The Iron Age 1910-02-17: Vol 85 Iss 7

THE IRON AGE New York, Thursday, February 17, 1910. THE MODERN PATTERN SHOP. Some Representative Plants, with Details of Their Arrangement and Equipment. At the meeting of the Chicago Foundry Foremen held Saturday evening, January 22, George F. Rein- hard of the Oliver Machinery Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., gave an address on “ Modern Pattern Shops,” illustrating it with lantern slides. In introducing the views and descriptions Mr. Reinhard said: “ Patternmaking as a distinct craft has existed but a few years, though patterns have been made for cen- turies. In the old days the man who could best pro- duce the pattern was given the duty to perform. He may have been a cabinet maker, a carpenter, or any other ingenious craftsman who could skillfully wield the rough tools of the period. Since the middle of the last century patternmaking has been accepted as an art or a craft of such importance as to be divorced from the other trades. Having class and distinction, it was placed where it belongs in the line of mechanical trades, near the head, and it is one line or wood manu- facturing where the innovation of machinery has not lessened the demand for the patternmaker with brains and originality, and as an aid to his fertility of brain we have been brought to face the problem of his shop environment. For many years the pattern shop cut no figure at all in the planning of workshops. It mat- tered not to the owner where this departmént was ‘o- cated as long as he did not have to look at it very much. It never was a money producer, so it lacked the essential quality to give it commercial value in his mind, and anything was good enough for the pattern- maker, The New Status of the Pattern Shop. “Up to a period within the years that one may count upon the finger tips it was a common practice among owners of machine shops to exercise the utmost care regarding the machine shop location, its light, its ventilation and its iron or metal working tools. After these were completely cared for and the question of patternmaking came up it was a case of: ‘Oh, haven't you some corner you can poke it into? Utilize the attic.’ ‘ Put it in the basement and don’t use any more equipment than you actually have to.’ ‘Get along with the cheapest tools you can find; any old thing is good enough to cut wood. It is easy to cut.’ ‘ Haven't you some part of the shop that you can’t use for any- thing else? Put the pattern shop there.’ ‘We have to put so much money into the patternmaker’s wages we can’t afford to do anything more for him.’ “This sort of thing is rapidly being consigned to the realm of recollection and the new order is to give the pattern shop its rightful place in the works. What shall we consider its rightful place? Wherever there is plenty of good wholesome ventilation and an abund- ance of light and plenty of room. Put it next to the drafting department, if you can. No one is more in- timately associated with the designer than the pattern- maker. “We acknowledge that the draftsman requires a fine light. The patternmaker needs the same light, since he must read the drawings and work to them. He needs good air for the same reason that you and I need it. No chance for argument there. If you run your own foundry let the pattern shop be next door, so the foundry boss can be neighborly. The designer and the patternmaker both need him if he is next to his job. “T might take some of your time in describing and illustrating the unattractive small shops I have seen and visited; the underground places, those top story and attic rooms in old ready-to-tumble buildings, where the patternmaker and his helper eke out a scanty existence in job patternmaking, but I feel there would be nothing gained by it. Fortunately such places are dwindling in number gradually.” The speaker then showed a series of lantern slides illustrating a number of well constructed pattern shops in different parts of the country. He called attention to the essential points in design of each separate plant. The following is a summary of his remarks: The Allis-Chalmers Company Pattern Department, The pattern department of the Allis-Chalmers Com- pany, at West Allis, Milwaukee, consists of two build- ings side by side, each 959 ft. in length. The pattern storage building is five stories high and at one end there is an additional building containing the general offices of the company, making a total length of 1000 ft. The dry kilns furnishing the pattern lumber are located in the center of the pattern storage on the first floor. The pattern storage building has brick walls and reinforced concrete floors. The building is divided into five units by heavy brick fire walls. All of the openings in these walls are provided with self- closing fire doors. The windows are of wire glass. The building is «quipped with a sprinkler system, and every precaution has been taken, first, to localize a fire should it occur, and, second, to extinguish it promptly. The pattern shop is a one-story structure next to the pattern storage and extends the entire length of the building. The pattern shop, like the pattern stor- age, is divided into five units, the two units at the ends being utilized for pattern shop entirely, while the cen- tral unit comprises the flask shop and the planing mill. Fig. 1 is a view of this shop taken from the end of one of the pattern shop units. This planing mill feature is one that could be duplicated with advantage in many large pattern shops. When a large pattern is to be constructed the bill for the stock required is sent to the planing mill and the stock got out in accordance with the bill. It is then loaded on a truck and taken to the patternmaker who has to do the job. This relieves the machines in the pattern departmeut of all of the heavy work. This pattern shop is lighted by windows on the side and skylights on the roof. Were the con- struction possible lights on both sides would be prefera- ble. A hot water heating system is employed, the wa- ter being circulated by a pump in the engine house, thus insuring uniform heat at all times. There is a separate department in which all patterns are sand- papered and varnished, the work being done by men and boys who attend to this only, thus saving some of the time of the high priced patternmakers. The pattern shop of the Falk Company of Mil- waukee, Wis., next illustrated, is 200 ft. long, 75 ft. wide, and is lighted by windows on both sides. On 374 THE IRON AGE Fig. 1.—Interior of the Pattern Department of the Allis-Chalmers Company, West Allis, Wis. Fig. 2.—Interior of the Shop of the Standard Pattern Works, Detroit. Fig. 5.—One End of the Pattern Shop of the Crocker-Wheeler Company, Ampere, N. J., Showing Method of Driving Cutting-off Saw. account of the fact that the roof was not very high the light in the center is not so strong as it should be, but gives fairly satisfactory results. The pattern shop of the Carnegie Technical In- stitute of Pittsburgh is one of the lightest pattern shops, if not the lightest, in the country. The ceiling February 17, 1910 is very high, which gives a large wall area for side win- dows. There are windows ar- ranged on three sides of the room. Mr. Reinhard also il- lustrated the foundry of this Institute and gave a general view of the group of buildings as they will appear when com- pleted. He next showed the office and shop of the Standard Pat- tern Works at Detroit. This view, Fig. 2, illustrated the re- sults possible even when it is necessary to crowd the equip- ment into a low and poorly lighted room where the men have to do a considerable por- tion of the work by artificial light. Mr. Henry, owner and manager, has been successful, however, in gathering to- gether a force of patternmak- ers, who are thoroughly inter- ested in the success of the company, and so has been able to make a good showing even in these crowded quarters. The new pattern shop of the American Locomotive Works at Schenectady, N. Y., is lighted by windows on three sides and a long skylight in the roof. The floor is broken up by two series of posts ex- tending down the sides of the center bay, but the space be- tween is ample for the con- struction of fairly large pat- terns. The center bay is de- voted almost wholly to ma- chinery, the patternmakers’ benches being arranged in the side bays. The new pattern shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company, South Bethlehem, Pa., is 60x 320 ft., and gives employment to 65 men and boys. Like the plant of the American Loco- motive Works, it is lighted by windows at the sides and by a monitor roof in the center. The arrangement of machines is similar to that at Schenec- tady. Next the pattern shop of the Milwaukee Trade School was illustrated, and Mr. Reinhard spoke of the advantages of such schools. Individual Electric Drives, The pattern shop of the Crocker-Wheeler Company, Ampere, N. J., Figs. 3 and 4, contains some features of par- ticular interest. In the first place, the shop is located in a gallery along one side of the machine shop, where it receives ample side light from windows in the wall and also light from the monitor roof over the center bay of the machine shop. This com- pany is one of the first in the country to employ direct drives for the machines installed, and the two illustra- ticns show how standard machines were equipped with 4 February 17, 1910 motors after they arrived at the plant of the Crocker- Wheeler Company. Alternat- ing current motors had not then come into vogue to the same extent as now, and hence the entire equipment consists of direct current machinery. The swinging cut-off saw is driven by a motor mounted above it in such a way that the motor serves as a counter- weight to swing the saw back after it has completed a cut. [he band saw is driven by a motor mounted on an exten- sion of the shaft passing through the lower wheel. The lathes are equipped with mo- ters either mounted above or behind the head stocks, while the saws and surfaces are equipped with motors mount ed on the floor near the base of the machine. A Pittsburgh District Shop. Several views of the new pattern department of the Mesta Machine Company of Homestead, Pa., were given, two of these being reproduced in Figs. 5 and 6. This plant is a three-story structure, hav- ing steel trusses encased in concrete for fire protection. The floors are of reinforced concrete, and with the excep- tion of a thin wooden floor laid over the concrete there is nothing in the building that can burn except the patterns that are in the process of construction. The pattern shop really forms a part of the foundry building. On _ the lower floors there is a line of posts down the center which are 20 ft. apart. The rooms on each of the floors are 70 x 200 ft., with ample win- dows on all sides, which give abundance of light. On the top floor there is also a skylight. There is a foreman on each floor and the foreman’s office is arranged upon each floor with pro- visions for caring for draw- ings. The first is a basement floor in which is stored the lumber, and here the rough cutting to approximate dimen- sions is done; in other words, a planing mill is established for furnishing dimensioned stock to the patternmaking de- partment proper. The heavier patterns are made on a lower floor, which wa “J At THE IRON AGE Fig. 4.—Patiern Shop of the Crocker-Wheeler Company, Located in the Gallery of the Machine Shop. Fig. 5.—Ground Floor of the Pattern Department of the Mesta Machine Company, Homestead, Pa. Fig. 6.—Top Floor of the Pattern Shop of the Mesta Machine Company. is on a level with th’ foundry floor. The three trimmer and an electrical glue heater. Large trim- floors are each equipped with such machinery as is mers are distributed through the shop where needed. necessary to relieve the patternmaker of all operations The new pattern shop at the Standard Cast Iron that can be accomplished by the aid of machines. Pipe & Foundry Company of Bristol, Pa. was next Wherever possible the motors are built into the ma-_ illustrated. This building is lighted by windows on chines. Each patternmaker is furnished with a bench three sides. The patternmakers’ benches are arranged 376 THE IRON AGE Fig. 9.—Pattern Storage of the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Company, Providence, R. I. February 17, 1910 University of Pennsylvania. Several views of the pat- tern department and allied de- partments of the University of Pennsylvania were given. In these shops the walls are constructed of brick and most of the light comes from sky- lights in the roof, as shown in Fig. 7. The departments are so arranged that the stu- dents in one can co-operate with those in the other. The drawing room adjoins the pattern shop, and the tool- room is arranged between the pattern shop and the machine shop. In the toolroom there is a series of cupboards con- taining shelves that are ar- ranged along the center of the room, forming cross aisles between them. On one side of these cupboards are kept the woodworking tools for the pattern shop and the wood- working shop, while on the opposite side are kept the tools for the machine shop, Fig. 8. Pattern Storage. The subject of pattern stor- age was next taken up. Mr. Reinhard remarked that the shops which have a poor stor- age system do not seem par- ticularly anxious to have it illustrated, and hence he showed only some views con- taining good features. The ground floor of the pattern storage of the Falk Company in Milwaukee was illustrated. In this case small patterns are kept in shelves or racks at one side and large patterns on the floor on the other side. Pro- vision has been made for an overhead trolley system for carrying heavy patterns into or out of storage. The pat- tern storage department is constructed with brick walls and reinforced concrete floors, It is divided into several units by firewalls and all openings in the firewalls closed by self- closing doors. A very com- plete system is also main- tained for checking out pat- terns, repairing them as they return from the foundry and recording the complete his- tory of each. A section of the storage room of the pattern shop of the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Company, Providence, R. L, was next shown, Fig. 9. In this case the shelves are con- structed of wood, but are sup- ported on cast iron brackets clamped to iron columns. around the walls and the machinery grouped in the The last view of this series illustrates the pattern center. One of the illustrations of this plant showed storage in the new pattern department at the Navy the Wadkin mechanical woodworker operating on a Yard, Portsmouth, N. H., Fig. 10. This storage is core box. constructed with brick walls, reinfurced concrete floors - February 17, 1910 and pattern racks having iron frames and galvanized iron shelves, so that there is abso- lutely nothing in the room that could burn except the pat- terns. Pattern Shop at Portsmouth Navy Ward, The speaker then described the entire pattern shop equip- ment of the navy yard, show- ing an exterior view of the building, which is a_ brick structure, three stories high, 81 ft. in width and 200 ft. long. The first story is 20 ft. in the clear; the second, shown in Fig. 11, is 18 ft., and the third, to the ridge pole, 20 THE IRON ft. In the center there is a Fig. 10.—Pattern Storage in the Navy Yard at Portsmouth, N. H. firewall which divides the building into two parts. All of the openings in it are pro- vided with self-closing fire- doors. The frame of the building is made of steel, fire- proofed with concrete. The work rooms on the first and second floors are supplied with thin hardwood floors laid over the concrete. All other To floors are of concrete. On ae Ptr the third floor in the center HE aT are two openings 18x 24 ft., i which provide ventilation and iA also serve to transmit the light et) Bete from skylights in the roof to the second floor. When a small force of men is em- ployed the benches are placed around the wall in front of the windows, and when a larger force is required ad- ditional benches are placed in pairs, with their ends toward the windows. Two rooms in the building are set apart for pattern storage, one on the second and the other on the third floor. The toilet rooms are large and spacious, with tiling of faced brick 5 ft. high all around the room. These rooms are not under the stairs or in some dark corner, but where they have ample light and can be easily kept clean. The plant is heated by steam pipes on the side walls and also by coils of steam pipes overhead at the columns. The building is wired for electric light, there being seven large arc lamps in each workroom and two incandescents on ex- tension arms over each bench. Through the center of the shop additional incandescents are hung over each machine. Fig. 12.—Patterns Made on Universal Woodworker at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. All the electric light wires pass through metal conduits placed in the floor or wall so that they are not in sight. An exhaust system serves to remove the shavings from the machines. This, together with the sprinkler system, was installed after the illustrations here shown were taken. Some interesting figures concerning this plant were given. The total cost of the shop was $116,000, and the machinery cost $30,000. The line of machines em- braces some 28 tools. All the lathes are electrically driven by independent motors. On the first floor are 378 located the roughing tools which constitute the plan- ing mill. These include a heavy 30-in. surfacer, a 20- in. rip saw table carrying saws 24 in. in diameter, a band resaw and lathe capable of swinging work 20 in. in diameter, a four-sided molder which cuts out lag- ging for building tp large work, one cross cut saw, and one splitting saw for dimension work. On the second floor two sets of machinery are in- stalled, so as to eliminate the possibility of any men having to wait for a machine. The machines are also so located that any man can reach any machine by traveling the minimum distance from his bench. The equipment on this floor consists of speed lathes, large lathes, hand jointers, universal double saw tables, 24-in. surface planers, a pit lathe, a gap lathe and a mechan- ical woodworker. The Navy Department claims that the woodworker is doing excellent work, and in one Fig. 13.—Method of Boxing Band Saw in Use at Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Company’s Pattern Shop, Providence, R. I. of the illustrations, Fig. 12, the machine was shown surrounded by a large number of core boxes and pat- terns which had been made upon it. Instances were cited in which patterns which had always taken from two to two and a half days to construct had been made on the machine in from four to six hours. On the top floor of this plant a stock of pattern lumber is stored. The two openings between the sec- ond and third floors already referred to serve not only to ventilate the third floor but to allow the surplus heat to rise to the lumber racks, thus drying out the pat- tern lumber and keeping it sufficiently warm for curing purposes. Next were shown a series of slides illustrating methods of connecting electrical motors to woodwork- ing machines and also economical arrangements of machines in shops. These include the use of both direct and alternating current motors. One of the interesting devices shown is the iron surface table in use at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. This is made en- tirely of metal, the top measuring 66 in. in length and 30 in. in width. It is of cast iron, 1 in. thick, and heavily ribbed to eliminate the possibility of warping. It is supported on a three-point bearing, so that it can be adjusted and made perfectly level. THE IRON AGE February 17, 1910 Safety Devices, The speaker, after showing a series of views of the mechanical woodworker and various jobs turned out by it, came to the subject of safety devices for machines. Under this head were shown the method of boxing a band saw in use at the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Company at Providence, R. I., Fig. 13. In this case the saw is completely boxed in and an exhaust ar- rangement provided for carrying away the sawdust. A view was also given of the rubber mat used before saws or other woodworking machines to prevent the workman from slipping. The safety cylinders for use on woodworkers were referred to and views given showing the results of accidents which had occurred with the old style standard and safety cylinders. The last view showed a general arrangement of piping for a glue heating system which would take care of the glue pots at all of the benches in the shop. Equipment of a Model Pattern Shop. Mr. Reinhard then gave his own ideas of the equipment of a model shop to employ 40 patternmakers. Among the principal points which he thought should be included are these: Ample provision for light from all sides, the location of a foreman’s office near the middle of one side, a good lavatory and coat room placed in an open and accessible location, the finishing of the patterns in a separate department by employees who do nothing else, the machines to be so arranged as to reduce both work and the travel of the stock to a minimum. The placing on each bench of an electric glue heater was recommended, also the placing of five large trimmers and five small bench hand jointers at such places as would be easily accessible to the men. For this number of men the speaker recommended four surface tables. All of the machines should be driven by individual electric motors and so placed as not to be in the way of each other or the work as it passes through. Provision should be made for several spaces of open floor for the construction of large patterns. Such an equipment was figured out and it was found that the machinery would cost $16,000. Against this investment are chargeable the following: Per cent. Interest on $960 Insurance : ae 7 320 Depreciation ..... ‘eo 800 Power and maintenance 1,600 Rd ants oO pinlkne 3 $3,680 which means that each year the extra expense incurred by the full equipment is $3680, or, to be generous, $4000. The saving secured by such a full equipment, com- pared with the ordinary equipment that exists in many pattern shops to-day, was put at 25 per cent. at least on the cost of patterns. Assume that the cost of pat- terns consists of only the time of the patternmaker. Then the saving would consist of 25 per cent. of the wages of the patternmaker. Figuring the pay of pat- ternmakers at but $16 per week would mean $33,280 annually for 40 men, the number for which this shop is designed. Twenty-five per cent. of this payroll means a gross saving of $8320 a year. Deduct from this $4000, which is the greatest possible annual ex- pense incurred by such equipment, as above shown, and there is a net saving of $4320 every year. The speaker also called attention to the various small tools and conveniences which could be used, in- cluding vises, racks for various supplies and all small stock which should be kept on hand. By having a regular place for this material much timé can be saved in any shop. +e The United States Senate has passed the Elkins resolution, reported from the Committee on Finance, authorizing an investigation by a special committee of seven Senators of the causes of the increase of prices. February 17, 1910 The Pattern Shop of To-Day.* BY JOSEPH LEON GOBEILLE, NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y. This is a transition period in pattern making, as it is in the foundry business. The most curious thing about us humans is our indifference and unalertness to change. The telephone came and altered all ac- cepted precedent; nobody noticed it. The automobile crop is right now of more value in dollars than that of cotton or gold. The flying machine will be common when next we meet. So with the venerated and ven- erable pattern shop. The molding machine is coming, mighty fast, too, and the old folly of setting a me- chanic in wood to make a rigid model of some intricate casting which will be, not fabricated at all but, poured in liquid; this foolishness is about to depart along with “How to temper copper” and “Who was Cain’s wife?” The pattern shop of our boyhood had its traditions, but it has come to pass that the man most learned and expert in these days is really the least important thing in the pattern shop of to-day. Even now I see in the trade journals articles on obsolete subjects written and printed with a degree of seriousness that would make the fortune of a professional funny paper. “ Gearing; How to Develop the Epycycloidol (or is it the Invo- lute) Form of Tooth.” Why, there is almost no gear- ing used in this country—everything goes by belts, ropes, friction or is “direct connected.” Gearings of precision are cut any way, and a lot are not metal at all, only rawhide. So the pattern shop need not keep an expert gearmaker. Cast tooth gears from patterns are no longer called for, and if they were wanted we have a fine gear cutter more accurate than any mere man doing nothing most of the time. Patterns Made of Concrete, After fooling away a lot of time, I decided to add a separate department and make some patterns out of concrete. In an Italian imagemaker’s shop on Chest- nut street, Philadelphia, I found my man. He was “a artist,” and was very much surprised and grieved when I started him on a housing to weight about’16,000 Ib., instead of on a group of figures, Cupids, Psyches, &c., but my man was just a little different from the com- mon or garden variety of pattern maker. He did not know it all, and he was a fine, honest worker. He fur- nished his own reinforcing; I learned since that in an old steel mattress which he picked up on the dump and hauled to the shop himself and a few feet of barbed wire appropriated from a chicken fence in the suburbs, he had procured the best kind of reinforcing and both- ered nobody. Now for the part that will interest you: A housing priced at a wage cost of $432 my Florentine friend got out for $71.60, and we made a good casting from it. I was paying him $9 a week, so, much to his surprise, I raised him to $2 a day, and he is now not afraid to tackle a water jacketed automobile cylinder or a cast- together tandem compound, core boxes and all. To get his water course and steam port section superficies he pours the core box with plaster, saws 1 in. sections from the cast and weighs these sections against 1 in. cubes of the same plaster used as weights on a common candy balance. It is obvious that the number of cubes necessary to balanace any slice represents the number of square inches of superficial area in that part, no matter how crooked or intricate the outline may be. So we built a dog house to our pattern shop and put into it this man with two helpers, who will themselves be experts in a year or two, on $6 and $7 per week, re- spectively. Short Cuts in-Pattern Making. Now when so many molding machines are in use, it is desirable to short circuit working, not from the blue * Read before the Pittsburgh Foundrymen’s Association, Feb- ruary 7, 1910. THE IRON AGE 379 print to the pattern, but directly to the plate itself. Instead of all the expensive iron and brass patterns, with two shrinks to allow and the thousand chances for inaccuracy, we must arrive by carving or modeling the piece wanted in one shrink and working directly on to the plate. This in practice necessitates another dog house for a first-class white metal molder. It should adjoin the concrete man’s room. I may confide in you to this extent: my plaster man was from Sunny Italy; my molder from the land of cakes. What a Scot will say out loud about a Dago and what a Florentine thinks about a Glasgow man are not suitable to put into words before this respectable company. What to do? Well, I didn’t know. Finally I worked most of my plates with a Hungarian greenhorn in charge. He molded lovely plates, but was slow, and of course it was “unfair” to the molders’ union. Right here I might say that the greatest advantage of the public pattern shop is its nonconnection with a union molding shop. It is really surprising how easy it is to save, say, $100 wages cost out of your ordinary well run job. If I had for my profit what I could save by cutting under your costs I would finish the “Carnegie Technical” myselfi—by easy stages! The Jolt Rammer.; One wonderful thing about present-day pattern shop practice is due to the rise of the jolt rammer. It is possible to handle boards 36 in. x 48 in. in at least one of the new machines and make anything at all, large or small. After two years’ pretty close connection with the jarring type I am convinced of its entire prac- ticability for small and light work and for stove plate, as well as for heavy castings. The man in charge must know how to run it, just as in everything else— the automobile, for example. The trouble with the jolt machine is that it needs common sense to get results, and common sense is scarce. Think a moment; that bump-bump-bump, 19 times, bumps something else beside the sand—flasks, bars, patterns. All catch it, and must be made with a degree of strength and accu- racy not demanded elsewhere. Make your flasks of solid iron—no joints at corners. Make them abso- lutely interchangeable—tool steel pins ground to one- thousandth of an inch and fitting a one-thousandth of an inch tapered reamed hole—so accurately made that any cope will fit any drag. Don’t get it into your cosmos that the man running the machine needs any special mental endowment. I tried a mechanical engineer, graduate of a good tech- nical school; no go. He couldn’t even shake out cores in the old jolt rammer. So I hired a Russian who com- bined the trade of buttonhole maker with a physique which stamped him a veritable Vulcan. He was a greenhorn and spoke no language but Russian except a few Hebrew swear words. All the conversation I ever had with him was this bump-bump-bump-bump- bump-bump-bump! He understood, and could even in- crease the number of jolts if his air was down 20 or 30 lb. without any profanity on my part. That was one qualification. The second was, he was so big and strong, so bearded and so fierce looking the molders were afraid to rough house his machine or him. Once when he lost a mold, because some molder had buried a sponge in his sand, he wrecked three of the foundry windows and broke two shovels.with his hands. That was enough; Strosky never was called upon to jar ram any more sponges. I pacified him, but dreamed of but- tonholes and wrecked foundries at intervals for weeks afterward. The Jolt Rammer and Concrete Work Beduce Costs. Another advantage of the jolt rammer in combina- tion with the concrete man might be illustrated in this way: We wanted a shell-like casting for a gear case. We modeled this in clay and took an impression in plaster of the male side, which was to be our drag. We then made a reverse by processing, and poured a 380 female from which we made our cope. These were poured in hardened concrete in an iron flask, allowed to dry, rammed up separately, put together and poured from hand ladles. We never had a pattern, but got a fine, perfect casting—size about 18 in. x 30 in. x 13 in. deep, 22 indentations, bosses and oil courses, irregular in shape, % in. thick, weight 228 Ib., cost of pattern maker’s time, $9.20, and all from blue print one-quarter size. ; Another photograph from life: A certain 60-in. pipe bend, T-valve and end connection cost $628 and was destroyed by fire. The insurance companies settled. We replaced the patterns (from castings) in concrete for $52. The adjuster came round and saw the finished job. Here is what he said: “Does this stonework cost much more than cherry?” “No.” much again, does it?” “No.” “ Well, it’s worth it; makes a harder pattern and can’t burn,” said the ad- juster. But in that one item the poor unfortunate foundryman who had the fire sold out to the insurance company so as to take a clear profit of $576 in an in- vestment of $52. If your flasks are right you can get 100 castings from an ordinary concrete pattern and then make a new one for less than you could patch up, varnish and store a wood pattern. Believe me, the reinforced con- crete pattern is a wonder. I have no monopoly of it. Buy a barrel of cement, collect an Italian and try it out for yourself. The way to keep things even or to change work on the big jolt rammer is almost too simple for words, only it seems that nobody gets on to it. Make a stand- ard plate for all small work, 12 in. x 16 in. That will be nine for each big board, 36 in. x 48 in. These multiples are interchangeable and bolted in place, so when one casting runs ahead take its multiple and re- place with something else, or if it runs short, make an extra plate, substitute for something not pressing and double the output. Very simple, and this is now being worked in practice. An Expanding Alloy Needed. One word about alloys. There is now on sale in this town a metal that is practically nonshrinkable; but what the new era pattern shop wants awfully bad is a white alloy that will take solder and expand in cooling & in. instead of contracting that fraction. Think what that would do for you. A casting from a broken cast- ing would make an absolutely accurate working pattern. I have made in vain a hundred mixtures seeking this philosopher’s stone. When it is discovered the stove founder will go into deep mourning, for patterns for repairs that will fit any given stove could be made from the casting itself or a new pattern stove dupli- cated in its entirety exactly right in size. Water ex- pands thus in cooling: A cubic foot of water makes a nice plus in volume when it cools to ice. What else does? Especially what other material which combines with copper and aluminum? Three Important Suggestions. Finally, if you do not believe in radical changes I can suggest three things which will cut down’ your pattern expenses very materially: 1. Rearrangement of your tools. To-day in most pattern shops the tools are put in helter-skelter. A skilled workman will, put in more time walking and carrying his lumber than in the actual operations in- volved. Change the disposition of your tools so that the natural operations may be sequential. Nearest the lumber racks place the cut-off saw; then the big jointer, the surfacer or pony planer; next your combination crosscut and rip saw, band saw, jig saw, segment cutter and your big trimmer in the order named and have one of the new toy jointers conveniently near the bench of every man. They are twice as helpful as any trimmer. 2. The second source of saving is in having a good foreman. A bright, ambitious young man just out of his time who has taken a course in mechanical draw- THE IRON “Not half as°> AGE February 17, 1910 ing makes a splendid man for foreman. Do not select one who knows too much about pattern making or de- pend on him for carrying out intricate valves or cored work. He can hire men for 40 cents per hour who know all about such details. A young man right out of a good technical school makes a splendid foreman, and one who will get out work and keep accurate cost account of it. 3. My third suggestion is a careful division of labor. If you run more than 25 men you will be able to save more than 25 per cent. right at the start. Get a good turner and allow him to do nothing else. Get a good man on beds and housings, give him a gang of five men to help him and keep him at that and similar work all the time. The same with cylinders, small valves, parts, fittings, &. Each man at what he can do best with cheap help will cut your average wage rate I5 cents per hour. Many of your men run big shops, in them nothing but the group or gang system—mill gang, dimension gang, assembling gang, finishing gang, var- nishing gang. BR A Re Cylinder Lubrication, Diversity of Results in Practice. At the monthly meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, held January 11, I910, when Prof. Charles F. Mabery gave the paper on “ Lubrica- tion and Lubricants,” printed in The Iron Age January 20 and 27, 1910, an interesting discussion was con- tributed by Fred R. Low, editor of Power and The Engineer. Through the columns of that publication users of cylinder oils had been invited to submit data with regard to their practice and the replies from 81 are digested in the accompanying table. There is much food for thought in a careful study of this table. Its value lies in such a study and from the informa- tion there given the reader can best draw his own con- clusions and lessons, better probably than if an ex- tended review were to be given. Some few facts may be mentioned in explanation, however. Remarkable differences are to be noticed in the cost per thousand estimated horsepower per hour, which will be seen to range from 0.47 cents as a minimum to 30 cents as a maximum, and in the amount of oil used per 1,000,000 sq. ft. of surface rubbed over per hour, ranging from 0.07 pint to 5.94 pints. While considerable variation in these values may be expected due to differences in the types of apparatus used, the speed of operation, the quality and pressure of the steam, the quality of the lubricant and the manner of its application, neither one nor all of these should account for quite such excesses as are to be noticed in several cases; in these there would seem to be an element of carelessness or ignorance, or both, on the part of those responsible. Those who find the results in their own plants ap- proximating the minimum ones given in the table may safely conclude that they are obtaining good economy in their use of cylinder oil. On the other hand, those who find that they are equaling or exceeding the larger values would do well to search out the trouble and remove it. Wet steam will aggravate the waste of oil, for the nonaffinity of water and oil would make it difficult to effectively lubricate a surface on which there is a considerable deposition of moisture. The remedy is to be found in efficient separators, or, bet- ter yet, for economy’s sake, attention to the boilers that there may be less water carried over, and effective insulation of the steam pipes. It may be that a differ- ent way of introducing the oil would effect an econ- omy. Some prefer to atomize the oil into the steam and let the latter be the means of carrying the lubricant directly into the cylinders. Others let it flow down the interior of the steam pipe to be washed along by the steam, and still others use force pumps to inject February 17, 1910 the oil directly to the parts requiring lubrication, and so on. The choice of these must depend largely upon the conditions surrounding any particular case, but whatever the method in use, if the results are bad and no other reason can be found, a change to some other method would apparently be in order. The condition of the cylinder’s interior surface, if THE IRON AGE 381 according to the Engineering Record. Recent experi- ence has tended to show that such cars are particu- larly adapted for branch lines, which are not in a con- dition for immediate electrification, and are now being operated by steam at a loss. This is also true of elec- trically operated lines where the conditions are some- what adverse. 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These and any of the countless others that could be enumerated well deserve investigation in the ma- jority of plants when a typical census of the results of cylinder oil use, as given in this table, shows such a great disparity even between approximately equiva- lent conditions of use. —_-e—___ Gasoline Railroad Cars.—In railroad operation the field for this type of car is increasing in importance equipment is especially suitable, and it may also be used advantageously as a substitute for electric cars when the traffic is very light, thus permitting the power house and substations to shut down. The Allegheny County Light Company, Pitts- burgh, has closed a contract with the Carnegie Steel Company to furnish electric power for the shears, cranes and punching machinery for its new warehouse now under erection at Twelfth and Pike streets, in that city. 382 THE IRON AGE February 17, 1910 THE IRON ORES OF NEW YORK STATE." A General Survey of the Various Districts and the Character of the Deposits—Magnetite of the Lake Champlain District. . BY S. It would seem to me, after an experience of nearly 20 years in mining and using the ores of New York State, that the resources of the State in iron ore are little understood or appreciated. While these have been mined for a great many years and some enterprises in the iron industry originated in New York State, the discovery of large masses of ore in the Lake Superior region called the attention of the great iron masters away from the eastern iron ore deposits to the western. In conjunction with lake ores the location of large quantities of high grade metal- lurgical fuel in the vicinity of Pittsburgh has built up an iron and steel industry in that vicinity which is ores simply the wonder of the world. But at present we read a great deal in the papers in regard to the con- servation of the natural resources of this country. Therefore our attention is called to the resources of this old and settled district in the East, as bearing on its ability in the future to supply the people living in tributary districts with iron and steel in its various forms sufficient for the needs of modern civilization. Southern New York Ores, The iron ores of New York State are distributed from the southern part of the State, across the eastern end almost up to the Canadian boundary line. There is also a general extension through the central part of the State as far as the Genesee River. We begin de- scriptively with the deposits of ore on Staten Island, which, while small, at one time produced quite a ton- nage of ore in comparison with the needs of the coun- try. We find there a brown hematite ore which is simply a surface deposit formed in some manner on an underlying serpentine rock. This is very similar in * Synopsis of an address before the Society of Engineers of Fastern New York at Troy, N. Y., February 9, 1910. Mr. Nor- ton is general manager of Witherbee, Sherman & Co., Inc., Mine- ville, N. c NORTON. appearance and formation to the large deposits of ore which are now being worked on the northern coast of Cuba. I mention this deposit more as a geological curiosity than for its commercial value. As we come north in Orange County where it borders on the iron ore regions of New Jersey, we find a large area of the old gneissoid rocks which are ore bearing and carry more or less deposits of mag- netite. These gneiss rocks extend across the New Jersey border through Orange County, and then across the Hudson River at Fort Montgomery and Peekskill and so on through Putnam County. These deposits have been worked for many years in various places. Outcrop of No. 21 Magnetite Mine at Mineville, N. Y. The Sterling mine at Lakeville in Orange County, and in the same county back of Fort Montgomery the Forest of Dean mine, 5 miles from the Hudson River, are two very old and well-known deposits of mag- netite which have been worked for years. Brown Hematites East of the Hudson River. Crossing the Hudson River and back of Peekskill there are large deposits of iron ore bearing rocks which are peculiair to their location. The iron in these rocks is in two forms: magnetite and an alumi- nate of iron. Some years ago I experimented with this ore by magnetically separating the magnetite from the aluminate of iron. I sent the aluminate tailings to Ladoux & Co., who analyzed and classified the tail- ings from this material as equal in hardness and qual- ity to the best Turkish emery. I do not know that anything has ever been done in regard to this matter and only speak of it as one of the most interesting probabilities in regard to the locality. Farther east on this same range there have been worked the Ma- hopac mines and the Tilly Foster, and there are said to be large deposits of lean ore in the vicinity of Brewster. It is of particular interest in regard to this February 17, 1910 THE Fig. 2. region that the ores, so far as they have been worked west of the Hudson River, are comparatively high in phosphorus, while those that have been worked east of the Hudson River are low in phosphorus and have been used in the manufacture of Bessemer steel. This range covers quite a large area, but has never been exhaustively examined “as regards its ability to produce ore with modern machinery and under modern conditions. Undoubtedly some time in the future, if the price of iron ore will warrant, there will be more or less ore from this range. North of Putnam County in the counties of Dutchess and Columbia, scattered through the Harlem Valley and also on ,the west slope of the Winchell Mountains for a number of miles, there are large, well known and well defined deposits IRON AGE Loading Car at Mineville, N. Y., Magnetite Mines. of brown hematite ore which have been worked more or less for a great many years. This ore is a hydrated sesquioxide of iron, and is deposited as a rule between the slates and the limestone. As at a great many points carbonate of iron has been found mixed with the ore, it is suppose that the latter has been formed by some process of precipitation. These deposits are well defined and there is no doubt in regard to the geographical extent. There is also no doubt in regard to the quality of the iron which has been made from the brown hematite. In fact, the very strongest car wheel iron, which to-day stands higher than any other in the market of the world, is what is known as Salisbury car wheel iron. In past years the drawback to this district has reasonable to Fig. 3.—Power Dril! at Work in Magnetite. 384 THE IRON AGE been its undeveloped transportation facilities, as it was impossible to reach consuming interests at any reasonable freight rate. The physical appearance of this deposit also precludes the possibility of what might be called cheap mining. Very few if any of these deposits are of such an extent as to be worked to any great depth as open cut propositions. The ore is deposited in masses of ocher clay and it is necessat’y February 17, 1910 quite an important matter in the iron industry of the State. There would be no trouble in producing from 600,000 to 800,000 tons of ore per year, and this ore mixed with the magnetites of the State in the orfli- nary coke blast furnace will make a pig iron which, for the manufacture of ordinary run of castings and especially for stove plate and similar castings, has no superior in the world. And it is certainly not unrea- Fig. 4. Electric Hoist at Harmony Mines, Mineville, N. Y., Driven by 300-Hp. Motor. Fig. 5.—Curtiss Turbines at Port Henry, N. Y., Power Plant of Witherbee, Sherman & Co., Developing 2300 Kw. to wash all of the material so as to free it from its impurities. The great body of this