The Iron Age 1906-08-02: Vol 78 Iss 5

n., 10 e. /4 ¢ a ¢ ¢ THE IRON AGE New York, Thursday, August 2, 1906. The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. The New Bessemer Steel Piant and Finishing Mills. A recent notable addition to Bessemer steel capacity is the new plant of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Com- pany at East Youngstown, Ohio, which is now practically completed. It is particularly noteworthy in being the only Bessemer steel plant built in this country for some years, as new additions to steel capacity have latterly been open hearth exclusively. It embodies in its con- struction modern equipment throughout, money having been spent freely to secure the very best appliances for the making of a maximum output of Bessemer steel at the lowest possible cost. A view in the converter house of this plant is given herewith, Fig. 1. The company when organized was named the Youngs- town Iron Sheet & Tube Company, but about a year ago the name was changed. Upon being organized the com- Fig. 1.—View in the Converter House of the Youngstown Sheet through the foresight of the management in making the original purchase of a site. It was necessary, however, to provide funds for building and running the steel plant and bonds to the amount of $2,500,000 were issued, prac- tically all of which were taken by the original stock- holders. The company has a paid-in capital of $4,000,000 and an undivided profit or surplus of $2,000,000 and $2,500,000 in bonds, making a total working capital of $8,500,000, The piant is most admirably located as regards rail- road facilities, having direct connection. on the north with the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie and the Baltimore «& Ohio railroads and on the south with the Pennsylvania Company’s lines. Under an arrangement with the Pitts- burgh & Lake Erie Railroad the Erie and the Lake Shore - Fa ete ne ge the Two 10-Ton Converters, the & Tube Company, Showing Hydraulic Ladle Crane and the Overhead Electric Traveling Crane pany secured about 200 acres of ground at East Youngs- town, on which it erected in 1901-1902 a plant compris- ing puddling furnaces, a muck train, a skelp mill rolling up to 225 in. wide, a pipe mill and sheet mills. The product then consisted of black and galvanized sheets, roofing sheets and pipe up to 8 in. in diameter, all made in iron and steel. The company made its own iron, but bought its steel largely from the Republic Iron & Steel Company. In 1904 important additions were made to the pipe department, enabling 12-in. pipe to be turned out, and the output was brought up to about 1000 tons a day of sheets, skelp and pipe. Early in 1905 the company took up actively the matter of building a Bessemer steel plant and finishing mills to supply its own requirements of steel, and also to furnish billets and sheet and tin bars for the open market. Suffi- cient ground was available for building the new works systems also have direct connection with the plant. The Mahoning River touches the property, furnishing an am- ple supply of water. The nature of the ground was well adapted to supporting heavy foundations, very little exca- vating being necessary. All the buildings are most dura- bly constructed. A very clear idea of the general layout of the plant can be had from the accompanying ground pian, Figs. 2 and 3. Our limit of page space made it nec- essary to show this ground plan in two parts. A description of this new Bessemer plant naturally begins with the Cupola Bullding. This building is 52 x 78 ft. and is equipped with four cupolas 10 ft. in diameter and about 20 ft. high, Fig. 4. Blast is furnished by four centrifugal blowers of the Sturtevant type. 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P { t€ 2 v m NT = —| ' s | ° ~ x —-- 5 d ° . 4 2a 2 t "ON % - ot 62d fmol p ‘ m |2 iz 3SNOAH YOSNIGNOD s eenese i it i G1aM dv? 8 I I> \c y= ee Oo ms TW “Bivid TWSUBAINN Zp y yarn S tin IT a's Cy wrasse mn f ‘ F SusuncoEs SYD OO000 OOOO00000 Oo; gnveo 1S 3BSNOH waMOod BavUO NOL Sb DOC O OOOCOO00000 Susuncoud SvD August 2, 1906 A E {7 —- “ a a eg ee ee a ee ee ee ee Sas if oa Bis . i. ery ote, - i 262 THE IRON AGE August 2, 1906 erated together. The building is equipped with a double hoist for hoisting the pig iron and coke to the cupolas, furnished by the Otis Elevator Company, each hoist hav- ing a lifting capacity of 10 tons. These hoists are op- erated by a 10 x 12 in. Otis engine. The pig iron and coke are stored under a 20-ft. trestle iba rs Fig. 4.—Arrangement of Cupolas in the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company's Bessemer Plant. located adjacent to the cupola building. A Fairbanks scale is located here, on which all material is weighed before being hoisted to the cupolas. On the charging side of the cupolas is a cinder floor, the cinder being con- veyed from the cupolas by chutes through openings in the cinder floor and dropped into cars immediately under and taken away. Above the cinder floor is the tapping floor, on which the blowers are also located for supplying The Converter House is equipped with two 10-gross-ton converters, as shown in Fig. 1, and is commanded by a 20-ton hydraulic crane designed by Julian Kennedy, Pittsburgh, and built by the Morgan Engineering Company, Alliance, Ohio; also an electric traveling crane of 25 tons’ capacity, built by the same company. When the molten metal reaches the converter floor it is weighed on scales directly in front of the converter, into which it is then tapped by an elec- trically driven tapping device. On the converter floor is located a furnace for preheating ferromanganese and speigeleisen. After the heat is blown the converter is tapped into a ladle, which is carried by a 20-ton ladle crane, The pouring is done from a platform elevated about 5 ft. above the floor level and extending the entire width of the building. The pouring track is immediately in front of the platform on the converter side. On the other side of the pouring platform is another track to accom- modate empty molds returning from the stripping house. The platform for operating the converters is in the rear of the converter building, as shown on the general plan, thus allowing the vessel operators to have a clear view of the entire building. This platform is slightly higher than the level of the vessel floor. Above the converter floor is a second floor to which a hoist conveys scrap to be charged into the converter, scrap being first dumped into hoppers from which chutes convey it to the con- verters. The converter building is of most substantial construc- tion, being heavily braced. In line on the platform just outside the converter house are two Fairbanks scales, one for weighing the empty cars and the other for weighing the loaded cars. ‘The ladle house is located ina lean-to adjoining the converter building and is equipped for drying four ladles at one time. Near the ladle house is located the stopper oven for making stoppers for the ladies. The entire equipment for the cupolas and con- ae ~ Se teh ‘ Fig. 5—Pit Furnaces in the Youngstown Sheet &€ Tube Company's Besemer Plant. blast for the cupolas. Each blower is directly connected to a Crocker-Wheeler motor of 75 hp. running at 1500 rev. per min. Each pair of cupolas has a runner dis- charging the molten metal in a ladle car on the track below whence it is taken to the converters. The tapping floor extends from the cupola building to the converter house, and it has a standard gauge track for conveying the hot metal ladle cars to the converters. The hoists are equipped with automatic safety gates, which lower immediately when the platform ascends and descends. verters was furnished by the William B. Pollock Com- pany, Youngstown. The bottom house for making the converter bottoms is a steel building, 50 x 120 ft., commanded by a 15-ton ,Morgan electric traveling crane. The building contains the necessary equipment for crushing gannister, used for making converter bottoms. The crushing and grinding machinery was furnished by the Thomas Carlin’s Sons Company, Allegheny, Pa., and consists of one crusher, one dry pan and two wet pans. There is also a storage bin August 2, 1906 between the drying pans and the wet pans. A trestle alongside the bottom house conveys material to the grind- ing pans. At each end of the building is a lean-to con- taining a double oven for drying converter bottoms. The Pit Furnace Bullding is 80 x 280 ft. and is equipped with a Morgan electric stripper of 100 tons capacity. This building is in line with the converter building, leaving a distance of 250 ft. between the converter and stripping houses, affording space to be utilized for other purposes. A hot metal mixer may be installed in the near future, when the company adopts the hot metal system for bringing metal from blast furnaces. There are four four-hole pit fur- naces, each 7 x 7 ft., as shown in Fig. 5. The covers are operated by hydraulic cylinders in such a manner that as soon as a cover is removed it raises from the floor, thus avoiding unnecessary wear on the cover. The ingots from the converter building enter the pit furnace building on a track located on the south side of Fig. 6.- the building, and are charged into the pits by a Morgan 6-ton electric charging crane. After being heated the ingots are taken from the pits by the charger and placed on a tilting car, which conveys them to the blooming mill by means of a rope drive on a track on the north side of the pit furnaces. The arrangement of and air valves of the pits-is such that each pit furnace can be regulated independently of the others. All the regulating and reversing valves are located in a lean-to on the north side of the pit furnace building. Arrangements have been made for taking care of the cinder from the furnace pits by means of a tunnel, hay- ing a. track on which a cinder car runs. The cinder is dropped into the car and conveyed to the end of the tun- nel, which opens into a shaft, from which the top can be removed, enabling the box of cinder to be picked up by an electric crane and taken away. The charging crane in the pit furnace building is equipped with a 5-ton auxil- iary hoist. The binding of the pit furnaces has been made exceptionally heavy. On the north side of the pit furnace building is a gas THE IRON F AGE 263 gas producer building, which contains eight large Duff producers. The gas flues are so arranged that each pair of producers is connected to one pit furnace, thus giving each pit furnace its individual gas producers. Coal for the producers is supplied by an elevated track. The pit furnace building is exceptionally large and most veniently arranged. The Blooming Mill is contained in a building 45 x 360 ft. This mill is of the combination type and can roll slabs up to 30 in. wide. It is shown in Fig. 6. The ingots for this mill will be 20 x 20 and 12 x 30 in., depending upon the kind of ma- terial to be rolled. The mill is of the built-up type, de- signed by Julian Kennedy; and was built by the United Engineering & Foundry Company, Pittsburgh. The diam- eter of the rolls is 33 in. and the distance from neck to neck 80 in. The screw-down is electric and is operated by a 100-hp. Crocker-Wheeler motor. The manipulator is of the Wellman type, as used for combination blooming con- The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company’s Blooming Mill and slabbing mills. The main mill tables are operated by two 100-hp. Crocker-Wheeler motors, Cutler-Hammer masters being used. The pinions are 40 in. in diameter and have cut helical teeth. The roll spindles and the couplings are of the Kennedy design, being all steel forg- ings, thus preventing all back lash in the mill. The engines for driving this mill are of the heavy duty rolling mill type, 54 x 66 in. twin reversing, and are equipped with the Kennedy return crank. The blooming mill is controlled by a 25-ton Morgan electric traveler. The engines are located in a lean-to; trolled by a 15-ton electric traveling The main blooming mill tables are 40 ft. long, while the extension tables are 120 ft. At the end of the ex- tension tables is an Aiken hydraulic shear, which is used also con- crane. long. for cropping off ends of blooms intended to be rolled on the continuous If are being rolled for the skelp mill they are run out on the extension tables and transferred about 20 ft. building to an trically driven blooming shear, where they are sheared into proper lengths before being taken to the skelp mill. mills. siabs across the elec. Paaeee ee = oe DA eet-ied rt 204 THE IRON AGE This shear was built by the United Engineering & Foun- dry Company and will cut slabs 30 in. wide by 6 in. thick. After leaving the shears the slabs are pushed off the back shear table with an electric pusher on the conveyor, which loads them automatically on the narrow gauge cars, after which they can be taken by the overhead electric traveling crane and loaded on broad gauge cars for shipment. The crop ends from the shears are loaded automatically on the narrow gauge cars, after which they are taken to the converter building. The Continuous Billet and Sheet Bar Mills were designed by the Morgan Construction Company, Worcester, Mass, and are shown in Fig. 7. The blooms for the continuous mill are rolled to the size of 4% x 7% in. After leaving the hydraulic shears they are taken by a conveyor, which leads directly to the sheet bar train. If intended for the billet mill, the pieces are transferred to another table, which stands directly in front of the billet train. The continuous sheet bar mill contains eight pairs of 18-in. rolls and the continuous billet mill has 10 pairs of 18-in. rolls. In addition to rolling sheet bars the mill is equipped to roll skelp in sizes 7% to 15 in., in- clusive. The billet mill will roll a complete range of sizes from 1% in. square up to 4 x 4 in. The billet and sheet bar mills are each equipped with two flying shears of the Edwards type, one shear being SE eM ny ees Fig. 7. placed directly infront of the first pair of rolls and the other some distance beyond the last pair, the first being | intended for serving in the capacity of emergency shears, the second shear being intended~td cut the bars in 30-ft. lengths after leaving the finishing train. The billet and sheet bar mills are located in a building at the end of the blooming mill, 107 x 120 ft., which is served by a 15- ton Morgan electric traveling crane. Each mill is driven by a 48 and 84 x 60 in. cross com- pound Corliss engine built by the Filer & Stowell Com- pany, Milwaukee, Wis. The two engines are equipped with a condensing plant furnished by the Southwark Foundry & Machine Company, Philadelphia. After the sheet bars are cut into proper lengths they are delivered to a bar piling machine of Kennedy design, located in the billet and sheet bar yard. In the billet and sheet bar ya d are located the hot beds where the product of the mi is deposited. After leaving the shears the billets are conveyed to the skew table and are thenee transferred to the hot beds. At the end of this hot bed is a cradle on which billets after being cooled are dropped and then taken by a traveling crane and loaded on cars for shipment. The sheet bars intended for shipment are handled in the same manner by overhead cranes. : When 4 x 4 in. billets-are rolled and intended to be cut into short lengths, they are run over the skew table to the conveyor, at the end of which is a billet shear of the same capacity as the electrically driven bloom shear, also built by the United Engineering & Foundry Com- August 2, 1906 pany. This shear is capable of cutting from four to six billets at a time. Ample provision has been made for handling the billets after being sheared. The billet and sheet bar stockyard is 90 x 500 ft. and is controlled by a 15-ton Morgan electric traveling crane. The entire rolling mill equipment in the continuous mills was built by the Lloyd-Booth Department of the United Engineering & Foundry Company. The 42-Inch Universal Plate Mill, Connected with the plant is a 42-in. universal mill built by Mackintosh, Hemphill & Co., Pittsburgh, on which ean be rolled plates 42 in. wide, with the vertical rolls in; by removing the vertical rolls plates up to 66 in. wide can be rolled. The mill is equipped with the Farrell hydraulic balancing gear, which is also used for roll changing. The mill is driven by a 44 x 60 in. Mesta twin reversing engine, built by the Mesta Machine Company, Pittsburgh, and the main tables are driven by two 100-hp. Crocker- Wheeler motors. The screw-down for the horizontal rolls and the regulating mechanism of the vertical rolls are electrically driven. The mill delivers to an extension table the full length of the building, from which table the plates are trans- ferred to a hot bed 120 ft. long for cvoling. From this hot bed the plates are taken to the shear table, which is equipped with two rotary shears for trimming the edges Cla ec 7.—The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company’s Continuous Billet and Bar Mills. of the wide plates. The plates are then conveyed to the pipe mill skelp yard, where they are cropped by another shear. For heating the steel slabs a Laughlin continuous heating furnace is used, and for heating piles for iron skelp two regenerative furnaces are used. These two furnaces are served by a Wellman overhead charging crane. The gear train and engine in the universal mill are controlled by a 30-ton Shaw electric crane. The Engines and Boilers, The blowing engine house is a brick and steel struc- ture 50 x 180 ft., commanded by a 15-ton traveling crane. The building contains one 44 and 84 x 76 x 72 in. cross compound horizontal blowing engine built by the Wil- liam Tod Company; also two Horizontal cross compound duplex pressure pumps, 18 and 36 x 10 and 10 x 36 in. Connected with these pumps and blowing engine is a Weiss condenser built by the Southwark Foundry & Ma- chine Company. The boiler plant contains 16 Sterling boilers, each 500 hp., erected separately and each having an independ- ent stack 58 in. in diameter and 150 ft. high. The boilers are equipped with Roney stokers and are fed with the Heyl & Patterson electric conveyor. There is also in- stalled one Heyl & Patterson coal crusher and elevator, to be available in case it is necessary to use lump coal. The Electric Power Plant. The power plant consists of two 400-kw. Westing- house generators and one 800 Bullock generator, all of August 2, 1906 THE which are driven by William Tod cross compound en- gines. It is equipped with a fine white marble switch- board 40 ft. long for distributing current through the different mills. The electric motors used in the steel plant are of the Crocker-Wheeler type. They were selected after the most careful investigation, and a design of motor has been worked out that it is thought will be thoroughly adapted to the severe service to which motors for driving rolling mill machinery are subjected. While the moving parts are thoroughly inclosed and protected, it is also possible to exchange the armature of the motor in an exceedingly short time. The motors were designed ex- pressly for this mill by O. R. Jones, chief electrician. They were made by the Crocker-Wheeler Company, Ampere, N. J.,and were built in four sizes—25, 50, 75 and 100 hp. They are used throughout all the tables of the various mills. The motors have exceedingly large shafts, reducing the spring of the armature to the minimum and the Cutler-Hammer solonoid controller is used. The mill is located 1200 ft. from the power house, and the current is carried by either of four 1,000,000 circular mill cables on each side and is further distributed through the switchboard by 66 automatic circuit breakers which can be set from a remote part of the mill. The 10-inch Skelp Mill. The company will shortly break ground for a con- tinuous skelp mill for the manufacture of skelp up to 44 in. wide. This mill is being designed and will be built by the Morgan Construction Company, Worcester, Mass., and will include all the modern features of a continuous mill. It will be housed in a steel structure 80 x 380 ft., and will be controlled by a 10-ton overhead electric traveling crane. This mill will consist of ten pairs of rolls and will be located south of the present No. 2 skelp mill. The furnace end of the mill will be adjoining the sheet bar stockyard of the new steel plant. The Plant to Be Self-Contained, The foregoing description covers quite fully the new mills of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. With the starting of the steel plant the company will be self- contained, making its various lines of products from the ore up to the finished material. It owns large ore properties in the Mesaba and Marquette districts and also a large coal acreage in the ‘Connellsville region. The company has owned the Alice blast furnace at Sharpsville, Pa., for some years and has arranged to take the Bessemer iron output of a number of blast fur- naces in the Youngstown District, these being the stacks . of the Youngstown Steel Company, the Briar Hill Iron & Coal Company, the Ohio Iron & Steel Company, the Stewart Iron Company and Pickands, Mather & Co. The output of these furnaces, together with the product of its own furnace at Sharpsville, Pa., will give the company a full supply of metal for its new steel plant. In this connection a description of the older portion of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company’s works will undoubtedly be of interest. This logically begins with The Puddling Miil, which contains 15 double puddling furnaces equipped with Cahall upright boilers and one double puddling fur- nace without a boiler. The mill is equipped with two 20- in. muck trains, two squeezers and a cooling and transfer arrangement for transferring the finished bar to piling racks on either side of the rolling table. One rack is for ordinary puddled bar made from pig iron and the other is for scrap bar. The transferring machinery in this mill is operated by hydraulic power. The mill is driven by a cross compound 24 x 42 x 42 in. piston valve, William Tod engine directly connected ‘to the muck rolls and squeezer. The boiler plant has 14 boilers of 150 hp. each and one of 200 hp. There is a broad gauge railroad track midway between the two tows of double furnaces for loading scale and other scrap which accumulates about the mill. The products are handled from the cooling beds to shears by an electric traveling crane. The muck bar is taken from the cooling beds by a traveling crane and transferred to the shears, where it is cut into lengths. This traveling crane has a runway beyond the mill for loading bar on the cars, some IRON AGE 265 muck bar being sold in the open market, but the product of this mill is mainly used in the company’s sheet and skelp mills. The Sheet Mill is equipped with six stands of hot rolls and two stands of cold rolls and has six heating furnaces, all fired. The engine equipment consists of one 24 x 48 x 48 in. cross compound piston valve engine connected by gears to the hot rolls, built by the William Tod Company, Youngstown. The hot rolls are driven by a 13 x 25 x 36 in. direct connected tandem compound piston valve en- gine of the Buckeye type. There are four Swindell heating furnaces and five Swindell gas producers. Two producers furnish gas for four annealing furnaces and three producers furnish gas for the heating furnaces. Twenty-one annealing boxes are used of the following sizes: Three are 150 in. long by 5 ft. high by 50 in. wide, five are 108 in. long by 4% ft. high by 40 in. wide, and the remainder are 123 in. long by 4% ft. high by 40 in. wide. Additional equip- ment comprises one scrap shear, three squaring shears and a roll lathe for turning the rolls. An electric crane is used for changing the rolls and handling the products of this mill. The power for charging and drawing the annealing furnaces is furnished by a winding engine. The iron is stocked in the warehouse when it comes from the annealing furnaces, where it is assorted. All iron from this department which is to be galvanized goes to the galvanizing department, and the black iron goes to the paint shop to be painted. From the galvanizing de- partment and the paint shop the iron required to be corrugated or crimped goes to the corrugating or crimp- ing department and is thence shipped to destination. The galvanizing department is equipped with three sets of pickling vats, three galvanizing pots and three sets of conveyors for taking the galvanized iron to the storage department. After leaving the acid pots the iron passes between rubber rolls, which partly dry the sheets before entering the galvanizing pots, through which it is then drawn by a set of rollers. Iron on the conveyors is cooled by a large fan with a capacity of 2000 cu. ft. of air per minute. The conveyors are driven by three small steam engines, and at the end of the conveyors the iron is loaded on hand trucks and taken to the scales, weighed and packed in the storage house for shipment. The paint shop is equipped with a roller paint ma- chine, the sheets passing between the rolls and receiving a coat of paint and from there are conveyed to the dry- ing stalls. When dry, if crimping or corrugating is re- quired, they are transferred to the corrugating depart- ment, which is equipped with one corrugating press, one set of corrugating bending rolls, two crimping machines and one coiling machine for coiling sheets when fastened end to end for shipment. gas The Skelp Mill is equipped with a 20-in. roughing train and 16-in. finish- ing trains. A tandem compound piston valve 22 x 40 x 4S in. William Tod engine is directly connected to the roughing rolls. The finishing rolls, which have three stands, are driven by a tandem compound 22 x 40 x 33 in. William Tod engine, used with a rope drive. The iron goes through all three of these stands, which are ar- ranged tandem, and is then transferred to the shear roller table and is cut in lengths. The mill is equipped with four Siemens heating furnaces for iron and one Laughlin continuous heating furnace for steel. There are eight Laughlin, six Duff and two Morgan gas producers. Two Morgan electric charging cranes take the hot billets from the furnaces to the rolls. The mill is provided with a set of vertical rolls for reducing the billet edgewise to the size of leading passes in roughing rolls. The irregularity in size of billets neces- sitates a device of this kind to reduce the larger sizes of billets to one width required for the roughing rolls. The wider sizes when entering without being reduced usually turn down in the rolls and form a cobble or bad bar. All tables are electrically driven. The rolls are operated by a rope drive, the rope drum being driven by a Wil- liam Tod compound engine. An electric traveling crane runs the entire length of the mill. The skelp mill is 266 continuous in operation after the bar leaves the roughing rolls. The Pipe Mills. No. 1 buttweld department is equipped with one heat- ing surface, with a 7 x 21 ft. working bottom, and draw bench 57 ft. long, and one stand of sizing rolls and one stand of cross rolls. The cooling bed is equipped with two cold saws for sawing cropping ends of pipe as it is being drawn. Skelp for the heating furnace is conveyed to the furnaces by a roller table electrically driven. Charging is done by hand and there is one pair of shears for pointing skelp. The mill is equipped with conveyors to carry pipe from the cooling bed to the threading floor. No. 2 buttweld department is equipped with one fur- nace, having a working bottom 22 ft. 5 in. long by 7 ft. 2 in. wide. The furnace is charged by hand, skelp being delivered to furnace by roller table electrically driven. There is a draw bench 40 ft. long delivering the iron to one stand of sizing rolls and one stand of cross rolls. Cooling beds are each provided with cold saws for crop- ping pipe and it is delivered to the threading floor by roller conveyors. The pipes are welded by being drawn through conical shaped castings. No. 1 lapweld department is equipped with a bending furnace and a welding furnace. The size of pipe made by this department is from 2 to 8 in. The working bot- tom for the bending furnace is 20 x 7 ft. The welding furnace has a working bottom 23 ft. 3 in. x 8 ft. This department has one bending charger and one welding charger and one transfer for charging machine. There is also one tumbling barrel for polishing pipe balls driven by a 10-hp. electric motor. The skelp is brought to the furnaces by a roller table and delivered to the charging table, from which the skelp is put into the furnaces by means of electric machinery. The plate is drawn from the furnace by the sacrificing rolls, passing through the rolls to the table which deliv- ers the scarfing plate to the bending box through which the plate is drawn by means of tongs drawn by a chain which bends the skelp into cylindrical form. It is then transferred to the welding furnace and charged by means of an electric charging machine. After the cylinder attains a welding heat it is pushed into the welding rolls and welded. Then it is transferred to the sizing roll table, passing through the sizing rolls, then through the cross rolls, then to the cooling racks. From the cooling racks it is put through a straightening press and then delivered to the threading floor by a roller conveyor. No. 2 lapweld department has one bending furnace and one welding furnace. working bottom 22 x 8 ft. working bottom 25 x 9% ft. from 4 to 12 in., inclusive. The skelp is delivered from the skelp yard by an electric crane to the roller table which conveys it to the charging table operated by hydraulic cylinder, the skelp being charged by electric machinery. After it is heated it is put out on a roller table and delivered to the scarf- ing rolls, and from the scarfing rolls to the bending box and bent into a cylindrical form, then transferred to the welding furnaces by table car haul. The cylinder is then charged and brought to the welding heat, then pushed into the welding rolls. If the pipe has been properly welded it passes to the sizing rolls, and if not it is re- turned by means of a roller table to the charging end of the furnace and recharged for rewelding. As the pipe is passing through the welding rolls it is forced over a ball the size of the internal diameter of the pipe which is somewhat larger than the finished pipe. It then passes through the sizing rolls, then through the cross rolls and finally to the cooling rack. From the cooling rack it passes through the straightening press and is delivered to the threading floor. The Threading Floor, The output of No. 1 buttweld department requires eight threading machines threading pipe from % to 2 in., and there are testing machines working under a pres- sure of from 1000 to 1500 lb. After the pipe has been threaded it is transferred to the testing machines and tested according to size. It is then transferred from the The welding furnace has a This furnace makes pipe THE IRON AGE The bending furnace has a ° August 2, 1906 testing bench to the bundling bench and from the bun- dling bench to cars. The product of No. 2 buttweld department requires seven pairs of machines taking in from 1 to3in. The process is the same as for No. 1. The product of No. 1 lapweld department requires two rotary cut-off machines with eight pairs of thread- ing machines, taking in sizes from 2 to 8 in., and one tester working under pressure of 1500 to 2500 Ib. by means of an intensifier. The pipe is delivered to the cut- off machines, and cut to lengths and is then taken to the pipe threading machines. After the pipe has been threaded it is inspected, then delivered to the socket screwing machines where the socket is automatically screwed on the pipe. The construction of the machine is such as not to distort the shape of the pipe coupling when being screwed on as is the case when it is screwed on in the ordinary manner by pipe tongs. After the coupling has been screwed on it is delivered to the testing bench and tested to a pressure of 1500 to 2500 Ib., according to the size of pipe. The welded pipe is delivered from the testing bench to the cars by means of a traveling crane. The No. 2 lapweld department has two rotary shears and nine pairs of threading machines which take in from 4 to 12 in. The gas for the pipe department is furnished by 12 Laughlin, 3 Morgan and 2 double Duff water seal gas producers. Water for testing purposes is furnished by three pumps, two of which work under a pressure of 2500 Ib. and one of 1000 Ib. For the higher pressure there is an intensifier used in connection with the testing benches. There are four cranes on the threading floor and three in the warehouse. Between the warehouse and the threading floor at the north end of the floor is a transfer track to deliver the pipe from the threading floor to the warehouse when being stocked, and at the south end of the threading floor is a traveling crane for the same purpose. The warehouse has two electric trav- eling cranes for loading pipe for shipment. There are three shipping tracks entering the warehouse and two entering the threading floor. ' The Socket Shop is equipped with three welding furnaces, two steam ham- mers, one of 1200 and one of 600 lb., and two Bradley hammers. There are three bending machines and one roller welding machine, two hot expanders, eight lathes, three six-spindle tapping machines, which tap from 4 to 1% in.; one six-spindle machine, which taps from 1 to 2 in.; two six-spindle machines tapping from 2 to 4 in., two four-spindle machines tapping from 4 to 8 in. and one four-spindle machine tapping from 6 to 14 in. After the ironhasbeencut to multiple lengths and brought to the heating furnaces and heated to the proper heat for bending it is bent by machinery and then delivered to the welding furnaces. After it attains a welding heat it is welded under the steam hammer on a man- drel, according to the size of the coupling. From the welding hammer the coupling is taken to the expanding machine and extended to the proper size and shape for tapping, then passes to the tapping machines and is tapped. From the tapping machine it goes to the re- cessing machine and then to the inspector for inspection and sizing. The Pipe Galvanizing Department is equipped with three galvanizing pots, one for galvaniz- ing couplings and two for galvanizing pipe from 4 to 12 in. in diameter. There are three pickling vats 25 ft. long 5 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep. The pipe is delivered to the pickling vats on a car and placed on a rack, the size of which is sufficient for one charge for pickling, after which it is placed on arms, which are lowered into the pickling vat by means of hydraulic power, and remains on those arms a sufficient time to become thoroughly cleaned from scale. Then it is transferred from the pick- ling vat to the drying oven, and from the drying oven into the galvanizing pot. The Machine Shop for the Pipe Mill \s equipped with two Cincinnati universal grinders, one 48-in. Betts horizontal boring mill, one 16-in. Prentiss engine lathe, with a 6-ft. bed; one 16-in. Prentiss engine lathe, with a 7-ft. bed; one 24-in. Prentiss engine lathe, August 2, 1906 one 30-in. by 11 ft. bed Lodge-Shipley lathe, one 24-in. Hendey-Norton lathe, one 36-in. Barnes drill press, No. 2 Cincinnati universal milling machine, No. 4 Cincinnati plain milling machine, one 24-in. Hendey-Norton pillar shaper, two 18-in. Hendey-Norton shapers, one 6 x 24 American Tool Works planer, one 22-in. Barnes drill press, two pair cut-off saws, one Modern Machine Tool Company’s die grinder, one 6 x 10 Ingersoll air com- pressor, two Whitney tool grinders, two tapping ma- chines, two die hopping machines. The machines are all driven by a 120-hp. Westinghouse electric motor. The size of the machine shop is 60 x 75 ft. The Foundry and Sheps, The foundry building is 60 x 80 ft. at present, but will , be enlarged. The equipment consists of one No. 6 Whit- ing cupola of a capacity of 14 tons an hour; one No. 6 Green rotary “blower, electrically driven, directly con- nected; one core oven, 8 x 20 ft., and one 10-ton electric traveling crane. The foundry is equipped for making castings up to 10 tons. At present the blacksmith shop has 13 forges; two steam hammers, one 3000-lb. and one 800-lb.; two cranes for handling iron from hammers, one Bradley hammer, one fan with a capacity of 14,600 cu. ft. per hour, one heating furnace, and one small tempering furnace. The boiler shop is equipped with one punch and shear capable of punching 1%4-in. holes in 1-in. plate, and will shear 1-in. plate and is electrically driven. There are also bending rolls capable of bending a plate 1 in. thick and 10 ft. long, or wide to the radius of 24 in.; pneumatic riveting machine, pneumatic clipping ma- chine, pneumatic drilling machine, one forge fire, one flange fire and a scraping plate. The pattern shop has the following equipment: One 34-in. Clement band saw, one 16-in. Clement hand jointer, rip saws and cfoss-cut saws, 24-in. lathe, No. 3 Oliver trimmer, two No. 4 Fox trimmers, grindstone and emery grinders, glue heating and steam heating system. The size of the shop is 26 x 80 ft., with a side wing of 16 x 18 ft. This shop is to be removed from its present location and enlarged in the near future. The pattern storage building is two stories high and measures 80 x 90 ft., but it is proposed to build an addi- tion, 50 x 200 ft. The building is entirely fireproof. The machine shop is equipped with one Bullard bor- ing mill, one 4 x 16 ft. planer, one 3 x 9 ft. planer, two radial drill presses, one 24-in. shaper, one 48 in. 14 ft. lathe, one 36-in. lathe 20-ft. centers, one 24-in. Pond lathe 14-ft. centers, one 24-in. lathe 12-ft. centers, com- bination key seater and slotter, small drill press, one 3- in. bolt cutter, one 2-in.- bolt cutter, one 250-ton wheel press, one 30-in. lathe, one Yankee drill grinder for grind- ing drills, one 24-in. water emery wheel, one double bracket dry emery wheel. It is equipped with a Buffalo air heater, which is used in the summer for cooling the shop. Power is furnished by a 10 x 14 in. engine. The building is now 75 x 80 ft., and is to be extended 40 ft. Condenser and Water Plant. Condenser house No. 1 is equipped with two duplex compound pressure pumps manufactured by Epping-Car- penter Company, 18 x 30 x 8% x 24 in., one Worthington surface condensér, two boiler feeds, both same size and duplex, 12 x 8 x 16 in., manufactured by Epping-Car- penter Company. : Condenser house No. 2 is equipped with Epping-Car- penter condensers having a cooling surface of 4000 sq. {t., two boiler feeds and an Epping-Carpenter duplex pump 12 x 8 x 16 in. The pump house contains two duplex compound tank pumps, both manufactured by Epping-Carpenter Com- pany, 12 x 22 x 18 x 24 in.; one centrifugal pump, suction 18 in. discharge 18 in., manufactured by Henry R. Worth- ington; one tank pump, manufactured by the Deane Steam Pump Company, 17 x 24 x 17% x 24 in. A water filtering plant of the capacity of 15,000 hp. is being built for filtering feed water for the boilers. The We-fu-go water softening and purifying plant is to be used. It is manufactured by the William Scaife & Sons Company, Pittsburgh. THE IRON AGE HK 267 The Officers, The offices of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Com- pany are located in the Federal Building, Youngstown, Ohio, the officials being as follows: James A. Campbell, president; H. G. Dalton, vice-president; George E. Day, secretary and general manager of sales; Richard Garlick, treasurer; W. E. Manning, assistant manager of sales; W. C. Reilly, general superintendent, and A. L. Hammer- berg, chief engineer. rem Specifications for Steel Rails. The subject of steel rail specifications, the discussion of which was adjourned from the meeting of the Amer- ican Society of Civil Engineers in January, 1906, came before the convention of this society at the Frontenac Hotel in the Thousand Islands in the last week in June. It developed that little progress had been made by the committee since its report in January. Eight members of the committee signed this report, while each of the other four members presented a minority report. The whole subject was referred back to the committee with the request that it present a report at the next annual meeting in which it was hoped that all the members of the committee might concur. The original report of the committee was summarized in The Iron Age of February 1, 1906, page 424. When this report was submitted in January the committee asked to be discharged, seeing tnat it could not agree. The matter is now in practically the same shape in the American Society of Civil Engi- neers as in the American Society for Testing Materials, though the points of disagreement between the members of the respective committees are quite different. It is interesting to note that the American Railway Engineer- ing and Maintenance of Way Association has adopted the specification originally presented by the majority of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ committee, with a few modifications. At present the outlook for a unani- mous report by either of the two committees referred to above is not encouraging, and there is less prospect for harmonizing the specifications of the two organizations as represented in the majority reports of their respective committees. The Engineering News, referring to the disagreements in the committee of the American Society for Testing Materials, says: “In that case the only matter at issue was specifications for manufacture and test; rail sec- tions were not discussed, the standard sections of the American Society of Civil Engineers (designed and adopted in 1893) being accepted as standards. Wholly different grounds are responsible for the failure of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ committee to agree. Two of the dissenting minority members hold that the standard rail sections should be modified. The other two suggest their belief that modifications of the standard forms of section are advisable, but consider that no change can be made before much fuller investi- gation of the service value of the present sections is ob- tained. Their dissent from the majority report is based mainly on various requirements of the specifications for manufacturing methods and processes and not, strange to say, on ‘the specifications for testing the finished rails. Apart from the question of form of rail section the dis- agreement in the committees of the two societies is there- fore due essentially to rather antithetic views: The opposition in the American Society for Testing Materials holds out for more rigid tests, believing that rigid control of the manufacturing processes is not sufficient, while the opposition in the American Society of Civil Engineers demands more rigid limitation of the rolling mill methods and chemical requirements, apparently on the theory that it is not sufficient to prescribe rigid tests. An ex- ceptional phase of the situation in the latter society’s committee is that one of the dissenting members, Per- gival Roberts, Jr. (formerly of Pencoyd Iron Works, Pencoyd, Pa.), recommends adding a test for tensile strength and elongation (the test piece to be taken from the railhead), and also would fix a limit of allowable deflection in the drop test of finished rails, both of which are rather novel proposals.” 268 THE A Scotch Shipbuilding Record. Guascow, July 28.—The first half of the commercial year 1906 has been a record one for Scotland. It has witnessed the production of an amount of tonnage from the Scotch shipyards unprecedented in the history of shipbuilding in any part of the world. In these six months our shipyards put into the water no less than 360,489 tons in 207 vessels of all sizes. No other ship- building country ever came up to such a total in six months. Few countries come up to it in 12 months. Even in Scotland the nearest previous approach to it was 259,804 tons in the first six months of 1902. The Clyde proportion of this huge total was 149 ves- sels and 336,258 tons. This enormous output from the Clyde yards has undoubtedly been augmented by the launches of the Lusitania, the Cunard steamer of 32,500 tons, and of the Agamemnon, a battleship of 16,500 tons, in the closing weeks of the half year. But even if the ‘tonnage of these two exceptional vessels was deducted the output would still have been enormous. We are, as a matter of fact, now witnessing the fruition of the boom of contracts which marked the close of last year. The Lusitania is not the only monster merchant craft we have put into the water of late. In June, for in- stance, D. & W. Henderson & Co. launched a 9000-ton steamer for the Holt Line of Liverpool; Scott’s Ship- building & Engineering Company, Greenock, launched an 8000-ton steamer for the Canadian service of the Donaldson Line; Wm. Denny & Bros., Dumbarton, launched a 7000-ton steamer for the New Zealand Ship- ping Company’s frozen meat trade; Barclay, Curle & Co. launched a 5600-ton steamer for the Ellerman Lines, Limited, of Liverpool. Apart from these liners the great feature of the closing weeks of the half year has been the launching of large numbers of the big cargo tramps ordered during the shipbuilding boom. These range from 8000 tons downward, and it is questionable where they will all find profitable employment. That does not concern us perhaps, who are more interested in the industrial work of the production of iron and steel vessels than in the commercial employment of them. But as regards the industrial aspect there is this to be considered—that by the amount of new tonnage put afloat is the amount of work on hand reduced. This is not an exact mathematical statement of the position, because some new orders have been booked as the old orders are filled, but the new orders are far short of the launches. For example, against 123,070 tons launched from the Scotch yards in June, of course an exceptional and unprecedented total, the new con- tracts booked in June cannot exceed about 15,000 tons. This necessarily means that the shipyards will not be so busy in the near future as they have been in the recent past. Yet it is also to be noted that there is still a good deal of work on old contracts, as apart from new bookings to be executed, so that we shall remain fairly active for the remainder of the year. Apropos of the building on the Clyde of the huge battleship Agamemnon, which when completed will be the most heavily armed warship in the world, it is worth noting what we can now do in this line. The Agamem- non was built in the new yard of W. Beardmore & Co., Limited, the latest constructed and most perfectly equipped shipyard in the world, because it has in equip- ment been able to select the best plant demonstrated by the experience of others. In this latest and most modern shipyard not a pound of steam is used. Everything is electrically driven, and the electric power is generated by the aid of a gas engine operated by gas from producers on the premises, which gas _ is also used to fire the plate and bar _ furnaces. At its steel works the firm also makes armor plates, and it is contemplating an extensive ord- nance establishment at which gun mountings as well as guns are to be produced. Thus it will possess a com- plete naval construction establishment, in which will be produced almost everything necessary to equip a warship from keel to armament. oe IRON AGE August 2, 1906 Steel Hardening Metals in 1905. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 30, 1906.—There was a de- cline in the total production of steel hardening metal ores and concentrates in 1905, as compared with 1904, but the value of the output, nevertheless, shows a material in- crease, according to the annual report of the United State Geological Survey, which has just been completed by Joseph H. Pratt. Under the head of steel hardening metals are included all the metals that are used for steel hardening purposes, whether or not this is the main use of the metal. During 1905 the total production of steel hardening metal ores and’ concentrate amounted to 922 net tons, valued at $288,836, as compared with 1004 tons, valued at $259,620 in 1904, a decrease of 82 tons in quantity, but an increase of $29,216 in value. Of the 1905 value, over nine-tenths was due to the production of tungsten ores. During the last ten years the main supply of nickel and cobalt produced in the United States has been ob- tained from Mine La Motte, Mo., as a by-product in lead smelting. Besides this there have been small quantities of nickel ore obtained from Idaho, Oregon and North Carolina. During 1905, however, there