The Iron Age 1906-03-22: Vol 77 Iss 12

‘THE IRON AGE A Review of the Hardware, Irom,Machinery and Metal Trades. Published every Thursday Morning by David 201m) 2067 a 14-16 Park Place, New York. = ciliata dldieaparmmamesentenseee og hitedal, Ba cceeenneinnreneneiniiieee tilt ieee Vol. 77: No. 12. New York, Thursday, March saa $5 00 « Year, including Postage. Reading Matter Contents...... page 1066 Alphabetical Index to Advertisers . 183 ae sie teikemaan Notes - | U. M. c. Cartridges E 5 TES qqemem Silalt Couplings | “Government Standard” United States and foreign Government Inspectors, almost continuously stationed at our works, apply rigid tests to U. M. C. Ammunition, and affix the Government stamp of approval. An ever increasing demand is the seal of approval affixed by American sportsmen upon U. M. C. Cartridges. M’f'd by Forster Puljey Works, Cuba,n.y. oo Dealers, when you order Cartridges, remember that the U. M. C. Standard is the Government Standard and the Sportsmen's Standard. The American Mf:. Ct Ropes and T wires The Union Metallic Cartridge Company Bridgeport, Conn. AGENCY: Depor: $18 Broadway 86-88 First Street New York City San Francisco, Cal. 65 Wall Street, New Yor t THE BRISTOL COMPANY, Waterbury, Cenn. Bristol’s Recording Instruments. Dee Pind Weide Gold Medal, St. Louis Exposition. All Ranges, Low Prices, and Guar. anteed, Send for Catalog R. SAMSON SPOT CORD STIRLING CONSOLIDATED BOILER CO. See Page 46 Also Linen and Italian Hemp Sash Cord, SAMSON CORDAGE WORKS, Boston, Mass. || ¢ ° 9 =i - The Best in the World ice, 11 Broadway, New York. Cleveland City Forge and Iron Go.,” Cleveland, 0, Capewell Horse Nails are Flexible enough DROP | to Clinch easily and so Tough that the a will not break under the severest ae Broskivn, i. T. in_service. PILLING & CRANE ot eal Pit nian | “a ee Bla of Pade, Boston. The Capewell Horse Nail Company Hartford, Conn. SEND FOR A It will help you keep t tabs on “Swmedon” Cold Rolled Steet ‘sex Drawing Stamping CALENDAR your time, and tells why you THE AMERICAN TUBE & STAMPING COMPANY SEE. (5, should keep M. F. Roofing (Water and Rall Delivery) BRIDGEPORT, Conn. Tin on your roofs. MAGNOLIA METAL. Best Anti-Fri¢tion Metal for all Machinery Bearings. «e@= + 1$=%jJENHINS BRO: BROS. VALVES are well designed, and have full opening. They are thoroughly inter- changeable, so that any worn or broken part can be readily renewed. All genuine bear Trade Mark as shown in the cut, and are guaranteed. Write for booklet, JENKINS BROS., New York, Boston. Philadelphia, Chicago, London. See Pac-Simile of Bar. Lip TOS AMERICAN! , ideation. aes SHEET & TIN PLATE MAGNOLIA METAL 6O.,” COMPANY’S Owners and Sole Manufacturers, _1/3-115 Bank Street, "rancisee, Montreal, apd Ad on Page 15 Chicago, Fisher Bldg. NEW YORK. We'manat sotare il edea_¢"Banbise Weal ” 2 THE IRON AGE SHEET BRASS; =, We make Five COPPER a Grades of BRIGHT rin, cuit more Bt FOLLANSBEE "al k f SOnaY G3RAL. fae GERMAN (ste SILVER) “\ ears mt. PITTSBURGH WIRE what we offer. Buffalo LOW BRASS. SHEET BRONZE. ONE reason Cleveland SEAMLESS BRASS AND COPPER tse te TUBING. BRAZED BRASS AND oubdts on th biect BRONZE TUBING. ::: 2:23: eae Louisville ate ly ONE t of property g “eslille B|WATERBURY BRASS CO., equipped mills. Memphis WATERBURY, CONN. 99 John St., New York. Providence, R. |. ANOTHER: MILLS WM. BANFIELD Wf Fottansbee. Bridgeport Deexidized Brenze & a member of this Co. a Metal (0., MANAGES THEM. BRIDGEPORT, GONN. Automobile Castings a Specialty. High Tensile Strength. Bronze and Aluminum Alloys. Write Us. Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Co., LA SALLE, ILLINOIS. SMELTERS OF SPELTER SHEET ZINC AND SULPHURIC Special Sizes of Zinc cut to order. Rolled Battery Plates, Selected Plates for Etchers’ and Lithographers’ use. Selected Sheets for Paper and Card Makers’ use. Stove and Washboard Blanks. ZINCS FOR LECLANCHE BATTERY. BRASS Finisiers J.J,RYAN & CO, ACID. OUNDERS INISHERS 105-109 So.Jefferson St.: Chicago. Best Bronze, Babbitt Metals, Brass and Aluminum SASTINGS — rass, Bronze and # Aluminum #2 CASTINGS FOUN DERS—FINISHERS. ww. G. ROWZLLI CoO., Bridgeport, Comm. HENDRICKS BROTHERS PROPRIETORS OF THE Belleville Copper Rolling Mills, MANUFACTURERS OF Brazicrs’ Bolt and Sheathing COPPER, COPPrPER WIRE AND RIVETS. Importers and Dealers in Ingot Copper, Block Tin, Spelter, Lead, Antimony, etc. 49 CLIFF ST., NEW YORK. THE PLUME & ATWOOD MFS. Co, MANUFACTURERS OF * Sheet and Roll Brass __-WIRE ” PRINTERS’ BRASS, JEWELERS’ METAL, GERMAN SILVER“AND GILDING METAL, COPPER RIVETS AND: BURRS. —— Pins, Brass Butt Hinges,” Jack Chain, Kero- sene Burners, Lamps, Lamp Trimmings, &c. 29 MURRAY ST., NEW YORK. 199 LAKE ST., CHICAGO, ROLLING MILL: THOMASTON, CONN, FACTORIES: WATERBURY, CONN. SCOVILL MFG. CO. MANUFACTURERS OF BRASS, GERMAN SILVER, Sheets, Rolls, Wire Rods, Bolts and Tubes, Brass Shells, Gups, Hinges, Buttons, Lamp Goods. Special Brass Goods to Order. Facrorizs : _ WATERBURY, CONN. Depots: NEW YORK. CHICAGO. BOSTON, henry Souther Engineéting GO. MARTFORD, GONN Consulting Chemists, Sanenaiote and Analysts Complete Physica] Testing Labora Expert Testimony ia Court and Paten i— ‘Arthur T. Rutter & Go. 256 Broadway, NEW YORK. Small tubing in Brass, Copper Steel, Aluminum, German Silver, &c. Sheet Brass, Copper and Ger- man Silver. Copper, Brass and | German Silver Wire. Brazed and Seamless Brass and Copper Tube. Copper and Brass Rod. “dealel-Light” OIL and GAS Bicycle Lanterns. Send ter Circulars and Electrotypes. THE BRIDGEPORT BRASS CO., Bridgeport, Cenn. Postal Telegraph Building, Broadway and Marray St., New York. 7 Ne. 7tb St.. Philadelpbia. 85 to 7 Pearl St., Boston, ELECTRIC WELDING Jiherd’o ue werk: Sop Gilead Sux 00 00 aa, Sees write and learn + ~ Nd how well we do THE STANDARD WELDING CO., Cleveland. nf’rs Standard Seamless Tubing. oss Pd THE IRON AGE New York, Thursday, March 22, 1906. The Ralston Side Dumping Car. For the carrying of coal, ashes, ore, sand and mate- rials of like nature the Ralston Steel Car Company, Co- lumbus, Ohio, has developed the improved type of flush- floor, drop-bottom dumping gondola car, illustrated here- with. The engravings show an improved pattern, known as class H-5, which speedily followed the first model when it was brought out a short time ago. The principle of the action of the doors remains the same, the object of the improvements being only to make the car discharge more nearly its entire load without scraping, shoveling or sweeping. Four more doors have been added, two at each end, between the end sill and body bolster. Where The interior view of the car given in Fig. 2 shows how completely the load may be dumped, the only part re- tained being the small amount left on the top plates of the five cross bearers and the cover plates of the bolsters. Fig. 3 is a view of the car from the side with all of the doors closed, and shows the peculiar form of the center sill, which is designed to carry the entire load. This sill consists of two 44-inch vertical plates stiffened on their lower edges by 3x4x¥%-inch angles inside and out, and on the upper edges by 344x3x1%-inch angles on the out- side. A \%-inch cover plate completes the girder. At the center this girder has a depth of 30 inches and tapers to a depth of about 13% inches under the bolsters. This rather unique design of center sill gives the car a de Fig. 1.—The Flush Floot Drop Bottom Car, Built by the Ralston Steel Car Company, Columbus, Ohio. before the floor was fixed and where the back edges of the deors were formerly separated by a flat plate that offered a lodging place for material, the doors are now placed edge to edge, hinging on a common axis, so that no material is retained along the center of the car. The illustration Fig 1 shows one of the cars with the doors in their dropped position and indicates quite plainly the operating devices for closing the doors. They open by gravity and are returned to horizontal position by manipulating the ratchet handles at the ends of the car, each of which controls four doors. By dividing the doors up in this way it is possible to dump one-quarter of the load at a place if desired, and it makes the work of closing the doors less arduous. The door-closing device is in principle a crank shaft with a separate throw for each door, supported at the ends and between the throws by brackets on the under side of the cross bearers. Each throw of the shaft carries two rollers, which bear against the under side of the doors and reduce the friction suffi- ciently so that one man can close the doors with ease. cidedly distinctive appearance, as will be quickly appre- _ Clated from the side view in Fig. 3. * It will be noticed from Fig. 1 that when the doors are in position for dumping the car will easily discharge its load clear of the track. The manipulating ratchet levers, as may be seen, are provided with two pawls, the second one of which prevents the shaft from rotating backward while a new grip is being taken by the movable paw] on the lever. In addition a locking paw] holds the stationary pawl in position when the doors are closed and helps to eliminate any chance of the doors opening while the car is in transit. However, as the cranks are on dead center when the doors are closed there ig little strain imposed upon the ratchets and pawls to keep them closed. Along the top of the center sill there is placed a 5-inch I beam, which serves the purpose of raising the centers of the doors where they are hinged, so that they may be placed back to back. The hinge brackets are mounted on this I beam and a single hinge rod supports both doors. This arrangement raises the doors sufficiently so that they 1020 will clear the center sill when opened. The method of hinging, it is claimed, is such that there is no danger of coal dust or any such material fouling the hinges so as to interfere with the opening or closing of the doors. the body what unique and resembles that of the steel car under- frame illustrated in The Iron Age, March 1, page 775. The first car built on the lines of the original model, The construction of bolsters is also some- THE IRON AGE March 22, 1906 it is similar to Purdue’s well-known locomotive testing laboratory. The automobile is mounted with its driving wheels resting on wheels on an axle supported in fixed At the rear of the testing machine the auto- mobile is connected with a traction dynamometer which has a friction brake to vary and regulate the resistance, so that the automobile may be run under light or heavy The energy delivered by the automobile is the bearings. loads. Fig. 2.—-An Interior View of the Car with the Doors Dropped. Fig. 3.—Side View of the Car with the Doors Closed, Showing the Peculiar Center Sill. now known as the 90 per cent. dumping car, has been in continuous service since it was first put out and has given very good satisfaction. The principle of the operation of ithe doors is the same in this car, with the exception before noted, that the doors were separated at the back edges by a flat plate covering the center sill. a Oe An automobile testing laboratory is a recent institu- tion at Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., in which tests of all kinds of automobiles may be made. In a measure product of the pull exerted at the draw bar and the dis- tance passed over hy the tread of the driving wheel. This gives the work done in foot pounds, and with the intro- duction of the time element the horse-power may be read- ily calculated. Automobile manufacturers are manifest- ing their interest in the laboratory by offering machines for testing. It is believed that the work to be conducted may throw considerable light on many of the technical problems involved in automobile manufacturing. Possibly a happy result of the experiments may be the ultimate cheapening of motor cars. March 22, 1906 The Wadsworth Foot Power Machine. Core Coning Few corerooms have power available, and where core machines have been adopted for making stock cores a need has arisen for some means of tapering the ends to form the print true and to size. The accompanying illus- tration shows a power core coning machine built for this work by the Falls Rivet & Machine Company, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The taper of the print is gauged to a stand- ard of 3-16 inch to 1 inch in the length of the print, or in other words there is a difference of % inch in the diam- eters of sections at right angles to the axis of the cone 1 inch apart. The length of the print may be as de- THe [RONAGE The Wadsworth Foot Power Core Coning Machine, Made by the Falls Rivet & Machine Company, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. sired. There have been many different standards for the tapers for prints proposed at various times, but after considerable experimenting the company manufacturing this machine has adopted the 3-16 to 1 inch standard in its own foundry and recommends it as the one likely to be generally adopted. This machine has an advantage over others in that the foot is used to furnish power, allowing both hands to be used for turning the core around and holding it up against the gauges—a thing which it is difficult to do with one hand only. This machine has a capacity for tapering cores from % to 24 inches in diameter, and the gauges may be quickly changed. Both sides of the emery wheel are used for coning, while the front can be used as an emery grinder, making it a very useful addi- tion to a coreroom, inasmuch as it is large enough to do considerable work. The wheel used is 8 inchez in diam- eter by 14% inches face. —2s-o __— The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company’s Offices.— The Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company has closed its Norfolk office, which was located in the Chamberlaine Building, and will in the near future open an office in THE IRON AGE 1021 Richmond, Va. The office located at 602 Empire Build- ing, Pittsburgh, Pa., will be moved April 1 to 10 and 12 Wood street, at which point a store building has been secured for the purpose of making a general display of air compressors, tools, &c., a large stock of which will be carried as soon as the factories are in position to furnish it, and a well equipped repair department will also be maintained for the benefit of the company’s large num- ber of customers in the district. The office has been closed at Seattle, Wash., and a new office opened at 84 Sixth street, North Portland, Ore. The company reports business entirely satisfactory both at home and abroad, all factories working double time. oO Unlawful Persuasion in Cases of Strike. The National Founders’ Association has issued in the form of a pamphlet of 32 pages the brief of its attorneys in the Cincinnati case of the Iron Molders’ Union of North America eft al., plaintiffs in error, versus the I. & E. Greenwald Company, defendant in error. The original action was an injunction proceeding brought by the de- fendant in error against the plaintiffs in error in the Superior Court at Cincinnati. The injunction restrained the Iron Molders’ Union, its officers and others from ob- structing the business of the I. & E. Greenwald Com- pany, from picketing the sidewalks, streets and approaches adjacent to the plant, also from compelling or attempt- ing to induce by threats, intimidation, persuasion, force or violence any of the employees of the I. & E. Greenwald Company to refuse to do their work or discharge their duties as employees. On August 14, 1905, charges of con- tempt were filed against John F. O'Leary, vice-president of the Iron Molders’ Union, and Henry Hinnenkamp, business agent of the union, reciting that they had vio- lated the temporary injunction of the court by inducing two employees of the I. & E. Greenwald Company to break their contracts and leave the company’s employ. They were each sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and give a bond in $500 to obey the injunction. The defendants began proceedings in error, and the brief just published is the argument of the attorneys for the National Founders’ Association, which had been con- ducting the strike for the I. & E. Greenwald Company. The bulk of the authorities cited in the brief bear on the question whether unlawful persuasion was involved in the case of the two officers of the union. The cases cited represented a variety of decisions in State courts as well as in Great Britain and in United States courts. <A spe- cial citation is made of the famous Taff Vale decision given by the House of Lords. A quotation appears also from the findings of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commis- sion. The brief says: From these cases it evidently follows that inducing employees to break their contracts with employers by persuasive language, money consideration, &c., is an unlawful interference with the conduct of the business of the employer and is a violation of a property right. The facts as presented to the court clearly bring this case within the general rule recognized in all the cases above cited The acts of -the defendants Hinnenkamp and O'Leary were in direct violation of the order of injunction as that order must be construed in the light of the numerous authorities, a few of which only have been cited in this brief The conclusions drawn by the attorneys for the Na- tional Founders’ Association are stated as follows: The right of workingmen to give up their jobs singly or in a body is not the question at issue. The freedom of speech is not assailed It is the abuse of the freedom of speech to accom- plish an unlawful act----the carrying out of a combination for the unlawful purpose of injuring the business of another that is in- volved. The right to manage one’s own business in one’s own way without interference by others is fundamertal in a free Government. The enforcement of the law can never be hostile to the true interests of the workingman; and those men who teach and preach that in some mysterious way the assertion of the basic principles of our institutions is to be regarded as an oppression of the workingman are not the friends but the worst enemies of labor. The proposition that a combination to inflict injury upon another wrongfully is unlawful goes back almost to the beginning of our system of law. It will be a part of that system as long as freedom of contract and the liberty of the individual last. Such a combination of capital to restrain trade tends to estab- lish monopoly and to oppress the public; such a combination of laber to inflict injury upon business and to deprive other men of the right to work strikes at the foundation of personal liberty. 1022 THE IRON AGE March 22, 1906 The Pre-eminence of Pittsburgh in Transportation. Iron and Steel Works as Contributors of an Unparalleled Tonnage. (With map.) Estimates by competent authorities put the total freight tonnage in and out of the Pittsburgh district in 1905 at 103,000,000 net tons, of which 92,000,000 tons was moved by rail and 11,000,000 tons by water. Exact fig- ures for the Monongahela River freight movement in 1905 show a total of 9,852,211 net tons down stream and 1,140,922 tons up stream, nearly nine-tenths of the river traffic being in coal. The growth of the railroad traffic of this district has been almost beyond belief. At the annual dinner of the Pittsburgh Traffic Club in April, 1905, Willis L. King, vice-president of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, put the annual freight move- ment in and out of the “real Greater Pittsburgh,” which in industrial and railroad calculations may be considered coterminous with Allegheny County, at 86,- 000,000 tons, a figure presumably based on the freight movement of 1904. It was stated in the same connec- tion that as a contributor of railroad tonnage Pittsburgh equaled the combined totals of London, New York, Ant- werp, Hamburg and Hongkong, with almost sufficient margin left to take in the traffic of Liverpool as well. Only eight years ago, when the inadequacy of Pitts- burgh railroad facilities was being discussed most se- riously and the possibilities of a new road to tidewater were being urged by the leading steel interest, the im- portance of Pittsburgh to the railroads was indicated by an estimated total of 46,000,000 tons of freight in the year 1897, or less than half the total for 1905. What was then regarded as startling emphasis to the claims of the leading shippers was the statement, based on a study of the transportation statistics for great commercial and industrial centers, that the Pittsburgh tonnage was twice that of London, three times that of New York or Chicago and four times that of Paris. Only seven years were needed to convert what was considered a marvel in 1898 into the still more remarkable comparison presented to the leading railroad officials who were guests at the Pittsburgh Traffic Club dinner last year. Increase in Iron and Steel Output. The industrial development that has made the ad- vance in the Pittsburgh freight movement so phenomenal may be gauged by the pig iron output of Allegheny County, which shows substantially the same ratio of growth as is represented by the total of 46,000,000 tons of freight in 1897 and 103,000,000 tons in 1905. In 1897 the 30 blast furnaces in Allegheny County produced 2,663,098 tons of pig iron. In 1905 the number of fur- naces had grown to 42 and the output had risen to 5,410,890 tons, or more than double that of eight years previous. The production of pig iron by Allegheny County in 1905 was 23.5 per cent. of the entire produc- tion of the country. While eight years elapsed before the pig iron production of Allegheny County doubled that of 1897, it required only five years to double the amount of steel produced in Allegheny County in 1897. For the latter year it was 2,829,330 tons, or 39.5 per cent. of the total steel ingot production of the country. In 1902 it reached 5,660,308 tons, or 88 per cent. of the total. New Raltlroad Connections of Recent Years, The entrance into the Pittsburgh district, of the Pitts- burgh & Lake Erie Railroad and later of the Pittsburgh, Bessemer & Lake Erie, and last of all of the Wabash system, represents the tardy growing of railroad facilities up to the needs of shippers. Iron and steel works and the long list of industries that are located in and about Pittsburgh, because the steel which is their raw materia! is to be had on a switching charge basis for freight, and because their fuel, where natural gas is not employed, costs little for hauling from western Pennsylvania mines, have swarmed over the space available for manufacturing ‘ in a way that would scarcely have been dreamed a decade ago. The movement up the Monongahela River that was at its hight only a comparatively few years ago has gone to the point of exhausting all available sites within the borders of Allegheny County and quite beyond that limit. To-day manufacturers in search of sites affording room for the certain expansion of the future are going down the Ohio. The location of the Neville Island blast furnace of the American Steel & Wire Company was an important step in that direction, as were the building of the great Ambridge works of the American Bridge Company and the location at Monaca of the plant of the Colonial Steel Company. It will not be many years before the entire length of the Ohio River as far as to the mouth of the Beaver River will be taken up for industrial purposes. Purchases of land by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company in the past two years, covering a stretch of well nigh two miles on the south bank of the Ohio between Aliquippa and Monaca, point to important developments in that district. And the announcement has been made only recently of the plan of the H. P. Porter Company to remove its large locomotive works from Forty-ninth street, Pittsburgh, to a site recently acquired at Economy, Pa. Industrial Towns. The demand upon the district tributary to Pittsburgh for new industrial locations has resulted in the establish- ment of many new towns. The number of these is prob- ably greater than has been developed in the same length of time in a like territorial area in any part of the world. The movement dates back to the early nineties; since that time there have been founded Monaca, Ali- quippa, Coraopolis, Groveton, Avenue, Hyde Park, Van- dergrift, Avonmore, New Kensington, Braeburn, East Pittsburgh, Wilmerding, Huff, Glassport, Clairton, Do- nora, Monessen, Ambridge, and Economy. The latest ad- dition to the list is the town of Midland, on the Ohio River, about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, where the Midland Steel Company is erecting a blast furnace plant on an extensive tract near Cooks Ferry, a few miles farther down the Ohio River than Beaver, Pa. The growth of these industrial towns that have been literally built up around single industries or groups of industries has been one of the striking factors in the development of railroad traffic in the Pittsburgh district in the past 12 or 15 years. Each of the two most important additions to the steelmaking capacity of the district in recent years, Clairton and Donora, has its own town. The name Braeburn is linked with an extension of the cru- cible steel] industry in the later nineties, and a number of the town names in the above list are associated fa- miliarly with important additions to the sheet and tin plate industries in which the rolling mills are served by connected open hearth plants. River Transport a Growing Factor, The configuration of the land about Pittsburgh and the hemming in of industrial works and railroad track systems between rivers and bluffs, with the freight move- ment circumscribed to a large extent by the limited num- ber of bridges spanning the rivers, have made the traffic problem always an urgent one. The embargo of early 1908; when the chief officials of the Pennsylvania Rail- road went to Pittsburgh and for days personally super- vised the movement of trains to relieve what had become almost an impossible situation, was the climax of a con- gestion that lacked but little of shutting down the mills. That experience has not been repeated in so acute a form, but the overtaxing of railroad facilities has been a possibility constantly before Pittsburgh shippers. It has made sentiment steadily in favor of the improvement of the means of water transportation as a needed auxiliary to the railroads. When improvements now under way March 22, 1906 are compieted there will be a 9-foot channel all the way to Beaver Falls. The programme involves six locks and dams in a course of 28.6 miles. Lock 1, known as the Davis Island dam, was built many years ago; Lock No. 6, at Beaver Falls, was completed about a year ago; the remaining locks are in course of construction and wil! be completed within a year. The Davis Island dam af- fords a depth of 10 feet up to the wharves in the business section of the city. The canalization of the Ohio River is a matter still in the stage of discussion, and the project is under investigation by the War Department. A 9-foot channel is proposed to the Mississippi River; although the appropriations thus far made only contemplate a 6-foot channel from the Beaver River to Cairo, Ill. The iron and steel interests are naturally doing their utmost to secure the improvement of the Ohio River. Their ship- ment of steel products by water is now limited to the freshet periods, when the accumulated freight in the harbor goes down the river. The recent contract for steel barges for transporting the product of one im- portant steel interest points to a time when fleets of such barges, with steel tugs, will go from Pittsburgh to the Gulf and beyond. The cotton tie product of the Pitts- burgh district is now largely shipped by water, and there have been at times important shipments of rails and wire products. In view of the facilities even now af- forded, the American Steel & Wire Company has estab- lished warehouses at Louisville and Memphis as distrib- uting points for its Southern trade. The average freight per ton mile from Pittsburgh to New Orleans under the present freshet system is .675 mill, and it is estimated by United States engineers that this will be reduced to .39 mill to New Orleans when a 9-foot channel on the Ohio is available. On the Great Lakes .79 mill per ton mile is the lowest rate maintained through a season. To say that between 90,000,000 and 100,000,000 tons of freight are loaded or unloaded by the railroads in the Pittsburgh district in a year tells an impressive story of supremacy in transportation. But.more impressive is a picture showing how fully the iron and steel and related industries, which contribute the bulk of this enormous volume of freight, have taken possession of Pittsburgh and the banks of its rivers for miles away. Such a pic- ture will be found in the map accompanying this article. It shows greater works, and several times more of them, devoted to the production of iron and steel and to work- ing up the products of the rolling mill than are found in an equal extent of territory anywhere in the world. Of particular interest is the change in the railroad map of Pittsburgh made by the entrance of the Wabash, which has in addition the belt line, as shown on the South Side, this having been acquired within the past year. Number and Diversity of Works. Nearly 260 individual iron and steel producing plants or works in which iron and steel are wrought into va- rious finished forms or into machines, are indicated upon the map—a complete and graphic showing of the terri- torial distribution of these industries. These plants vary in size and tonnage, from such as the Homestead, Edgar Thomson or Duquesne works of the Carnegie Stee] Com- pany, or the American works of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company, on the South Side, to the small tool works or tack mill. Without attempting any epitome of the products of this marvelous industrial hive, for that is not the purpose of this article, attention is called to the imposing array of corporation and firm names, many of them indicating products which have made Pittsburgh famous. Recent years have added one after another to the establishments whose raw material is the product of Steel works, and there has been the extension of estab- lished works or the erection of new ones that supply equipment to iron and steel works. ‘ Conspicuous exam- ples of the former are the steel car works, of which there are three in the Pittsburgh district, and the great Ambridge bridge works. Of the latter, the extensions of well-known chilled roll and rolling mill machinery foun- dries, the addition of new foundries in this line and the establishment of the manufacture of large engines—roll- ing mill engines and blowing engines, driven by steam and gas—are especially worthy of note. It was only a THE IRON AGE 1023 few years ago that Mr. Carnegie called attention to and especially accented the dependence of Pittsburgh blast furnaces and steel works upon other centers for their engines. The concentration of a large percentage of the tool steel manufacturing capacity of the country in the Pittsburgh district, there being no less than 15 crucible steel plants, is a fact of significance. As a contributor of railroad equipment Pittsburgh is notable not only for its tonnage of rails and steel cars, but for axles, car wheels, air brakes, couplers, journal boxes, spikes, track bolts, switch and signal devices and draft riggings, the output of axles being probably greater than in all other districts of the country combined. Rallroad Connections, The movement of a million tons of freight in every three working days throughout the year, in and out of this district, is an achievement that fairly staggers the mind, And the hundreds of miles of tracks in main lines and terminals that make such a feat possible are as unique as the record of the traffic passing over them. In the accompanying map the locations of the iron and steel works are indicated, with all the railroads that reach them, whether main, connecting, terminal or belt lines. These latter comprise the Pennsylvania Railroad lines, the Baltimore & Ohio, New York Central (Pitts- burgh & Lake Erie), the Wabash, the Pittsburgh, Besse- mer & Lake Erie, the Union Railroad, the Monongahela Connecting Railroad, the McKeesport Connecting Rail- road and miscellaneous terminals. The main map takes in the Monongahela River beyond McKeesport, or to the mouth of the Youghiogheny; the Allegheny River as far as Brilliant, and the Ohio River as far as Neville Island, on which is located the blast furnace plant of the Ameri- ean Steel and Wire Company. Something of its terri- torial extent may be gathered from the distances between the depots in the heart of Pittsburgh and various ex- treme outlying points. For instance, from the Pittsburgh depot of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to McKeesport is 15 miles. From the Union depot to Brilliant, on the Allegheny Valley Railroad, is 7 miles. From the Union depot to Ben Avon, on the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad, opposite Neville Island, is 6% miles. The more remote works, which are most important fac- tors in the development of the district in the past dec- ade, are indicated on detached maps. Map No. 1 takes in the portion of the Monongahela River above Cochran, the location of the Duquesne works, as far as to Charle- roi, a distance of 28 miles. Map No. 2 is an extension of the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Wilmerding as far as Latrobe, or 26 miles. It covers the Pennsylvania main line coke field and the contiguous coking operations reached by Pennsylvania Railroad branches. In auxiliary map No. 3 is given a section of the Pan Handle line, which reaches important coal opera- tions; also the Chartiers branch leading to Washington, Pa., 24 miles from the main line. The other well-known manufacturing centers located on this map are Canons- burg and Carnegie. Map No. 4 takes in the Allegheny Valley Railroad from Brilliant to Kittanning, 39 miles; also the portion of the Kiskiminetas valley traversed by the West Penn Railroad. On the Allegheny valley are Verona and New Kensington, the latter a sheet and tin plate town and containing also the works of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company. The West Penn Railroad has an important tonnage in sheets and tin plates, particularly the former, reaching Leechburg, Hyde Park, Vandergrift and Apollo. Map No. 5 is of interest, as embracing the district in which important industries have been recently located and in which the extensions of the immediate future will be marked. It includes the Ohio and Beaver rivers be- tween Neville Island and Beaver Falls. Its important intermediate points are Monaca, Ambridge, New Brigh- ton, Aliquippa, Economy, Leetsdale and Coraopolis. A feature of the main map and of the detached maps is the representation of the plants of the United States Steel Corporation by a distinctive mark. Important as these plants are numerically in the Pittsburgh district, their showing would be far more impressive in any graphic representation of tonnage. 1024 The New Croton Dam, The new Croton dam, belonging to the water supply system of New York City, which has been under con- struction for 14 years, was pronounced complete March 10 and is now filling with water. An article in the New York Herald states that this dam stands easily foremost of works of that kind. In its colossa] masonry, in hight, length, thickness and volume of water confined it has no rivals. It is larger than the three great dams of Europe combined. They are the Vyrny dam in England, the Furens in France and the Gileppe in Belgium. In Egypt the Assouan dam, built to control the irrigating floods of the Nile, is longer than the Croton dam, but it is more of a dike than a dam and is only 70 feet in hight, against 301 feet of the Croton’s wall. The new dam is in three sections, the main dam ex- tending 1400 feet from the south side of the Croton Val- ley to a point where the spillway and the bridge span begin. The spillway curves away to the eastward and Is 1000 feet long. It is 2400 feet long from the south end of the main dam to the north end of the spillway. At its base it is 216 feet thick, and this tapers toward the top, where it is 10 feet across the top of the spillway and 21 feet wide at the top of the main dam. The slope of the inner wall is very slight. Follow ing the straight line of the main dam is a steel arch bridge 200 feet long. Over this and the top of the main dam is a highway 21 feet wide. Un- der the bridge will flow the water after passing over the spillway. When the water has risen to the top of the spillway and is flowing over it its surface will be 16 feet below the level of the highway which crosses the main dam and the bridge. The water will be 160 feet in depth at the dam. With the water in it level with the top of the spillway, the dam will add 36,000,000,000 gallons to the city’s sup- ply. The lake made by the dam fills the valley behind it for nearly 20 miles and spreads at one place to an extreme width of two miles. When the city acquired the tract covered by the dam and lake it was necessary to wipe out many roads and bridges. To replace them the city has constructed 36 miles of macadamized roads along the shores of the lake. When the present site was finally de- cided upon for the dam it was neces- sary to penetrate to the solid rock for a foundation. Borings through the Fig. 1. surface earth found a disintegrated rock below, and it was not until a depth of 85 feet was reached that the solid rock was found. The contract was let to James 8. Coleman, who carried on the work alone for several years and then took into partnership J. Breuchaud and his brother, B. F. Coleman. Work was begun in the autumn of 1892. The engineers for the city were in succession Alphonse Ftely, Frederick 8. Cook, William H. Hill and J. Waldo Smith, now chief engineer of the new municipal water com- mission. _——_9--@—___—__ United States Consul-General Skinner of Marseilles writes that an official decree by the President of France provides for prizes for the following described inventions : A prize of 20,000 francs ($3860) to the person who shall discover a denaturalizing agent for alcohol more advan- tageous than the denaturalizing agent now in use and offering to the “treasury” every guarantee against fraud. A prize of 50,000 francs ($9650) to the person who shall discover a system of utilizing alcohol for illuminat- ing purposes under the same conditions as petroleum. The commission of analytical methods and of alcohol denaturalization created by the decree of June 23, 1896, is instructed to determine the conditions and to award these prizes. THE IRON The Improved Matchbox Tray Machine Made by Birch March 22, 1906 AGE Matchbox Machinery. The study of a machine containing ingenious mechan ical movements may be instructive, even though its com bined functions produce an article somewhat foreign to the individual reader’s immediate interest. It is not unlikely that the investigation of a more or less familiar class of machinery may prove of profit by suggesting new ideas. The two machines illustrated have been made the subject of this description, not because of their prod- ucts, but because of the interesting manner in which they perform their work. Their sole purpose is the man ufacture of paper match boxes of the tube and tray variety, but similar boxes might be used for holding various commodities, and several of the parts may sug gest means of accomplishing quite different operations. & Birch, Crawfordsville, Ind, In some respects the machine which makes the box proper or the tray, shown in Fig. 1, is the more interest- ing, its work being more complicated than that of the tube or lid machine, Fig. 8, and its present form of later invention. Both machines are built by Birch & Birch. Crawfordsville, Ind., and were invented and patented by John Hays Birch and John Henry Birch. Both machines work on the continuous principle, the stock being fed in from a roll of strawboard. The tray forming machine, as may be seen in Fig. 1, has all of its driving mechanism contained below the bed plate, and for convenience in threading in the stock and making necessary adjustments the various acting mechanisms are of open side form, the supporting parts being to the rear of the center line of the machine with respect to the operator’s position. The machine is en- tirely automatic and the several stages in the work, in- cluding applying the glue, punching the blanks, cutting them and forming and gluing, are accurately timed to proper relation to one another. The best understanding of the construction and opera- tion may be had from the line drawings. The stock is introduced into the machine from a roll supported on standards near the end of the machine and enters over March 22, 1906 the guide plate a, Figs. 2 and 3, its continued course being indicated by the dotted line in the latter figure. It first passes under a friction block, b, yieldingly de- pressed by a spring, the tension of which is adjustable to keep the work taut between this point and the feed rollers. *assing around the flanged guide rollers d the strip moves horizontally over the glue pot e. Dipping into this pot is a plunger carrying at its lower end a series of teeth, which by pressure against the lower side of the strip applies short marks of glue at the points THE IRON AGE 1025 explained later, during which the glue teeth make con- tact with the strip. Continuing, the paper passes over the idler rollers, g and hf, which are vertically adjustable on standards mounted on the bed plate. The upper roller guides h have a finer adjustment through a hand wheel and screw which is used in accurately fixing the length of the strip between the gluing fixture and those used in succeeding operations, so that they will properly register. With varying conditions of temperature and humidity it is THE IRON AGE Fig. 2.—Plan View of the Matchbox Tray Machine. where the flaps of the sides will later lap over the ends of the tray. A spring retained plate on the upper side of the strip backs it while the glue points are acting. The glue pot rests on a steam heated table, the supply to which may be regulated to keep the glue at proper con- sistency. Fig. 4 is a side view detail of the glue applying fix- ture, which shows how it is actuated from the main » driving shaft j, Fig. 3. The teeth f move integrally with 2 yy wy | LLLLLLLLLLLLL LL - Him desirable sometimes to change this length to give the glue more or less time to chill and partially set before the glued surfaces are finally pressed into contact. When the paper reaches the idler / it has been reversed so that the Fig. 3.—-Sectional Elevation of the Matchbox Tray Machine. a slide, i, which has a bracket on its lower end carrying a roller follower that works in a positive groove in an eccentric cam, k, on the main shaft j7. With every revo- lution of the shaft the paper strip must be moved along -a distance corresponding to the length of one tray blank. ‘There is a dwell in the feeding movement, as will be glue marks are on the upper side, and to prevent their being smeared and fouling the rolls circumferential grooves are formed in the roll / and the upper roll of the feeding set c. The drive of the feed rolls is illustrated in the detail, Fig. 5. It is obtained from the miter gear m, on the main amo Ror ee yee ts oe : Fe eagiete 9 eee Pe Pre wo 1026 shaft. This gear meshes with a similar gear, n, on a right angle shaft, which at its outer end carries a hand wheel, 0, affording means for bringing the various parts of the machine to any desired position by manual manipu- lation. Through a crank, pitman, bell crank lever and paw] a rotation of a definite angle is given to a ratchet on the shaft of the gear p with each revolution of the main shaft. This is proportioned so that the gear p drives the intermeshing pinions on the ends of the roll shafts the amount necessary to feed the paper strip one Fig. 4.—Side View of the Gluing Fixture. blank length. The feeding is accomplished during one- half of a revolution of the main shaft, consequently a dwell in the feed occurs during the succeeding half revo- lution, while all of the other operations take place. The feed rolls c are knurled, and the upper one is arranged to yield vertically to insure positive feeding without binding. Issuing from the feeding rolls the strip travels hori- zontally along the bed plate, against which it is held by strap guides along the edges. The last bending of the strip has given it a tendency to curl upward, which has the effect of preventing its catching in any of the open- Fig. 6.—The Punch. Fig. 7.—The Shear and Former. ings in the work table beneath the punch gq, just beyond the rollers c. A side view detail of the punch is shown in Fig. 6, indicating how it is reciprocated vertically by a slide carrying a bracket at its lower extremity, which connects with an eccentric strap surrounding an eccen- tric, r, on the main shaft. The punch is double and cuts two slots parallel with the edges of the strip. Subse- quently each blank is separated from the strip by a cut at right angles to the slots through their centers and between the rows of glue marks. THE IRON AGE March 22, 1906 The last fixture performs two operations—the severing of the blank by the shear s, just referred to, and the form- ing of the flat blank into tray shape by the former it. Fig. 7 shows a side view detail of these parts and their actuating means. The shear is reciprocated by a connec- tion with the oscillating lever wu, and the former by a similar connection with the lever v. These levers carry followers working in two separate grooves in a cam. The shear and former act in rapid succession while the first blank pauses in position beneath them. The cam groove ‘THE IRON AGE. Fig. 5.—Details of the Driving and Adjusting Mechanism of the Feed Rolls. controlling the movement of the shear is of such form that it holds the knife in raised position during the greater part of the revolution of the main shaft, and at a definite point in the cycle of operations makes a short, quick stroke. The former cam groove produces a longer stroke of the forming plunger. The former is of a shape and size conforming to the required inside dimensions of the tray, and in its descent first pushes the blank through an opening in the table, which causes the sides of the box to be folded upward about the body of the former on lines extending from end to end of the punched slots. As the plunger further descends the inclined prongs @ at the four corners of the tray catch the projecting wings or flaps at the ends of the sides of the tray and deflect them at right angles to the sides against the body of the former. Continued movement of the plunger downward brings the ends of the tray in contact with the rollers y, Fig. 3, bringing them up against the former, and the glue marks cause the ends to adhere to the corner flaps. At the lowest point in its stroke the plunger forces the fin- ished tray into a receptacle in the face of the drum z. When the plunger rises the prongs @ prevent the tray from clinging to the former. The drum 2 serves as a drying wheel within which 77, the trays are retained until they have set sufficiently to be handled. Finally, when all of the pockets of the wheel are full, the addition of each succeeding tray ejects the innermost tray through the open bottom of the pocket into the chute 2’, Fig. 3, and thereafter one finished tray issues from the machine at each revolution of the shaft. The drying wheel is mounted upon the hub of the former and shear cam, and their adjacent sides are in frictional con- tact, the pressure being regulated by a spring screw in the end of the main shaft, so that the drying wheel tends to rotate with the cam. It is prevented from doing so by the interference of a locking latch a’, Fig. 3, which engages projections near the rim of the drying wheel. These projections are spaced a distance apart equal to the center to center spacing of the tray recesses and serve to hold the recesses in proper alignment to receive a tray when the forming plunger descends. The drying wheel is revolved in opposition to the friction of the cam, one step to receive the next tray, by a pawl 0b’, engaging ratchet teeth on the face of the driving wheel. The pawl is carried by a lever on the rock shaft c’, which is oscil- March 22, 1906 lated by a short crank and follower working in the eccen- tric cam d@’ on the main shaft. It will be seen that all of the movements have their origin in the one shaft j, which is driven by a single belt pulley, e. This pulley is loosely mounted on the shaft, runs continuously and rotates the shaft only when the clutch is engaged. The clutch is controlled by a handle extending out to the front of the machine. The handle shifts a sliding ring which, through short rocking levers, forces the pulley over against a friction cone. In regarding the machine as a whole it is worthy of notice that so many operations can be accomplished in so small a space; in other words, that the machine is so compact. The number of working parts are very evi- dently a minimum and it is claimed that all unnecessary and bulky parts are avoided. It is also claimed that the machine is more durable, speedy and light running than any of its character heretofore produced. The machine * THE IRON AGE 1027 eration is performed in the order named, which is the best system to reduce the amount of waste to a mini- mum, in the opinion of the builder, as the continuous tube is pulled tight and is under perfect control through the machine until the last operation of cutting off is performed. The machines are made adjustable through- out to make any width and any depth of lid, and the only additional part required is one extra printing cyl- inder and one extra cutting off roll for each different length of lid. The machine has a capacity of 350 to 675 complete lids per