The Iron Age 1906-10-18: Vol 78 Iss 16

THE IRON AGE A Review of the Hardware, Iron; Ma bigotry and Metal Trades. Published every Thursday Morning by David Wana. Gey, 14-16 Park Place, New York. Vol. 78: No. 16. Reading Matter Contents Alphabetical Index to Advertisers ‘‘ 197 Classified List of Advertisers “« 189 Advertising and Subscription Rates ‘‘ 1059 ESTES M’f’d by Forster Pulley Works, Cuba,N.Y. poe The American. Mfg. Co. Ropes and Twines 65 Wall Street, New York THE BRISTOL COMPANY Waterbury, (‘onn., U.S. A. New York: 114 Liberty St. Chicago ; 753 Monadnock Bidg. Bristol’s Recording Instruments For Pressure, Temperature and Electricity. Simple, Accurate, Reliable. All Ranges, Low Prices, and Guar- anteed. Send for Catalog R. SAMSON SPOT CORD Alse Lin d Italia East les Bowe SAMSON CORDAGE WORKS, Boston, Mass. TURNBUCKLES Branch Office, 11 Broadway, New York. Cleveland City Forge and Iron Co., - Cleveland, O- conatdniiainiecsmt Tete biediiarthete tins coieentd Mie ens rons DROP HAMMER BROS. MERRILL BROOKLYN, N.Y Girard Building, aa. Pilling & Crane Machesney Bldg., Pitta’g Empire Bldg., New York There is No Lost Time in learning how to work each SALET 8 Ty S07, Sor os ~. “ ‘og rh sae PITTSBURGH APOLLO BEST BLOOM GALVANIZED SHEET. They are all the same — and are sure to shape without buckling or cracking. Every first class concern buys this product. SEE AMERICAN SHEET & TIN PLATE COMPANY’S Ad. on page 15 New York, Thursday, October 78, 1906. $5.00 a Year, including Postage. Single Copies, 15 Cents. mem Shaft Couplings | Advertising advertising We wish to advertise U. M. C. Advertising matter to all dealers. Our stock of lithographed hangers, cut-out cards, transparencies, etc., is especially designed to decorate sport- ing goods show windows. U. M. C. felt mats and folders are ready for your counters. You can brighten up your store and increase your trade against local and out-of-town competi- tion during the hunting season. We offer you the means free. Out-compete your competitors. Prevent your customers from writing for out-of-town goods. Three hours of a clever clerk’s time in arranging a U. M. C. window, will bring in the amount of his week’s salary. A Window Display free for the asking. THE UNION METALLIC CARTRIDGE COMPANY, BRIDGEPORT, CONN. Sales Office, San Francisco, Cal. Agency, 313 Broadway, N. Y. WATER TUBE Stirling Consolidated BOILERS Boiler Co., “New ¥och” The Horse Nail That Always Gives Perfect Satisfaction is ‘‘The Capewell’’ ‘ WILsEY, KANSAS, Jan. 17, 1904 THE CAPEWELL Horse NAIL Co., Hartford, Conn. Gentlemen : — I have used Capewell Nails for about seven years, four years of which I was in the flint hills of Mis- souri, and they have always given entire satisfaction. Yours truly, J. L. ADAMS, Hold the Best Safest to Use MADE BY The Capewell Horse Nail Company Hartford, Conn. Jenkins ‘96 Packing is preferred by all engineers who have ever had the op- portunity to gain a full knowledge of its merits. It makes Drive the Best Tae Tb eet bb eee 0525 vice, Itis guaranteed. Write for booklet. JENKINS BROS., New York, Boston, ee Chicago, —_ THE AMERICAN TUBE &. STAMPING COMPANY ane (Water and Rail Delivery) BRIDGEPORT, Conn. MAGNOLIA METAL. Best Ants Pitetion. leie) Sox Gh Meshtoony Dosstngs MAGNOLIA METAL ee Owners and Sole Manufacturers, 113-116 Bank Street, Chicago, Fisher Bldg. NEw YORK perfect joint instantly. It gives longest satisfactory ser- Fee Boel oe RE a THE IRON AGE L SHOE suits BRASS PLAIN STRAIGHT FACTS lst. The best produced, A strong statement, but the goods rove it. rass cast and rolled on the premises. Care is taken in the stock, which is clean, ductile and the right temper. . Inspection rigid; packa contain perfect nails only. No splinters nor imperfect heads. ALL GOOD NONE NEVER INDIFFERENT hemes | Dn a carton. is the QUALITY- goods. full weight. Get our REPUTATION our _— " RIVER COMPANY, products in Tin Waterbury, Conn. Plates and Sheet F, F, Steels have made and held. Fe Bridgeport Deoxidized Bronze & Metal Co. FOLLANSBEE §) setscrors cow BROTHERS COMPANY PITTSBURGH 2d. . Packed in 2 oz, and 4 oz, metal oo 20z., 402., — ae ib. rs. ‘One — Phosphor and Deoxidized Bronze Composition, Yellow Brass and Alumi- num Castings, large and small Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Co., LA SALLE, ILLINOIS. SMELTERS OF SPELTER AND MANUFACTURERS OF SHEET ZINC AND SULPHURIC ACID. 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. A AN ere RH 105-109 So. Jefferson St... Chicago. NAN TRIPLET OO CMSUCaC UNE eS TIM UT FLT cde Raa ce GERMAN SILVER | ener incrcs ose coreen The Seymour Mfg. Co., Seymour, Conn. HENDRICKS BROTHERS «ROPRIETURS OF THE Belleville Copper Rolling Mills, MANUFACTURERS OF Brazicers’ Bolt and mMheathings COPPER, CoOoPrPrwER WiRE AND RIVETS.) Importers and Dealers in Ingot Copper, Block Tin, Spelter, Lead, Antimony, etc. 49 CLIFF ST., NEW YORK. NICKEL ANODES THEPLume & Atwooo Mes, Co. MANUFACTURERS OF Sheet and Roll Brass . —AND— WwiRE PRINTERS’ BRASS, JEWELERS’ METAL, GERMAN SILVER AND GILDING METAL, COP- PER RIVETS AND BURRS. Pins, Brass Butt Hinges, Jack Chain, Kero- sene Burners, Lamps, Lemp Trimmings, &c. 29 MURRAY ST., NEW YORK. 199 LAKE ST., CHICAGO. ROLLING MILL: | THOMASTON, CONN. SCOVILL MFG. CO. MANUFACTURERS OF BRASS, GERMAN SILVER, Sheets, Rolls, Wire Rods, Bolts and Tubes, Brass Shells, Cups, Hinges, Buttons, Lamp Goods. Special Brass Goods to Order. FACTORIES: WATERBURY, CONN. Depots: CHICAGO. FACTORIES : WATERBURY, CONN. NEW YORK. ‘BOSTON. henry Souther Engineering Co. HARTFORD, GONN. Consulting Chemists, Metallurgists and Analysts. Complete Physical Testing Laboratory. Expert Testimony in Court and Patent Cases. Arthur 1. Rutter &o. 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. “ DeaGl-Light ” OIL and GAS Bleycle Laniems. Send ter Circulars and Electrotypes. THE BRIDGEPORT BRASS CO., Bridgeport, Conn. Postal Telegraph pedéies, Broadway and Murray 8t., New York. No, Tith St. Philadelphia. 85 to 87 Pearl St., Boston. THE RIVERSIDE METAL Co. RIVERSIDE, N.4. THE IRON AGE New York, Thursday, October 18, 1906. A Heavy New Haven Lathe. The 36-in. engine lathe shown in Fig. 1 is the first of a line of heavy tools which is being brought out by the New Haven Mfg. Company, New Haven, Conn. The continuous heavy duty incident to the use of high speed steel tools has been borne in mind in designing this new line of machines and material and workmanship consistent with the production of powerful tools have been employed. A change gear box of the sliding gear type has been pro- vided, which furnishes a wide range of feeds and screw pitches, and the use of a positive clutch between the driving shaft and the lead screw makes it especially easy to cut threads of special pitch. The mechanism of the gear box is shown in detail in Figs. 2 and 4. The driving gear is on the outer end of the lead screw extension. The lead screw is reduced on its end and has an end bearing on a bronze bushing at the end of the extension A, Fig. 2. The shaft B is mounted on eccentric bushings similar to the back shaft and there is no danger of conflict. Handles C and G are interlocking, so that it is impossible to engage the sliding gear F with more than one of the gears K at the same time. The apron, Figs. 5 and 6, is of the double wall box form, bevel gear driven and powerfully geared through- out. When either the cross or longitudinal feeds are in the lead screw nut is automatically locked in open post- tion and vice conflict is impossible. A friction binder feed, and the hand wheel pinion may be disengaged while cutting threads. through the gear box and are versa, so that a controls either All feeds are obtained equal in number to four times the number of threads given on the index plate for a given position of the lever. A rigid and compact taper attachment is fastened to the rear of the carriage and controls the compound rest with- out interfering with the use of the cross feed screw for adjusting the tool. It will turn tapers up to 4 in. per ft. and 24 in. long, and is graduated both in inches per foot, The carriage bridge is of unusual strength, Slots, front and and degrees. 13% in. in width and of trussed form. Tue Iron Ace Fig. 1.—The New 36-In. Heavy Lathe Built by the New Uaven Mfg. Company, New Haven, Conn of the headstock, and is operated and locked in position by the handle C. Turning on B is the quill D, driven from A by the bevel gears E E. On the quill is the sliding gear F, controlled by the handle G, Fig. 3, which pro- jects through the front of the box. The sliding gear engages one of the nest of gears K, keyed to the lead screw. The sliding clutch L, Fig. 2, on the end of the lead screw, operated by the lever M, Fig. 3, engages a clutch on the gear E, Fig. 2. All of the gears are steel, when desired. To follow the operation of the gear box in cutting a thread, presuming that the number of threads to be cut is six, with a 48-tooth gear on A, the handle G is brought under the column containing 6 on the index plate fastened to the front of the box and the handle C is pressed down. The drive is then through E E F and gear K. To cut two threads to the inch the drive is direct from A to the lead screw through the clutch, the gears of the change gear box not being used. When special! threads are wanted two gears can be used on the spindle and screw, and through the medium of the clutch the drive is the same as if there were no gear box on the lathe. In addition to the usual range of threads spirals of one turn in 1 in. to one turn in 12 in. may be cut by throwing in the back gears and shifting the feed gears. The handle C is locked in vertical position automatically back, are provided for clamping work to the carriage, and there is also a carriage binder for facing work. The compound rest has power feed in all directions and is graduated in degrees. The cross feed screws are also graduated. The tailstock has a pawl engaging a rack cast solid in the bed, which makes slipping under heavy duty im- possible. The forged crucible steel spindle has a 3-in. hole through it and has a front bearing 6% in. in di- ameter and 11 in. long. Soth front and back bearings are circular in form and of special bronze. The thrust is taken on bronze and tool steel rings, hardened and ground. The adjustment and thrust coming at the back end of the headstock eliminate the effect of expansion on the adjustment. With a single-speed countershaft 10 spindle speeds in geometrical progression are obtained, ranging from 3 to 350 rev. per min. The maximum belt power is 94 ft. of 4%-in. double belt per revolution of spindle, the back gear ratio being 15 to 1. The lathe illustrated has a 36-in. swing over the bed, and is made in any length from 14 up to 36 ft. The lathe is also built with triple-geared head, having a back gear ratio of 8 to 1, and triple gear ratio of 50 to 1, giving a maximum belt travel of 290 ft. of 6-in. belt per revolution of the spindle, which makes it one of the most powerful lathes on the market. 1000 Scotch Shipbuilders and Steel Makers. 1906.—The Scotch steel mak- with the North of England makers for the regulation of prices, so that one section may not undersell the other in_ its own area, are encountering a strong feeling of resent- ment among the shipbuilders. The combination has not only put an end to plate competition in Scotland and the North of England (even though ship plates have not been put up to an inordinately high price), but under the agreement English plate makers can sell in Belfast October 3, associated GLasGow, ers who are steel x © ° é © ri < w z u ° o z | = | 6) r - J BED | (ne, THE IRON AGE October 18, 1906 be equally successful. If one should be built the steel makers have only themselves to blame for it, and some of them are getting badly off for orders now that the ship- building boom is dying. There are still a good many shipbuilding contracts to work off, but the material has already been contracted for and in part made, and there is no new work coming in, though for other purposes than shipbuilding steel is in demand. a. @ (a > OO A flywheel 19 ft. in diameter, weighing 60 tons, was recently built by the Nordberg Engineering Company, Milwaukee, Wis., for the Calumet & Hecla Mining Com- THE IRON AGE Fig. 2—A Detail of the Change Gear Box for the Feeds. Tine /ROW AGE Fig. 3.—Detail End and Side Views Showing the Manipulation of the Change Gear Feed. some 12 to 15 shillings per ton lower than Scotch plate makers can sell to the Clyde shipbuilders. The Belfast shipbuilders are thus given a large advantage over the Clyde shipbuilders. The latter claim that the Scotch steel makers really depend on them and have been largely created by the Scotch shipbuilding industry, but are now favoring their competitors. The matter has got to such a pass that the Clyde shipbuilders are quietly negotiating among themselves to start a steel plant of their own for the manufacture of all the steel shipbuilding material they require. When a combination was formed some years ago among the bolt, rivet and nut manufacturers of the West of Scotland the shipbuilders in self-protection got up a bolt, rivet and nut company of their own. This has not only prevented them from being held up by the combina- tion, but has proved a financial success. The argument is that a shipbuilders’ plate, bar and angle plant would, pany. At 107 rev. per min., its intended speed, it will have a peripheral velocity of nearly 6400 ft. per min. There are 12 spokes, cast hollow, having a 5-in. open hearth steel bolt set radially into each with counter- sunk round nuts at either end. Two steel rings are bolted against either side by 58 2-in. bolts, which fur- ther reinforce the rim. The two-piece cast iron center is held together by four T-head steel links shrunk into pockets in the rim in the usual manner, and also by two steel shrink rings on the hub and four shrink rings under the rim. Comparing a turbo-alternator of 1500 kw. with a recip- rocating engine driven alternator of same capacity very considerable differences are noted, especially in dimen- sions and weights. The turbo-alternator under consid- eration is operated at a speed of 1000 rev. per min. and delivers three-phase current at a pressure of 11,000 volts, October 18, 1906 with a power factor of 85 per cent., and calls for 6000 alternations per minute (50 cycles per second). The diameter of the rotor is 48 in., giving a peripheral veloc- ity of 12,500 ft. per minute (142 miles per hour). The weight of the stator is 25,000 lb.; of the rotor, 11,000 Ib.; Fig. 4.—Rear View of the Gear Box. total weight, 36,000 lb., or 24 lb. per kilowatt norma! output. The reciprocating engine driven machine, op- erating at 94 rev. per min., has a stator which weighs complete 40,000 Ib.; rotor, 30,000 Ib.; total, 70,000 Ib., or 47 Ib. per kilowatt output. Not only this, but the turbo- machine requires no flywheel, the high rotative speed of THe IRONAGE Fig. 5.—Top View of the Apron Removed. the rotor containing enough energy-storage capacity in itself; whereas the other machine has a flywheel weigh- ing 90,000 lb, bringing the total weight to 160,000 lb., or 107 per kilowatt. The flywheel effect of the rotor alone in the turbo outfit is 8750 foot-tons, or 5.8 per kilowatt; in Tue RON AGe Fig. 6.—Rear View of the Apron Removed. the other the effect of rotor and flywheel is 3700 foot-tons, or 2.5 per kilowatt. Of the total weight of the turbo- generator 16,000 Ib. is active iron and 2500 active cop- per; with the slower moving generator the active iron is 16,000 Ib., as with the other, but the active copper re- quired is no less than 8500 Ib. THE IRON AGE ICO!l The Railroads and Mining.* Some of the Relations of Railroad Transpor- tation in the United States to Mining and Metallurgy. BY DR. JAMES DOUGLAS, NEW YORK. The marvelous feats which two generations of engi- neers, in handling steam and electricity. have enabled us be duplicated by equal progress but it goes without saying to perform, during the next half century ; that but for our transportation facilities we would not occupy in the world’s race the same advanced position nay not we have acquired to-day, for the very vastness of our country and the actual distance from one another and from population of our resources would have rendered many of them valueless. But given control of steam the great size of our mineral deposits and the long distance our continental areas require that we transport mate- rial have inspired our transportation engineers to work on a larger scale than their fellow craftsmen across the sea. We handle longer trains, with larger cars, and as a rule at a much lower rate of freight than they do. Other- wise neither our miner nor our metallurgist could per- form the duty required of them. Take for instance the cost of transporting a ton of iron ore from Lake Superior to Pittsburgh—70 cents from the mines to Duluth, a distance of 80 miles; 75 cents for 1000 miles by steamer to Cleveland (though the rate has been as low as 57 cents, and though, when the first shipments were made from Michigan in 1856, the rate was $3); then $1.18 from Lake Erie points to Pittsburgh, a distance of 135 miles—making the total transportation $2.63 for 1250 miles, including transfers. Or take the rate of $10, at which copper is transported from Montana to the Atlantic, a distance of nearly 3000 miles. Soft coal is carried by Eastern roads at about 1% cent per ton a mile, but the rate on some Western roads is as low as 40 mills a ton per mile. Nor is it only in the iron trade that low rates of carriage have helped us metallurgists. Low Fuel Rates Necessary. The necessity of low fuel rates to economical metal- lurgy is obvious, especially when treating ores such as those of copper, whose percentage of valuable metal is so low that, even after water concentration, as many as 20 tons of charge are probably smelted on an average to yield 1 ton of copper. In such cases the fuel must be carried to the ore—not the ore to the fuel, as when smelt- ing rich iron ores. At the Copper Queen Works in the early days the cheapest coke was Cardiff patent pressed, brought round the Horn in wheat ships to San Fran- cisco. It cost more than three times the price at which New Mexico or Colorado coke is now delivered, after a railroad haul of 800 to 1000 miles. Coal for steam gen- eration was then so costly that the country was swept clear of its scanty accessible forests. For raising steam crude oil is now brought in from Texas and California at a freight rate not exceeding % cent per ton mile; so that at one smelting works in southern Arizona, 700 miles from the nearest coal or available petroleum wells, power is generated at a cost for fuel, maintenance and all expenses of $79 per ton per year. Montana draws its coke largely from Pennsylvania, or from coke ovens on Lake Superior, fed with Pennsylvania coal, the fuel traveling over 2000 miles from the pits to the furnaces. While complaint may be made against some railroads for charging exorbitant rates on coal our Western roads are certainly not culpable, or Montana would not be able to turn out in metallic copper about one-fifth of the world’s total, and Arizona about one-seventh of the world’s total, though both are situated in the heart of a continent and between 2000 and 3000 miles distant from the point where their crude product is refined and mar- keted. *From an oration delivered before the graduating class under the Faculty of Applied Science, at Columbia University, New York, June 12, 1906 T1002 Interdependence of Interests, The interdependence of mines on railroads and of railroads on mines is best appreciated by some familiar examples of what each does. The town of Butte and the great Butte mines are situated on a mountain side, fac- ing a valley beneath whose surface water can be reached in any quantity and at all seasons only by wells, but where none flows. ‘The two great corporations operating there have been obliged, therefore, if they were to con- centrate mechanically their large tonnage of low grade ore, to transport their ores to water. A site 26 miles distant was selected by the Anaconda Company, and thither to its new Washoe Works are carried daily from Butte, of its own and custom ore, about 9000 tons, at a cost of about $5 per car, or 14 cents per ton. As the ore contains less than 3 per cent. of copper per ton and $1.29 in gold and silver, a haul of that length would be profit- able only if carried at such low rates of freight. The other large company, the Boston & Montana, sends its ores 170 miles to Great Falls, where, however, the com- pany has the advantage of water power. The mining, transportation and smelting operations of our large corporations are on a stupendous scale, but the transportation is as essential an item in the result as the mining and smelting. For the United States Steel Corporation there were handled last year 18,486,556 tons of Lake Superior ore, and the corporation itself manufac- tured 12,242,909 tons of coke, which must have used up 20,000,000 tons of coal. This coal production is exclusive of 2,204,950 tons mined by itself alone. For flux it used 4,000,000 tons of limestone. About 38,000,000 tons of freight, therefore, as ore, fuel and flux, must have been transported, half of it for over an average of 1000 miles, in addition to 10,000,000 tons of finished product for a shorter distance. A total of about 48,000,000 tons of freight were contributed by this single corporation. As it made only 9,940,799 tons, out of 22,992,380 tons of pig iron made in this country, or 43 per cent. of the whole, the total tonnage moved for a longer or shorter distance by the iron smelting industry must have been approxi- mately 109,000,000 tons. How Cheap Transportation Helps the Metallurgist, An interesting instance of the facilities which trans- portation gives the metallurgist is afforded by the ship- ment of copper matte from Tennessee to the heart of Mexico, where it has been used to collect gold and silver from dry ores in the furnace and converter, and then re- turned for electrolytic refining and separation to the United States. Copper bars come from New Zealand to be refined here and the refined product is returned to Europe for consumption, for we ship abroad about 40 per cent. of our production. But for cheap carriage, often for long distances, of ore necessary to make a profitable mixture in lead and copper furnaces, many a district would be unexplored and unexploited. Till re- cently, for instance, the mines at Globe, Ariz., languished for want of sulphur and iron flux, and could barely make 1,000,000 lb. of copper a month. But the railroads, appreciating the needs of the miner and appreciating what is their own true interest, published a low ore tariff, which enabled pyrites to be imported from distant districts where it is in excess, and as a result the produc- tion rapidly rose to 3,000,000 Ib. a month. The copper industry, as compared with the iron trade, if gauged by the quantity of copper produced, is insig- nificant, but if measured by the ore raised in making a ton of copper, it assumes very different proportions. In- stead of 2 tons of ore to the ton of metal, as in the case of iron, the average of ore mined, previous to water con- centration, is more nearly 40 tons, and therefore there are handled to make our annual output of 460,000 tons of copper about 18,000,000 tons of ore. Though this is not carried the same distance that iron ore is carried to fuel nearly all of it is moved by steam for a longer or shorter distance, and as about 4 tons of fuel are con- sumed to make 1 ton of copper, nearly 20,000,000 tons of freight must be carried by the railroads to enable us to maintain our position in the coppe: world. THE IRON AGE October 18, 1906 Low Grade Freight Assists Higher Class Freight. Without going into the economies of railroad rates I would remind you that the low rates at which are car- ried these large quantities of low grade freight, on which the very existence of our large metallurgical industries depend, could be given only if supplemented by higher rates on higher class freight. And the very remunerative wages given miners and mill workers and the high stand- ard of their living give the railroad a large proportion of such profitable traffic. For instance, on a railroad with which I am connected and which depends almost exclu- sively for its traffic on mines, the proportion of the dif- ferent classes of freight is approximately as follows: GIO s.c KN awegnaede cg ee 49 per cent. CE. au cone eee eed 6 Ken 16 per cent. Coal and petroleum..... 3 per cent. } 83 per cent. of traffic is car- LAE 0 0.3:35.06 cn eaten 8 per cent. ried at a very low rate. Copper bullion.......... 7 per cent. Merchandise, fodder, &c..17 per cent. at a higher rate. Our Western copper industry, like our iron industry, sprang into life on the touch of the railroad. Not until the Southern Pacific approached Arizona in 1880 was any notable copper made there, and the railroad alone gal- vanized Butte within a year afterward into activity. And to-day our increasing production of that much sought after metal is due either to railroad extension into new regions or to lower freight rates over existing railroads. For our railroads have been learning that their prosperity depends on the healthy growth of the industries along their lines, and that these industries can be starved to death by high freight rates or fed into lusty vigor by encouragement. I venture to think that none of us—miner or metallurgist—will often be driven to take advantage of any of the useful but drastic clauses of the rate bill, which both houses are so busy framing for our benefit: If we have a grievance it will be easier to make the-railroad traffic manager understand it and induce him to apply the remedy than to explain the in- tricacies of our case and depend for relief on a commis- sion in Washington. ; Rallroads Foster Great Industries, The railroads may not have been always in the past as far sighted as their customers, and their officials have not always strictly obeved the laws. But inasmuch as some of the most energetic, as well as the most able men in the countrv, now control them, if the public will not give them credit for common honesty or patriotism it cannot deny them the vice or virtue of self-interest (call it selfishness if vou will), and this, not favoritism nor leg- islative compulsion, induces them to foster the great in- dustries denendent on their roads. Moreover. and the rule has proved to be almost of universal application, the small shipper benefits by the advantage secured by his big wholesale neighbor and enjovs rates which otherwise his own scanty traffic would not permit the railroad to give him, for low freights are dependent on large quanti- ties carried. and the enormous bulk of our business is one of the princinal reasons why our railroads can fur- nish such cheap transportation. It would be foreign to my purpose and improper in this place to disenss the accusations brought arainst the railroads, or rather against their officers, of fraud and favoritism, but it is not improper to direct attention to the extraordinary courage, energy and skill, as well as amount of capital which have been put into the building up of our stupendous railroad system, and ‘to its vital influence on all our great industries, which have as a general rule developed with the same rapiditv as the railroads on which they depend. Any check therefore given to the legitimate expansion of our railroads by iIl- advised legislation and by creating disturbance of public confidence must react sensitively, not only on railroad securities, which is a small matter, but on our farming, our mining and all the other branches of national in- dustry which depend on railroad transportation, and on whose prosperity conversely railroads depend. ———~>-+o ___ Powell & Colne, 11 Broadway, New York, agents for the Tropenas converter steel process, have closed a con- tract with the Massachusetts Steel Casting Comp ny, Everett, Mass., for a second converter. October 18, 1906 Consolidation in the German Iron Trade. The London Engineer discusses the tendency toward consolidations as successors to the present régime of syn- dicates in the German iron and steel trades. The steel syndicate, which has now been in existence over two years, expires next June, though negotiations are on for its continuance for 5 or 10 years. Some discord has ap- peared, and the situation as thus disclosed is commented on as follows: In the case of the Westphalian Coal Syndicate, which would not be able to export a single ton of coal if it endeavored to meet the requirements of the inland mar- ket, the coal owners are at variance with the other pro- prietors who also have iron works, because the latter class use their own production of coal and coke as far as possible, and thus escape the payment on their own consumption of the levy made by the syndicate to defray its working expenses. The Pig Iron Syndicate is in a sim- ilar position, as those constituents which have steel works work up their output of pig iron as far lies in their power, and to this extent the supplies are diverted from the Diisseldorf Pig Iron Syndicate and are not liable to be charged with the administrative expenses of the lat- ter. Then again some of those members of the Steel Syn- dicate who rely upon it, apart from individual production of semifinished steel, for additional supplies of this mate- rial, complain of inability to secure delivery of the quan- tity to which they are entitled under the agreement made in 1904. These are a few of the differences of opinion which prevail. Expansion of Steel Works Capacity. The fact that the German Steel Syndicate was orig- inally constituted for a term of three years has had the effect in the time which has elapsed of stimulating the members to undertake large extensions of works with the object of securing, in the event of the renewal of the combination, a larger allotment than they already pos- sess, both in respect of the first group of products as rep- resented by semifinished steel, railway material and shapes, and of the second group, which comprises bars, plates and sheets, wire, tubes, castings, forgings and other manufactures. But the extension of blast fur- naces, steel making plant, rolling mills and other depart- ments occupies a considerable amount of time, and will eventually not give to any particular works the special advantages which result from amalgamations of works, and which at once place a combination of two ahead of many of the others individually. Not only so, but where consolidations tend to create a self-contained unit or to enhance the strength of an existing self-contained unit, we find that this policy leads to the elevation of such works to a plane which will be practically unassailable should the Steel Syndicate fail to be renewed on its ex- piration in the middle of next year. It is then this idea of being fully armed for the fray, ‘combined with the differences which have arisen since the foundation of the syndicate, which is largely promoting the fresh movement in regard to concentration. The first to take action is the well-known Pheenix Mining & Iron Works Company of Ruhrort, which has a share capital of £1,750,000, and which has just made arrangements to absorb the undertaking of the Hoerde Mining & Iron Works Company, whose combined share and loan capital totals £1,800,000. The immediate effect of this amalgama- tion will be to place the Pheenix-Hoerde combination at the head of the Steel Syndicate from the point of view of allotment tonnage, a position which is now held by the German “iron king” as represented by the Deutscher Kaiser Gewerkschaft and Thyssen & Co. A second in- stance relates to the impending fusion of the Bismarck Hutte and the Bethlen-Falva Hutte, the latter passing over to the former, with the consent of Prince Henckel von Donnersmarck. It may be expected that these two in- stances will soon be followed by others of a similar char- acter, especially as the period before the expiration of the Steel Syndicate agreement is now comparatively short. German Finished Materials in Great Britain, The special point to be observed by British iron and steel producers is that the pending amalgamations, fol- THE IRON AGE 1003 lowing upon those which took place two or threeyears ago, are bringing into existence formidable undertakings which, when the present period of unprecedented inland demand is past, and irrespective of the question of the prolongation of the German Steel Syndicate, will exer- cise an important influence both in British home and co- lonial markets and in neutral markets from the point of view of competition. But the rivalry will be materially different from that which has prevailed in the past, and which has slackened or been suspended in recent months owing to the enormous consumption in the inland market of Germany. The competition of the near future, espe- cially as a result of the expansion in the works in the industrial west of the Fatherland, will not be concen- trated so largely on the dumping on our home market of semifinished steel as of finished manufactures. Our steel works will then not complain so much of cheap blooms, billets and sheet bars as of Cheap bars, shapes, plates and sheets, tubes, rails—for the International Rail Syndicate will, in all probability, vanish next year—forgings and other manufaetures. A great deal will, of course, depend upon the question as to whether British works are mak- ing preparations to meet this rivalry, and whether the supplies of iron ore, which the Germans are again en- deavoring to secure in other countries, will allow of any further development, or whether they have nearly reached the limit of their capacity. ——— »-+e—__- Engineers are finding that, apart from the merits of the steam turbine as a prime mover, its effect upon power plant design is to be far-reaching in the direction of simplicity and economy. Up to date turbines have been installed in plants more or less conventionally designed on the lines of reciprocating engine practice, but the typical turbine plant may be expected to show greater compactness of design, and much of the present complexity and expense will disappear. Two plants are now designed, for Fort Wayne, Ind., and Hamilton, Ohio, in which the boilers will be on the ground floor and the turbines di- rectly overhead. The steam and exhaust runs will be both short and direct, the initial steam going up and the exhaust going down, as is proper. The exciters are placed upon the generator shafts, eliminating the use of separate exciting units, and as little as possible in the way of auxiliaries will be installed. There will be some saving in building construction, considerable in ground space, and the total economy, as compared with ordinary practice, is expected to approach 25 per cent. A new searchlight recently submitted to the officers of the Swiss General Staff is reported to have proved a great success. It is stated that objects at a distance of 6% miles were so brilliantly illuminated as to be readily visible through a glass. The machine providing the power is of 24-hp. and furnished 1,000,000 electric candle-power. A 40-hp. motor would have given, it is said, 12,000,000 candle-power. The diameter of the projector is 1 meter (39.37 in.). One great advantage of this outfit is that it can be readily handled electrically from a considerable distance, the tests including distances up to 200 meters (219 yd.). This enables the operator to send rays to any desired place without being himself blinded by the light or placed under the enemy’s fire. The rapid reconstruction of a trestle was recently car- ried on at Galveston, Texas. Fire destroyed 400 ft. of the long railroad trestle which extends from the main- land to the city, and stopped traffic. The construction forces and materials were immediately started to the work, and by midnight of the same day the trestle was sufficiently repaired to allow traffic to be resumed. The Engineers’ Society of Milwaukee, Wis., held its October meeting on the evening of October 10. James De Vry, mechanical engineer of the Chicago, Milwaukee « St. Paul Railroad, read a paper on “ The Comparative Values of Compound and Simple Locomotives.” In the article on page 950 of The Iron Age of October 11, 1906, relating to the Hill iron ore deal, reference is made to the iron content of the base ore. This is 59 per cent., instead of 57, as there printed. 1004 Steel Corporation Gas Engines. A Total of 102,000 Horsepower for Blowing and Electrical Service. Mention has been made in The Iron Age of several im- portant contracts for gas engines let by the subsidiary companies of the United States Steel Corporation, It has been thought that a presentation of the entire gas engine programme of the corporation subsidiaries would be of interest as indicating the extent to which the utili- zation of blast furnace waste gases will be carried at the rarious plants. The total of the installations now being made and those for which appropriations have been al- lowed is 44,000 hp. of blowing engines and about 58,000 hp. for driving generators. This means that approxi- mately 10 per cent. of the Steel Corporation’s power will be supplied by gas engines, since it is computed that 400,- 000 hp. is utilized at the corporation’s blast furnaces and 600,000 hp, at its steel works and rolling mills. All the new engines will utilize waste blast furnace gases with the exception of three smaller ones of 1600 hp. all told, namely, those to be installed at the Worcester, Mass., and Trenton, N. J., plants of the American Steel & Wire Company, and at the Pencoyd, Pa., works of the American Bridge Company. Below is given a complete list of the installations now under way or definitely ordered. Carnegie Steel Company. At the Edgar Thomson Works two gas driven blowing engines of 2000 hp. each are being installed to take the place of steam blowing engines for supplying blast to the F and G furnaces at Braddock. An order has also been placed for three gas driven 800-kw. generators for in- creasing the capacity of the electrical station at the Ed- gar Thomson Works. The two new furnaces of the Carrie plant of the com- pany now in course of erection will have their blowing engine equipment between gas engines and steam engines. The four proposed gas engines will have a total of 8000 hp. Two gas driven electric generators of 2000-kw. ca- pacity each will be provided at the blast furnaces to gen- erate current for the Homestead Works of the company located across the river. For the Ohio Works of the Carnegie Steel Company, located at Youngstown, Ohio, an order has been placed for a gas engine driven 1000-kw. generator, to supply current to the Union mills of the company, located in the same city. In connection with the two new Duquesne blast fur- naces, for which an appropriation was made last week, four gas blowing engines of a total of 8000 hp. will be in- stalled. An order will be placed also for three 2000-kw. gas engine driven generators. They will supply current for driving part of the Duquesne mills, thus displacing a number of small engines with motors. American Steel & Wire Company, A gas engine driven generator has been ordered for the Central Furnaces of this company at Cleveland, Ohio. It will be of 1000-kw. capacity and will generate power for use at the Newburgh Steel Works of the same com- pany, distant 6 miles from the furnace plant. The American Steel & Wire Company has also ordered for its Worcester, Mass., works a 500-kw, generator driven by a gas engine supplied with:producer gas. At the Tren- ton, N. J., plant a 300-kw. generator is being installed and its gas engine will employ producer gas. Both these latter installations are to increase the capacity of the present electric power stations at the two plants. Lilinois Steel Company, This company has ordered two gas engine driven blow- ing engines of 2000 hp. each, to replace part of the steam equipment at the South Works. It is also installing at the same plant a 2000-kw. generator driven by a gas engine to provide for the expansion of its electric power station. Some of the new mills being installed at the South Works will be motor driven, taking the current from this power station. Surplus gas from the South Works blast fur- naces will be employed. For its Bay View Works at Milwaukee, Wis., the com! THE IRON October 18, 1906 AGE pany has ordered a gas engine driven generator of 500- kw., to be operated by blast furnace gas from the Bay View stacks. It will provide the additional electrical power made necessary by recent improvements at these works, Indiana Steel Company. The most conspicuous gas engine installation of the Steel Corporation is at the new Gary, Ind., plant of the Indiana Steel Company. The four 600-ton blast furnaces will be driven by gas blowing engines, of which eight of 2000 hp. each are provided. There will also be an ample reserve of steam driven blowing engines. The surplus gas from the blast furnaces will also operate through gas engines nine 2000-kw. generators. Many of the new mills to be installed at Gary will be motor driven. The Gary plant will be connected electrically with the South Works of the Illinois Steel Company, by wires carrying high ten- sion current. These plants are about 20 miles apart and midway between them is located the Buffington cement plant of the Illinois Steel Company. This latter is now operated by electrical current from the South Works, but when the installations at Gary are completed it will be in position to get current from either the Gary or the South Works. The arrangement will also enable either steel plant to assist the other in an emergency. National Tube Company. For the new blast furnaces at the McKeesport Works of this company, an appropriation for which was made last week, two gas blowing engines of 2000 hp. each will be provided. For the extension of the power plant at the same works two 1000-kw. generators driven by a gas engine will also be installed, American Bridge Company. At its Pencoyd, Pa., works, the American Bridge Com- pany is erecting a gas engine of 400 hp. to employ pro- ducer gas. It will drive a centrifugal pump, which will displace a number of old duplex steam pumps now supply- ing water to the plant. The United States Fairly in the Field, The gas engines referred to above have been ordered from the Allis-Chalmers Company, Milwaukee, Wis.; the Westinghouse Machine Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.; the Snow Steam Pump Works, Buffalo, N. Y., and the Wil- liam Tod Company, Youngstown, Ohio. The total outlay for engines and generators is several million dollars. As the greater efficiency of the gas engine as compared with the best type of steam engines has now been pretty fully demonstrated, it is the expectation that these various in- stallations will effect considerable economies in the pro- duction at the various plants employing them. Though it is considered by the Steel Corporation engineers that the gas engine has passed the experimental state, the ma- jority of the above installations are nevertheless fortified by spare steam equipment to provide for emergencies. The distribution of gas engines among a number of the Steel Corporation subsidiaries and their application to a variety of lines of service are calculated to give within a comparatively short time reliable data as to the condi- tions under which gas power can be most advantageously employed. The placing of orders for various types of engines will in time give the corporation a body of facts as to relative efficiency. : The installation of these engines using producer gas should result in valuable information also in this impor- tant field. Both bituminous and anthracite coals will be utilized in the manufacture of producer gas, so that full details of the performance of the respective producers will be secured. For the bituminous coal operation a down draft producer will be installed. At the recent London meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute carefully gathered statistics were presented showing the extent to which large gas engines have been introduced at iron and steel and coke works in Germany, Belgium and Great Britain. On behalf of the Cockerill Works it was stated that the total of Cockerill engines ordered for blowing and electrical service was 63,155 hp., while other companies working under licenses had built 113,000 hp. additional. A company which had acquired licenses for the construction of the Kérting engine in Belgium was reported to be installing two engines of this October 18, 1906 type at the blast furnace of Grivegnée. At German iron and steel works it was reported that 349 gas engines with a total of 385,000 hp. were in use or ordered. The state ment concerning large gas engines in England was that in all lines of service the engines over 500 hp. in use or numbered 119 of 96,085 hp. Of only four will use blast furnace gas and three coke oven ordered these engines gas, With 105,000 hp. of gas engines ordered for the Steel Corporation and Lackawanna Steel Company, it would appear that in com 10,000 hp. in use at the works of the parison with the European countries which have pion eered in the employment of gas engines to utilize blast furnace gases the United States makes a better showing than has been commonly understood. ——_—_—+-e—__ Customs Administrative Legisiation. October 15, Considerab'e importers and exporters inter WASHINGTON, D. C., 1906. anxiety has been felt by ested in our trade relations with Germany as the result of reports published in the daily press with regard to the activities of certain representatives of German commer- cial interests, who. it has been stated, have complained to President Roosevelt and to officials of the Treasury De- partment that the United States has failed to carry out the pledges given last spring as the result of which appli- cation to American products of the maximum duties of the new German tariff was postponed until July 1, 1907. While these reports have been exaggerated, nevertheless the incidents referred to, taken in connection with the systematic agitation of the subject by German manu- facturers and exporters, will have the effect of stimu- lating the interest of the Senate in the measure before the Finance Committee providing for the compre- hensive amendment of the customs administrative laws, and much confidence is expressed here in the passage of this bill early in the coming session. It is reported here on excellent authority that the Senate Finance Committee, which was authorized to hold sessions during the recess of Congress, will meet some time in November to examine the Payne customs adminis trative bill with a view to its passage—possibly in an amended form—early in the coming session. The bill is regarded as of so much importance as to demand very careful examination. It is a composite measure em- bodying not only the suggestions of the German Govern- ment approved by the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, but also a series of important features strongly urged by the Board of General Appraisers and by the Merchants’ Association of New York. Features of the Bill. The two features of the bill which Germany especially desires to see enacted are embraced in amendments to Section 7 of the customs administrative act of June 10, 1890. The first of these permits an importer “at the time when he shall make and verify his written entry of such merchandise, but not afterwards, to make such addition in the entry or such deduction therefrom to the cost or value given in the invoice or pro forma invoice, or statement in form of an invoice, which he shall produce with his entry, as in his opinion may raise or lower the same to the actual market value or whole sale price of such merchandise at the time of exporta- tion to the United States, in the principal markets of the country from which the same has been imported.” The innovation here consists in permitting the im- porter to deduct from, as well as add to, his invoices to make market value. The existing law requires him to pay duty on a valuation which in no case shall be less than that stated in the invoice, but which in the case of purchased goods must be as much greater as will equai the foreign market value of the goods on the date of shipment. ‘This concession has long been demanded by many importers, but Congress has hesitated to grant it lest it should open the door to fraud or unduly increase the labors of the customs authorities and the Board of General Appraisers. The second feature of importance to the German ex- porting interest embodied in Section 7 is the provision now THE IRON AGE i( Os that additional duties shall not be assessed upon under valuations which do not exceed 5 per cent. In the original customs administrative act a 10 per cent. mar gin was employed, but in practice it was found that many importers took advantage of this margin and habitually invoiced their goods at 10 per below the proper Nearly all however, that a margin of 5 per cent. is necessary to cover the varying valuations of cent. figures. authorities agree, experts, who frequently and in good faith disagree by that amount. entirely Changes Desired by Department, Aside from the modifications referred to, pear to be desired not only by which ap those interested in the German trade but by importers gene