither head ean be stopped, started or adjusted to feed in any direc- tion independently of the other. There is a power ar- rangement for raising and lowering the cross head as well as for adjusting the uprights to any diameter from 14 to 20 feet. The motor takes the place of the cone of the original construction. The armature shaft is prolonged so as to receive the gears indicated in Figs. 22 and 23 for giving different degrees of rapidity to the revolutions of the work table. This shaft when coupled directly with the driving gear of the machine imparts the most rapid motion to the table. The gears applied to the shaft for giving the different speeds are arranged to be connected with different back gears placed upon each side. One r Fig. 21.—Bement, Miles & Co.'s Boring and Turning Mill Driven by Motor Under the Floor. THE MOST PERFECT MACHINE SHOP. having six changes for a 6-inch belt, the entire drive being made up of 79 feet of countershafts, 8 belts, 14 pulleys and two six-step cones. There were two sets of back gearing which could be instantly connected and disconnected by clutch levers to a pair of bevels and finally to a large spur gear on the table. This mech- anism gave 24 changes of speed regularly graded to the different diameters to be turned. The ratio of gearing was 230. The cutter bars were arranged to be operated from the side upon which the workman usually stands, and either of the two cutter bars could be raised or low- ered, or moved transversely in the same or opposite directions, by hand or power from this side of the ma- chine. ‘The cutter bars have a vertical or angular traverse of 66 inches and are independently counter- weighted. The feeds are operated by friction disks which can be adjusted infinitesimally from 0 to 1 inch per revolution of the table while the machine is running. The gearing on the cross slide is so arranged that a fine feed can be taken with one head in any direction while *See The Iron Age, January 4 and January 11, 1900. set of back gearing, when thrown into operation, gives a slower rate of speed to the table, while the throwing out of connection of this gearing and throwing in of another set gives a still slower rate of motion to the table. When the back gearing is applied the direct connection of the motor shaft with the driving gear of the machine is thrown out. The whole arrangement is very similar to that of a large lathe head in which the cone may directly operate the face plate pinion or the cone may be thrown out of gear and various changes of back gearing applied. Other minor changes were made in the machine in order to adapt it to the electric drive. It will be readily seen that with a variable speed motor each of the different changes of gears can be varied in the rapidity of its action by means of the rheostat so as to obtain any de- sired rate. The half-tone, Fig. 25, shows a Niles boring and turn- ing mill electrically driven. It will be understood that in applying the motor to machines of this type the changes were governed by the design of the tool. but i ; | { 3 4 © Silda Sais tie TENE ais, 4 THE IRON AGE. the object accomplished was the same in each instance. It is not necessary to enter into the details of all these different variations. One fact may be noted in all of these large tools; the new drive is entirely beneath the floor, there being no indication above ground of how the power is transmitted. Group of Milling Machines. Fig. 26 shows a group of Ingersoll milling machines. In each instance the motor is supported by brackets attached to the bed occupying the location of the origi- nal drive. In these machines no change was required except that called for by the motor itself and its imme- January 18, 1900 The Federal Bankruptcy Law. Wasuineton, D. C., January 16, 1900.—The House Committee on the Judiciary will hold a meeting within a few days to determine whether any attempt shall he made to amend the new Federal bankruptcy law which took effect July 1, 1898. The subject will be very thoroughly canvassed by the committee and special attention will be given to the recommendations embodied in the annual report of the Attorney-General and in the bills that have been introduced during the present session. The general disposition of the committee is not to make any changes in the law at this time, on the ground that but a single full year has elapsed since the law went into force, and that a longer time is required to fully test the wisdom of Fig. 22.—Sectional Plan of Fig. 21. THE MOST diute gearing, all tne rest of the machine remaining as it came from the makers. (To be continued.) -— > The first electric launch to be used on the canals of Venice has recently made its appearance, no doubt much to the disgust of the gondoliers. A syndicate composed of local gentlemen has taken the matter up and secured this first launch as a type of what they wish to run for passenger traflic on the canals subject to the approval of the local authority. The launch, which is called the “ Alessandro Volta,” provides accommodation for about 50 passengers. Its length is about 56 feet, and width 10 feet. It is equipped with 100 accumulators, and its mean speed will vary from 7 to 9 miles per hour. Professor C. V. Boys, at a meeting of the Royal In- stitution in London, announced that the British torpedo boat destroyer “ Viper,” fitted with a Parsons turbine engine, reached a speed of 35% knots at her trial. It was reported a short time ago that the “ Viper” had ac- complished 37 knots an hour. PERFECT MACHINE SHOP. its various provisions. A very strong effort is being made, however, by two classes of advocates of modifica- tion, and it remains to be seen whether the committee will be influenced by the representations that will be made before them. The two classes referred to include those who desire the repeal of the entire law and those seeking to modify it with a view to increasing somewhat the difficulty experi- enced by bankrupts in securing discharges. In addition there are those who favor increased fees to referees, &c., and more or less important administrative provisions not affecting the principle of the statute. The advocates of repeal have secured the introduction of House bill No. 5295, which has been presented by Mr. Dolliver of Iowa, and which provides specifically that the act be repealed, stipulating, however, that such repeal shall in no way affect proceedings begun under the bankruptcy act prior to the taking effect of the repealing statute. It is safe to say that this bill is supported by so small a proportion of the business community that it stands no chance of passage in the present Congress. The new bankruptcy law 1s not without its severe critics in every part of the coun try, but the general consensus of opinion is that there is vastly more good than bad in it and that its repeal unde: two or three years would be a very grave misfortune. January 18, 1900 The bill introduced in the Senate by Senator Perkins of California, and known as Senate bill 1287, has attracted considerable attention, for the reason that it amends four important sections of the present act. Its general tend- ency is toward increasing the cost of bankruptcy pro- ceedings, which is deprecated by the committee, though — to some extent 7 the rather narrow lines drawn n the original statute. It is proposed to amend section 20 by providing that referees shall be entitled to charge for administering oaths the fees charged by notaries or other officers in the several States, Territories or districts for similar services. The purpose of this amendment is to harmonize bankruptcy practice with that of local judicial procedure, and no special objection is raised to this amendment, as its effect will not be important. A much more significant change in the law is proposed in the amendment suggested in this bill to section 38, which THE IRON AGE. 5 ernment under this amendment would be enormous and the Judiciary Committee is understood to be strongly opposed to it. The bill also proposes an amendment to section 64 authorizing the courts to grant ‘‘ such reasonable amounts for the use of office and for clerical assistance as may be necessary and proper.’’ It is not believed that this amendment is necessary, for the reason that under the general provisions of the present law the courts are mak- ing very moderate allowances for fees and clerical assist- ance. Should the proposed amendment be adopted it is believed it would result in a very material increase in these allowances. _ The Perkins bill also provides that two or more coun- ties may be consolidated into one district under a single referee, if found necessary. The present practice of bankruptcy courts is to make this consolidation, though Fig. 23.—Sectional Front Elevation Fig. 21. THE MOST PERFECT MACHINE SHOP. deals with the jurisdiction of referees. The amendment is as follows: ** Provided, That orders of adjudication, orders con- firming compositions and orders of discharge may be made, after a hearing, by a referee residing or having an Office in the city or town where the office of the clerk of the court is situated, with the same force and effect as if the same were made by the judge. And provided further, That referees performing the above mentioned duties shall receive, in full compensation for all services to be performed under this act, an annual salary of $4000, said salary to be paid out of the Treasury of the United States in the same manner as judges of the District Court are paid. Provided, That the $10 fee prescribed to be paid as a fee to referees and the commissions earned by such referees shall be paid to the clerk by the bankrupt and trustee of bankrupt estates respectively, and said sums shall by the clerk be remitted to the Secretary of the Treasury.”’ The purpose of this amendment is to clothe referees with certain important functions restricted in the present law to ages of the courts of bankruptcy and to grant them es in lieu of fees and commissions, turning the latter into the Treasury. The increased cost to the Gov- such proceeding is of doubtful authority. The adoption of the amendment would legalize the present practice, to which no objection has been raised on any other than a technical ground. ; Representative Jett of Illinois has introduced a bill in the House which is regarded as of special importance chiefly because the amendment suggested by it covers a question upon which the courts have ruled adversely and is analogous to several other problems which are now be- fore the bankruptcy tribunals in both the Eastern and Western jurisdictions. Mr. Jett’s bill proposes to amend section 63 by adding the proviso that ‘‘ nothing in this act shall be so construed as to apply to any order or de- cree entered by any State court decreeing or ordering the payment of alimony or providing for the support and maintenance of one’s family.’ Certain bay abr xf courts have ruled that discharges secured under the Fed- eral law do not free the petitioner from any obligations incurred under decrees of alimony. But the weight of the decisions thus far rendered has been to the effect that discharges operate to cancel all accrued obligations for alimony, but do not affect those that may accrue after the date of the discharge. In this connection the courts are also at variance on the question as to whether a dis- a ere er ne ioe ee We Naat Len ree ¥ 3 a 4 iy | 6 charge in bankruptcy operates to relieve the petitioner from the obligations incurred under a lease, the weight of the decisions being to the effect that as a lease is an obligation which cannot be met after the surrender of a “oo ew assets it is therefore canceled by the decree of is discharge. There is also a difference of opinion in the courts as to whether a seat in a stock exchange may properly be re- garded as a part of a bankrupt’s assets liable for his in- debtedness, and the same question has been raised as to the right of property in liquor licenses issued to the peti- tioner. On one hand certain courts have held that, as a transfer of a seat in a stock exchange can only be made to the person who is able to secure admission to the ex- . change through the votes of its properly constituted officials, and for the reason that in many cases such seats earry life insurance features, they cannot be regarded as assets within the definitions of the Federal statute. THE IRON AGE. January 18, 1900 quired, when requested to do so, to issue certificates of search certifying as to the filing of all petitions, and in addition the bankruptcy indexes of judgments in the several courts are to be at all times open to inspection and examination by persons or corporations for the pur- pose of transcription or otherwise without any fee or charge therefor. The clerks issuing certificates of search would be entitled to receive the same fees as are now allowed by law for certificates as to judgments, and Mr. Elkins believes that they would be sufficiently remuner- ative to make it to the advantage of the clerk to compile the required indexes without other compensation.3 + , The Attorney-General is not disposed to urge upon the attention of Congress the recommendations made in his annual report with a view to their enactment during the present session. His suggestions represent the results of careful observation of the law during the first year of its life, and should action looking to the amendment of the FLOOR L INE Fig. 2A.— Sectional End Elevation Fig. 21. THE MOST PERFECT MACHINE SHOP. Similarly it has been held that, as a liquor license can only be transferred to a person who is acceptable to the authorities, its owner has no vested right in it entitling it to be considered as an asset of his estate. On the other hand, it has been ruled that however circumstantial the rights of a petitioner may be in such property his cred- itors are entitled to such proceeds therefrom as can be secured by an efficient administration of his estate by the trustees duly appointed. It is pointed out that if a seat in a stock exchange or a liquor license were held to be exempt under the bank- ruptcy act its whole purpose could be defeated by the in- tending ‘petitioner, who might easily invest his entire assets in such ome aed without violating any of the pro- visions of the bankruptcy Jaw. The good faith of such a proceeding might be questioned, but the difficulty of dis- proving it would be generally recognized. The fourth measure suggesting an amendment to the bankruptcy law has been drawn by Senator Elkins of West Virginia and provides for the ‘‘ preparation and custody of complete and convenient indexes of all peti- tions in bankruptcy filed in the several District Courts of the United States.’’ The clerks of these courts are re- statute be deferred another year it would meet with the Attorney-General’s approval. In commenting upon the most important features of the law requiring the attention of Congress within the next year or two E. C. Branden- burg, in charge of bankruptcy matters in the Department of Justice, said to the correspondent of The Iron Age: ‘* The law really lacks only one or two changes to make it a most satisfactory statute. A few safeguards easily devised should be thrown about the granting of dis- charges, and a provision should be eng Se requiring petitioners who have secured previous discharges to pay a certain proportion of their debts before securing a sub- sequent discharge. Otherwise I think the law is the best statute that could possibly be devised for the protection of both the credit man and the debtor.”’ Ww. L. C. _— — A plan is on foot for the establishment in the near future of a permanent exposition of American manu- factures in Constantinople, to serve as a center for the extension of the trade in American products in Turkey, a. the Levant, Egypt, the Balkan States and South- ern Russia. January 18, 19V0 The Coke Trade in 1899. The Connellsville, Pa., Courier of Saturday, January 13, reviews the coke trade of 1899 as follows: The coke trade of 1899 was by long odds the greatest in the his- tory of the Connellsville coke region. Prices, too, were much better, the average being above any previous year, and the aggregate gross income of the Connellsville THE IRON AGE. 7 contracts existing. The range in price for furnace coke during 1899 was from $1.60 to $2.75 a ton, with an aver- age price of $1.95, while foundry coke ranged from $1.90 to $3 a ton, with an average price of $2.25. A careful estimate places the average price of the Connellsville region output of 1899 at $2 a ton. There were shipped out of the region during the year 523,203 cars of coke, containing 10,129,764 tons, which at the average price estimated above would yield a gross Fig. 26.— Group of Ingersoll Milling Machines Driven by Motors on the Bed. THE MOST PERFECT MACHINE SHOP. operators was fully 50 per cent. greater than the great- est year on record. In short all previous records were broken and far outclassed. The result, however, was not wholly unexpected. Six nonths ago the Courier advised its readers that the coke output for 1899 would reach the enormous aggregate of 10,000,000 tons. The prediction has been more than veri- fied. The prospects for the coming year are even brighter. At the present rate of progress the output of 1900 will exceed 11,000,000 tons, which will probably be sold at even better prices than those realized during the year just closed, when there were a number of low price revenne of $20,259,528 on board the cars at the ovens. For carrying this coke to its destination the railroads received not less than $15,000,000. During the year the Connellsville coke producers were not able to supply all the demands for coke within the borders of the United States, and for this reason there was little effort, if any, made to invade foreign markets. Some coke went to Canada and a smalk amount to Tampico, Mexico; but inquiries from Belgium. Australia, Switzerland and a few other points were un- heeded. As the demand for coke was much greater than the j | / | | { / : | | aN a ES a A a TE i a a OE CR alana LL 5 eater abies 3 THE IRON AGE. supply, the year 1899 presented a direct contrast to 1898, in that new ovens were desired and at every tract of coal where conditions warranted more ovens were built. The result is that 1899 closed with a total of 19,689 ovens in the region as compared with 18,463 for the last week in 1898. The list of new ovens is a long one. The H. C. Frick Coke Company erected 25 at United No. 3, 33 at Ade- laide, 25 at Calumet and 50 at Oliphant. W. J. Rainey erected 200 on the Warden tract at Mt. Pleasant, has 150 almost completed at Mt. Braddock, has just com- pleted 85 at Paul; Cambria Steel Company, 12 at the Mahoning plant: Oliver & Snyder Steel Company, 100 at Oliver No. 2; Bessemer Coke Company, 120 at the new Empire plant near Ruffsdale, Westmoreland County; Standard Coke Company, a new coke company, 80. at Ourne, near Smithfield, and the Acme Coke Company, another new company, 50 at the Acme plant, between Smithfield and Uniontown. These are the principal ad- ditions during the year. ii, —_— The Zinc Miners’ Association. The Missouri and Kansas Zinc Miners’ Association, which has become such an important factor in the zinc industry, has issued its first annual report, from which we quote: In the entire history of zinc mining there has never been a year so satisfactory in its results as the one just closed. This association is the outgrowth of an intoler- able system of ore buying which has been in vogue since the earliest sales of ore. This system had for its basis in fixing the price of ore naught but the whim and caprice of the ore buyer, whose boast it was that the price of jack was not governed or controlled in any man- ner by the price of spelter. This statement came to be accepted almost as a maxim in buying and selling ore, and in the face of an upward spelter and a downward jack market, rash, indeed, was the seller who dared re- fer to the actual sitvation in the presence of the ore buyer. However, in December, 1898, being incensed at unwar- ranted and sweeping reductions in the price of ore, a few mining operators took it upon themselves to call together representative producers to propose a remedy, and as a result of several conferences, the Missouri and Kansas Zine Miners’ Association was formed with the avowed purpose in view of bringing about an equitable change in ore buying whereby sales of zinc ore should be made from week to week at a price governed by its actual me- tallic value at the time of sale. In establishing a basis, ore assaying 60 per cent. was taken as a standard, and due allowances were made for all costs connected with the conversion of a ton of zine ore to spelter, delivery to the metal market, and reasonable profit for the treatment and handling thereof. After intelligent researches and investigation by your Board of Directors the “ seven to one” rate was agreed upon as being equitable alike to producers and smelter- men--i. e., 1 ton of 60 per cent. ore is worth seven times the value of 100 pounds of spelter at St. Louis, with proper variations for ore of a different quality. After overcoming many obstacles your association has succeeded in establishing this new basis of zine ore value until now the price of every ton of ore sold in this dis- trict is based upon its intrinsic value as determined by assay. As to the substantial results to producers, the fol- lowing figures tell the story: During the year 1898, with- out the association, the average price of zine ore was $25.25 per ton; during the year 1899, through the effective work of the association, the average price was $37, or an increase of $11.75 per ton, or 4614 per cent. This means that on ail ore produced during the past year—255,000 tons—the producers were directly benefited in the sum of $3,000,000. Had the same average price of 1899 been received for ore the output of 1898—235.000 tons— the district would have been benefited in 1898 to the ex- tent of $2,760,000. We have no reason to believe that the price of ore in 1899 without the association would have been any different than in 1898. The association also clung to the theory that ore production, in a meas- ure, should govern the price of spelter. During the year 1898 the average price of spelter in St. Louis was $4.57 per 100 pounds, while during 1899 the average price of spelter was $5.84, or an increase of 27 8-10 per cent., and this advance was made despite the fact that the spelter situation of last year was not as favorable as during the year preceding. If there are some who may deny to the association credit for the advance in spelter for 1899, upon what can the association then stand? The figures are unanswerable. Spelter advanced but 27 8-10 per cent., while blende advanced 46% per cent., or a differ- ence in favor of the association of 18 7-10 per cent. net. This increase in the amount of ore produced amounts to the sum of $1,225,000 left in the pockets of the pro- ducers rather than in the tills of the smeltermen, being January 18, 1900 at the rate of $4.82 per ton. With this showing can° there be any doubt in the minds of the pessimists as to whether the assoeiation had paid for itself and whether it should have the financial and moral support of every producer in the district? To bring about these results measures have been taken from time to time by your board with which you have been kept familiar. Others of a more secret nature have been taken which even now it does not seem advisable to divulge. To those who fear the association may maintain such prices as will cause a tremendous overproduction in the district, we refer for comparison to the figures previous- ly mentioned. Comparing 1899 with 1898, an increase of 27% per cent. in the price of spelter, 46144 per cent. in the price of blende and but 8 7-10 per cent. increase in the gross amount of production. As to the matter of finances any paying member will be shown the books of account at the office upon request, hence no general statement will be made at this time. The affairs of the association have been economically administered, the secretary being the only official under salary. The time of the members of the board has been given without hope of reward except for the benefits de- rived from their efforts in common with other producers. Much more effective work could have been performed by the board had it been better provided with funds. Frequently during the past year occasions have arisen whereby money could have been used to advantage in bringing about desirable results. The amount asked for, 25 cents per week per each ton of production, is insig- nificant compared with the tremendous results attainable under the intelligent expenditure of the money derived from such a source during a year. If this payment had been made by producers during the past year, the asso- ciation would now have a fund of at least $50,000. With such a nucleus the erection of a producers’ smelter would be a simple proposition. The matter has received con- sideration and fields have been investigated during the year. A more complete report may be furnished at a fu- ture time. <n => Shipbuilding in Britain in 1899. “'Phe year which is just closing is the most memo- rable in the history of shipbuilding,” remarks the London Statist. “It is the year of the biggest total in the vol- ume of, and of the largest and most finished types in the items of, production. It has been a year also of unprece- dented development in the output of other countries than Great Britain. Our present purpose is an analysis and survey of the British industry; but we may say that, al- though all the returns are not yet to hand, the world’s output in 1899 was not less than 2,500,000 tons, or, roundly, about 500,000 tons more than that of 1898, the highest on record. That total is, no doubt, considerably swollen by the number of war ships that have been launched during the year, but nevertheless the production of mereantile tonnage has been unprecedented. And yet the cost of production has been steadily rising month by month all through. The particulars of the British trade for two years follow: Districts. 1899. 1898, Scotland— Tons. Tons. lyde.... * 491,074 466,832 Forth..... a 15,642 26,624 cis tcbbeaees™ aseeneus 14,292 Dee..,... 7,449 NL nidh os vuastbsketaesexouee es anaes 615,197 neti adebik ss. SrbsesS055ies* nace oenniahe $07,824 Ti ichinnieebk<encsensees 262,969 i cwckh: bebesi lax | ~ imighristeenbesanen 145,624 OS Se eee 119,040 SNOT cpsctecsess et0osce Sabb 33,880 ae eee ss sey 4,026 ER Re RY ear ee te 38,294 soensees 121,380 Barrow and other ports.................... 51,079 Government yards..... et 73, Totals United Kingdom................ 1,731,543 1,661,853 Thus the Clyde produces more than a fourth of the whole new shipping of the United Kingdom.” — Dr. Coleman Sellers, chief engineer of the Niagara Falls Power Company, and William A. Brackenridge, resident engineer of the same company, have gone to Geneva, Switzerland, where they will meet the famous Swiss engineers, Piccard and Pictet. They will consult with them on the advisability of making changes in the turbines to be installed in the new wheel pit now in building for the Niagara Falls Power Company. It will be recalled that MM. Piccard and Pictet designed the tur- bines in the present wheel pit. While the turbines were designed in Switzerland they are made by the I. P. Mor- ris Company of Philadelphia, where no doubt the tur- bines for the new pit will be made on the improved pat- tern, if it is adopted. January 18, 1900 The Continuous System as Applied to the Rolling of Merchant Steel. The publication of several phenomenal records in the rolling of merchant bar on the Morgan mill in the works of the National Steel Company, at Mingo Junction, Ohio, having aroused more than general interest among roll- ing mill owners in this country and abroad, we present the following description of the system employed: Four merchant mills of this type have been designed by the Morgan Construction Company of Worcester, Mass., three for the Pittsburgh district (now in operation), and one now in process of construction for a party in. Bu- rope. Special limitations of a local character having in each case called for slightly varying treatment, it has been thought best to illustrate the system by means of a composite plan of the four mills, which will be more comprehensive than the plan of any single mill. Referring to the plan presented, it will be noted that so far as possible the continuous principle has been em- ployed, and that every part of the equipment is radically different from the usual practice in manufacture of mer- chant bar. The plant may be, for purposes of explanation, di- vided into three distinct parts—i. e., heating furnaces, rolling mills and cooling beds. The Heating Furnace.—The earliest continuous heat- ing furnaces in common use were those designed and THE IRON AGE. 9 treatment, and the heating is done so thoroughly that the metal is soft to the center. Under these conditions the metal is in condition for rolling at a heat which would seem low to one used to the older methods, where the outside of the billet is brought almost, if not quite, to a dripping heat before rolling. The Allen furnace does admirable heating, and the item of labor in charging is low. The heater’s labor, how- ever, is very severe, and quite as much skill is required to maintain a suitable bottom in the Allen furnace as in any form of reheating furnace. In 1895 a bold advance was made by Mr. Morgan, who designed and built the first gravity discharge furnace, as it has been called. The billets were charged into the cool end of the fur- nace, and advanced through zones of increasing tem- perature until they reached the point of highest heat, where, meeting a sharp incline in the pipe skids, they were discharged one by one by gravity, falling upon a feed table at the end of the furnace, upon which they were carried promptly to the rolls, where the first pass was entered automatically. The results obtained were very striking; the labor of drawing the hot metal and telegraphing it to the rolls was eliminated; the fur- nace bottom was replaced by pipe skids the entire length of the furnace; the great waste from cinder was over- come, and the heater, his hard work having disap- peared, became an attendant whose main duty was to see that gas and air were admitted to the furnace in the proper proportions. This change in furnace design re- ELEVATED BILLET AND COAL TRACK Zi of | | | AUTOMATIC GRAVITY qpamaes F } : 2 | — CONVEYOR CUNTINUOUS MILL CONTINUOUS GAS PRODUCERS FINISHING SHIPPING PLATFORM ROLL LATHES AND STORAGE BOILERS ©© -~ OC (OO J Naeet® Nema AND NING BED AUTOMATIC GRAVITY COOLING BED 300 FT.LONG LIVE SHEAR TAGLE BROAD GAUGE SHIPPING TRACK COMPOSITE PLAN OF FOUR MORGAN built by Gustav Ekman, the eminent Swedish metallur- gist, prior to 1848. About 20 years ago William Allen of England added to the Ekman furnace a mechanical bil- let charger and water pipe skids for supporting the metal, thus eliminating much of the severe labor incident to the earlier types of continuous furnace. In 1891 two coutinuous furnaces of the Allen type were built by Chas. W. Morgan for the Pittsburgh Wire Company of Braddock, Pa. These furnaces were small, but have done splendid work, and it is believed that they still hold the record for output considering the size of fur- nace. After the success of the furnaces at Braddock, a number of similar furnaces were put in for different American manufacturers, and it is also interesting to note that a manufacturer of Sheffield, England (the home of Allen), came to Worcester and ordered a furnace for his works. The old plan of charging heats into a furnace had many detrimental features; some of the billets remain in the furnace fully double the time that pthers in the same heat do, thus increasing the loss from oxidation. Those which remain longest in the furnace are liable to be seriously overheated, while the billets first drawn, al- though appearing hot and soft on the surface, as a mat- ter of fact are comparatively cool and hard in the cen- ter; the condition being expressed by one roller thus, “ Like it had a bone in it.” In the continuous furnace the billets are charged mechanically into the cool end, and advanced gradually and uniformly through zones of con- stantly increasing temperature until the point of highest heat is reached, when they are withdrawn and rolled. Every billet thus receives identically the same heat MERCHANT MILLS. duced the costs of heating labor and waste to a fraction of what at that time had been considered the very best practice. One point noticeable in the management of a con- tinuous furnace is that it is more sensitive to fluctua- tions in the quality or quantity of gas supplied than is the Siemens furnace. A uniform supply of gas can only be made under continuous conditions, which are obtained by means of the Bildt continuous feed device and spreader for gas producers. The Rolling Mills. —A conveyor delivers the heated 4 x 4 inch billet to the first pass of a train of continuous rolls, in which it is reduced to a section of 4% inch square or larger as desired, and then finished accurately on a hand mill, from which it issues directly upon the cooling bed. The Cooling Bed.—A long conveyor running slightly faster than the finishing rolls receives the bar as it is finished and removes it from the mill. After the whole length of the piece is finished, one end is caught in a grip attached to a steam stretcher engine, while a boy secures the other end in an adjustable anchor grip and the bar is pulled straight. Both the stretcher engine and anchor grip being out of line with the conveyor, the pull- ing taut performs a double function—i. e., straightening the bar and removing it from the conveyor. On relax- ing the strain the bar settles upon an inclined cooling bed, where it is maintained straight by resting in the angle formed by the sloping supports of the cooling bed on one side and a series of removable fingers on the other. When the succeeding bar is ready to stretch, the fingers are temporarily removed, and the bar slides a 10 THE IRON AGE. few inches down the incline, where it is arrested by another series of fingers, leaving its former position ready for the next bar. These fingers, or stops, are all connected and constitute a systematic escapement, op- erated by a small steam cylinder controlled by a boy, by which means the cooling bars move down the incline in- termittently, but are at all times after stretching kept straight. Upon reaching the foot of the slope the cooled bars are mechanically grouped on a narow level bed, where these groups of 10 or 20 bars are transferred to the shear table, upon which they are carried to a quick work- ing shear. After cutting to the required length, the bars are loaded directly into cars for shipment in case of large orders, or loaded onto small trucks to be held to make up mixed specifications. Economies of the System.—The cost of heating is re- duced to a minimum in point of fuel used per ton of metal heated, as well as heating, labor and loss from oxidation. The use of a continuous mill for the larger part of the reduction in section causes a very considerable sav- ing in the amount of power required, as the metal ‘Is re- duced quickly while hot and is not subject to the rapid cooling caused by long contact with the mill floor or the atmosphere, and at the same time the amount of oxida- tion is much less, the period of exposure to the air in a continuous mill being but one-fifth of that in the usual Belgian or looping system. Bars 300 feet in length are finished, which reduces the scrap loss d