The Iron Age 1914-04-09: Vol 93 Iss 15

Established 1855 A Plant Devoted to Making German Si IRON New York, April 9, 1914 lver The Rapidly Widening Field Signalized by a Rolling Mill Built at Stamford, Conn., Exclusively for Copper-Nickel-Zine Alloys lwo facts of industrial interest were recently learned of in a visit to Stamford, Conn. One is that the consumption of German silver has been gradually expanding at a rate not generally appre- hended and that its field of usefulness has widened greatly and promises to grow rapidly to still larger proportions. The other is that a plant has been erected in outlying Stamford for the exclusive man- ufacture of German silver in sheet and wire form, whereas the production of the copper-nickel-zinc al- loys has been, usually, if not always, an adjunct of the brass rolling mill. German silver has of course in sheet form gone almost wholly into tableware, constituting the base on which the silver plating is applied, while as a wire its largest use has been for electric resistance and electric heating apparatus. It has also in later years displaced britannia metal for hollow plated ware. While the tableware and electric industries absorb by considerable most of the production, in- creasing quantities are going into low-price jewelry and into keys, pocket-knife handles, etc.; and now that brass trimmings have lost in popularity with the automobile, German silver is finding a large The Casting Shop Showing the Row of market in lamps, hub caps to automobile wheels and automobile radia It takes an enumeration of some of the prod ucts made of German silver to convey an impression of the large part it now plays in the metal industry. It is used for show-case trimmings; mesh bags; typewriter key-rims; metal badges; the called tracker bar of the player-piano carrying perforations over which the record passes; the purtenances of the French cooking range; baggage checks; mountings smoking pipes; cane and umbrella trimmings; soda fountain and bar equip ments, where polished sheets find much vogue; Pull man car lavatories; toilet ware such as the brush, mirror and manicure appliances; watch cases and works, especially the low-price watches which are polished and not plated; so-called vanity and cigar- ette cases, clips and bows for the optical trade; pitch pipes used instead of tuning forks, and sad dlery hardware, although the last is not a big use. In the works at Stamford, which are really at Springdale, a suburb of the city, there are two main departments, one containing the melting furnaces and designated as the casting shop, as the molten especially in the construction of tors. ladies’ si the ap for ~ Melting Furnaces 895 896 alloys are cast into billets or bars, and the other, the rolling mill, where the bars are cold rolled and thus reduced by steps to the thickness wanted. The proportions of the ingredients of the alloys are of course varied in the casting shop according to the use to which the product may be put; either certain physical properties are of the greatest importance or the color, such as a golden hue or a silver white- ness, may be the essential. The alloys do not gen- erally admit of much, if any, heating, owing to un- desirable crystallization which may take place. Hence in the rolling mill cold rolling is resorted to and this can usually not safely be carried beyond reducing the thickness by over 0.10 in. in one pass. So between every allowable cold rolling reduction the material is annealed, and for the last series or finishing passes through the finishing rolls, the an- nealed material is pickled after each annealing op- eration to remove scale. German silver in the gen- The German Silver Rolling Mills; Breaking Down Rolls THE IRON AGE April the purchaser. The works occupy a tra 6 acres alongside the New Canaan branch of low York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. for extensive enlargement whenever neces having sand and gravel and considerable { the property, all useful for building con The site was chosen also with an eye to { kets for German silver. The plant is « chiefly in two large buildings. The rollin; 75 x 150 ft. with an extension 30 ft. wide o) the building for a length of 70 ft. The e accommodates the annealing furnace and is to continue this portion of the building |: the pickling department, so that then ther« an area under the one roof devoted to the mill 105 x 150 ft. The casting shop lies clos rolling mill and is 36 x 68 ft. in plan. Both buila- ings are of timber mill construction with wall above the foundations to the line of th: at Left, Finishing Rolls at Right; Annealing Furnace at Right Back- ground eral run of commercial operations is classified and its price varies according to the percentage of nickel. At the Stamford plant, the ordinary grades run at 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 25 and 30 per cent. nickel, but the most popular seems to be the 18 per cent. German silver, which has a maximum whiteness. If the material is to undergo a spinning operation, other things being equal, the copper is increased and the zinc decreased. When the ma- terial is for keys it is usual to add a little lead to the mixture, as this favors the subsequent milling of the key blanks. The common thickness of the metal supplied for keys is 0.093 in. but it is 0.065 in. for the thin keys made for example for safety- deposit boxes. The material going into pipe mounts is no thicker than 0.005 in. and of the 18 per cent. product. The accompanying illustrations will give some idea of the works, which were built for the Stam- ford German Silver Company. At the time of the visit the equipment for making wire had not yet been installed and the output was in sheets, chiefly in long strips coiled for shipment and suited for feeding to the stamping or pressing machinery of dow sills and they are conspicuous for the large amount of window area. There are 20 melting furnaces in the casting shop arranged along one of the walls, as here shown. They are of the square shape, 16 in. square, taking a No. 60 crucible. The furnaces are anthracite coal burning and natural draft is employed, for which purpose a Majestic reinforced concrete chimney im- mediately outside rises 125 ft. to an ornamented top 414 ft. in inside diameter. Immediately in front of the furnaces and over the pit the floor takes the form of a grating of parallel strips of chestnut, giving the men a footing on which they are not likely to slip and one that is not hot as a metal floor- ing would be. No trouble from burning from hot coals has been experienced, as the presence of a hot coal soon manifests itself. The crucibles hold about 160 lb. of metal and the metal is cast in split 1! molds. The molds are poured in an inclined pos! tion and bars 60 to 150 Ib. in weight are cast, de- pending in part on the widths to which the meta is to be rolled. A considerable amount of scrap !5 of course available for remelting. It appears ‘2: about 40 per cent. of the product returns for re ire, made up partly of metal in which ave developed and rejections have been ‘he works for one reason or another and the unavoidable waste from the stamping of the consumers, although it is surpris- osely cuttings are made in some factories. nary mixtures, the temperature of melting 2300 deg. F. The general flooring of the house is brick. bars are broken down cold as stated and for stand of 18-in. rolls, built by the Birmingham ly indry, Derby, Conn., to the Stamford Com- designs, is installed. A second pair of rolls, shing, is in line with the roughing pair, and a V s given of these rolls. They are located at the end of the rolling mill building nearer the cast- ing shop and lie along the longitudinal center line of the building. The rolls have a 36-in. width of face and ordinarily are worked for not over 30-in. width of material. The breaking-down or rough- ing rolls run at 18 r.p.m., and the finishing at 32 r.p.m. The cast bars, which are say 1 3/16 or 1% in. thick, are broken down by stages to No. 6 gauge when they go to the finishing rolls. The breaking- down operation must not, as mentioned, be carried too far, else the structure of the metal will be in- jured, so, as stated, the metal must be annealed between the breaking-down stages. At the time of the visit bars 10 in. wide were reduced from 9/16 in. to °g in. in two passes before it was regarded necessary to resort to annealing. Similarly reduc- tion in the finishing rolls from No. 6 gauge to the required thickness has to be carried on in easy stages with intermediate annealing and then in ad- dition frequent pickling after the annealing. Be- sides this when the bars are brought to the 3<-in. thickness, they go to what are known as scratches, simple machines for removing surface defects de- veloping in the rolling. As indicated in the illus- trations, the bars are fed by hand and are piled on the delivery side on wheeled trucks at the breaking iown rolls and where the length has assumed pro- portions as at the finishing rolls, it is rolled upon a revolving cylinder ‘as the strips come from the ll. The steps in the finishing rolls are Nos. 6, 12, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 32 gauges, etc. The annealing furnace, which may be seen in the background at the right of the view of the rolls, furnished by the W. S. Rockwell Company. It equipped for burning oil, although designed to coal burning if necessary, and in connection the oil-burning system is a 10,000-ton hori- cylindrical steel tank outside the building from railroad tank cars by means of a pipe extending from the railroad siding to the tank. erally the bars are charged at one end of the e and pushed out at the other but with heavy rge loads which cannot well be handled other- winch with chain is employed for hauling ‘ie from the furnace by power. The winch is ven from the shafting in the mill, which ng, serving all the machinery in the mill, is ‘rom a 300-hp. 600-volt General Electric ocated below the main floor at the point in view where the ventilating and light open- shown. The floor around the furnace is pickling, a 26,000-Ib. monolith of granite 4 e and 18 ft. long hollowed out to give a bath deep is provided and the pickling solution firomate of soda with some sulphuric acid vater which is kept warm by means of a of steam. There are also wooden tanks smaller articles and tanks also with running lor washing the bars received from the ng tanks. ec i ’ 1914 THE IRON AGE 897 Part of the mill equipment includes three power- driven Struever scratchers, of which mention has already been made. The scraping tool, given a reciprocating motion, shaves off the faults in the surface of the bar. Where necessary sawdust is used for drying the metal and there is a table for hand drying and also a machine for sawdusting, this drawing the strip or ribbon of metal through the sawdust. This machine was built by the Tor- rington Mfg. Company. Near it is an edge-slitting machine for shearing the irregularities from the rolled sheets and two gang slitters for cutting a sheet simultaneously into a desired number and size of strips. These machines are of Waterbury- Farrel manufacture. Finally, leading to the ship- ping end of the rolling mill is a Torrington straightening roll. In connection with the plant a machine repair department is maintained with an equipment furnished by Gledhill & Co., Bridgeport, Conn., and including two lathes, one shaping and one drilling machine, besides a small forge and hand shear, which of course is also used for cutting bars in process of chopping. At the end of the mill near the casting shop, the scrap is rough baled for the melting crucibles, and a Waterbury-Farrel alligator shear is used for cutting the heavier ma terial into short lengths for melting. Waste Heat Boilers at Open - Hearth Furnaces Interesting data relative to economies developed by the installation of waste heat boilers in connection with the open-hearth furnaces at the South works of the Illinois Steel Company are detailed in the South Works Review. Previous to putting in the boilers all the steam used by the gas producers was obtained from the blooming mill boiler house through a long’small main. This re sulted in very low steam, both as to pressure and qual- ity, at the south end furnaces. The first boiler to be put in was a small Heine of 1900 sq. ft. of water heat- ing surface. A Buffalo fan driven by a vertical high- speed engine draws the stack gases from the furnace through the boiler and discharges back into the fur- nace stack. The improvement in steam conditions was very marked, the pressure then being raised from 50 to about 100 lb. However, the results of tests showed that the boiler and fan were much too small, as only a small part of the available heat was abstracted from the waste gases, so another installation was made of two Stirling boil- ers of 4000 sq. ft. of heating surface and much larger motor-driven fans. As originally installed, these boil- ers had Vento heaters in the breeching to heat the feed water but the flue dirt in the gases caused so much trouble by clogging up the spaces in the heaters that they were taken out. A motor-driven feed pump was used at first but had to be taken out as it was under capacity due to the boiler making more steam than had been counted on, also the excessive heat was bad for the motor. This pump was replaced by a duplex steam pump of double capacity. The present feed-water system carries out the idea of waste heat utilization to the utmost extent and is as follows: The warm waste cooling water from the bulkhead and port pipes of the furnages is supplied to the Dyblie gas valve hood instead of cold water. After being heated still further by the gas valve, it flows from a semi-circular trough to a small tank, the water level of which regulates the amount supplied to the Dyblie valve hood by a float valve according to the require- ments of the boilers. From the small tanks the water flows through a pipe under the floor to the feed pump, but, before entering, the exhaust steam from the feed pump is discharged into the water. These three addi- tions of heat are sufficient to raise the feed water from 35 deg. to 200 deg., equivalent to 90 boiler hp. The boilers are now making about 825 boiler hp., which is equal to 1900 tons of coal a month obtained from waste heat. 898 CRANE FOR HANDLING ASPHALT An Interesting Use of a Special Bucket Type for Unloading Ocean Steamers New uses for crane equipment are frequently being found, and to supply the needs of the broad- ening field crane manufacturers are quick to meet conditions by designing special cranes suitable for the handling work that is required. A special type of bucket handling gantry crane has recently been built by the Cleveland Crane & Engineering Com- pany, Wickliffe, Ohio, for the Barber Asphalt Pav- ing Company, and has been installed at that com- pany’s plant at Maurer, N. J. This crane is de- signed for unloading asphalt from ocean-going ves- This material is unusually hard to handle because of its sticky character, being somewhat similar to very thick tar. Generally it has been removed from the holds of boats by a derrick and drop bucket, but this method of handling required considerable hand labor and was not economical. Locomotive cranes have also been used for handling the unloading buckets, but these were found to be unsatisfactory for this class of work. The special gantry type of crane that has been installed is doing the work so satisfactorily that it is stated that the company expects shortly to add additional cranes of the same type. The crane con- sists of a main frame and cantilever extension that can be raised, forming a handling bridge, and a man ‘trolley that operates a 1'%-cu. yd. clamshell bucket. The crane moves back and forth under its own power on a runway extending the length of the dock, approximately 300 ft. It has a span of 10 ft. from center to center of rail and the canti- lever extension is 40 ft. long. The main span and sels. A Special Type of Buc THE IRON AGE April 9 — ree cantilever provide a trolley travel of 72 distance from the runway rails to the troll 32 ft. and the total hight of the crane is 46 wheel base is 2415 ft., each leg being mo two 24-in. wheels. As the dock extends out water, berthing space is provided on both the crane is so designed that a duplicate « extension can be attached on the rear en machine, thus permitting the unloading from both sides of the dock. The cran three standard-gauge railroad tracks. As; dumped from the bucket into sheet meta! :, three of which having a capacity of about | n each are placed on a flat car. When the ta: ire loaded the cars are hauled to the plant and the tanks are unloaded by being raised and d with an overhead traveling crane. While the bucket has a capacity of 5 tons, t] crane is built for a 10-ton pull with the tro! the end of the cantilever, the additional power be- ing provided because of the elastic pull required to detach a bucketful of the sticky material from the boat’s cargo. The crane is designed for complete contro! by the operator in the cab of the man trolley, in which the operating switches and levers are located. However, the owners have had the machine ar- ranged so that the cantilever is raised and lowered from the loft above the girders in which the motor and drum for operating the boom are located. No friction clutches are used in the operating mechan- ism. The man trolley has two drums, one for the hoisting rope and the other for the closing rope, each drum being operated by an individual motor. Each drum is supplied with a heavy magnetic brake and dynamic brake control so that no clutches or mechanical control are required. Similar dynamic brake control is used in connection with the mech- ned ; e ) Se Lt ch eit ee hana —,. . . a et ye ’ . Ps 7 ket Handling Gantry Crane Used for Unloading Asphalt from Vessels ng and lowering the cantilever, this .nd lowered with cables. Two pairs the boom hoisting drum with the raising of the cantilever is required is moved from a position over one nother. The crane is equipped with locking device to hold the boom in a on when the machine is traveling runway. Angle-iron conductors fastened girders are provided to carry the elec- nt from the runway conductors to the ‘'s cab and from the cab to the bridge and motors. The time required for the make a complete trip is 3 min., two-thirds ne being required for closing the bucket. notor equipment includes a 10-hp. motor | along the runway, two 30-hp. motors, one ng the bucket and both for hoisting, one tor for racking the trolley and one 5-hp. raising the cantilever. All the motors » mill type, designed for hard service and direct current at 220 volts. rane is of very heavy construction, having sufficient for a 20-ton machine. The legs the box section type, made of two channels » plates bolted together. The girders are of x type of plate and angle construction. They raced with knee braces of the latticed angle us safety appliances have been provided P e protection of employees. All the gears are d with sheet metal guards and cases. The ‘ucks have a safety clamping device of the ype to prevent the bridge moving except noved by the operator. All wires are in- metal conduits. Foot walks, hand rails ers are provided as an additional means of nd to make all parts accessible. As a pro- the machine there is an overload safety which prevents injury should the bucket ight on the edge of the hatchway. yria Iron & Steel Company, Elyria, Ohio, sed a plant and several acres of ground at ntario, in which it will manufacture steel the Canadian trade. It is the plan to finished products from Elyria to the Cana- for finishing as soon as the latter is fitted purposes for which it is to be used. 14 THE IRON AGE 899 A 40-ft. Boring and Turning Mill Because of a rush of orders for metal mixers during the year 1913 the Pennsylvania Engineering Works, New Castle, Pa., decided to build and has put in operation at its plant a large boring mill for turning the rockers on these mixers. This mill, while comparatively simple in construction, can turn 4 40-Ft. Boring and Turning Mill Turning a Rocker Band, 30 Ft. in Diameter, for a Metal Mixer accurately to 40 ft. in diameter. The table itself is 30 ft. in diameter. The driving rack has a pitch diameter of about 25 ft., permitting five heavy cuts to be taken at one time on steel castings. The whole machine is centered and steadied by a large pintle at the center, on which, for the turn ing operations, the automatic feed is mounted. This mill is designed particularly to turn or bore from 24 to 40 ft., other mills in its shops being capable of taking care of work of smaller size. The illus tration shows the mill turning a rocker band 30 ft. in diameter for the Pittsburgh Steel Company’s 600-ton metal mixer. Each one of the two rocker castings weighed 59,500 lb., and the face of the rocker was 30 in. wide. These rockers are eccentric, being turned to an outside diameter of 30 ft. and bored to 30 ft., inside diameter. The boring opera tion was accomplished by supporting the rockers on parallels outside of the mill and attaching the cut ting tools to the mill table. Hot Sea Water and Wrought-Iron Pipe The engineer of the Columbia Baths at Atlantic City, N. J., recently gave some information on the ex perience at those baths with wrought-iron pipe for cor ducting sea water, both hot and cold. A suction line to draw water from the ocean was installed 14 years ago. Byers wrought-iron pipe was used for the line, and in all that time gave no trouble whatever. Last summer the baths were greatly enlarged and it was necessary to replace the suction line with pipe of a much larger diameter. The original lengths of pipe were found to be in prime condition, having lost very little from corrosion, despite the fact that they were exposed to both inside and outside action. This pipe was so good that it was laid again in another part of the work for another purpose. The heating system, of Byers 2-in. pipe, galvanized, was also laid 14 year ago, and when the alterations to the plant last sum mer caused it to be taken up it was found to be in almost perfect condition, and was replaced with no repairs 900 THE WORCESTER CONVENTIONS The Programmes of the National Metal Trades and Machine Tool Builders’ Associations The programmes of the conventions of the Na- tional Metal Trades Association and the National Machine Tool Builders’ Association, to be held at the Hotel Bancroft, Worcester, Mass., the week begin- ning Monday, April 20, are practically completed, and promise a series of interesting occasions, alter- nating between the business and the social sides. The National Metal Trades Association will open activities with a meeting of the executive committee of the Administrative Council at 9 o’clock Monday morning, and at 11 o’clock the secretaries of the 15 branches will leave for an automobile trip to see the great dam of the Wachusett reservoir at Clinton and to lunch at Sterling Inn. The Administrative Council will meet in the afternoon and the alumni dinner will be in the evening. At 6.30 o’clock a re- ception and lunch will be given the members at the Worcester Trades School, following visits to im- portant manufacturing plants of the city. The presidents and secretaries of the branches will meet with the Administrative Council Tuesday morning, and the first association gathering will fol- low a buffet luncheon. After addresses by President W. A. Layman and Mayor George M. Wright of Worcester, the reports of President Layman, Treas- urer F. C. Cadwell, Commissioner John D. Hibbard and Secretary H. D. Sayre will be made, together with the report of Fred A. Geier, chairman of the Committee on Industrial Training, which will be followed by a general discussion, and the report of J. H. Schwacke, chairman of the Publicity Commit- tee. The Worcester Branch will give a reception and dinner dance in the evening. The Wednesday morning session will open with the report of the Committee on Prevention of Indus- trial Accidents, of which W. H. Van Dervoort is chairman, and a discussion will follow led by William H. Doolittle, safety inspector for the National Metal Trades Association, and M. W. Alexander of the General Electric Company, chairman of the Com- mittee on Safety and Sanitation of the National Founders Association. A discussion on the subject of efficiency will be led by George D. Babcock, H. H. Franklin Mfg. Company, Syracuse, N. Y. Prof. Dexter Kimball, Cornell University, will present a paper on “Production in Its Relation to Efficiency.” A paper on “Legislation” by Walter Gordon Mer- rit, representing the Anti-Boycott Association, will open the afternoon session and will be followed by a discussion of the question led by B. B. Tuttle, Cin- cinnati, Ohio. The election of officers will follow. During the convention Albertus H. Baldwin, chief of the national Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- merce, will explain the work of his bureau. The annual dinner will be held in the evening. Among the speakers will be Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin, University of Chicago, and W. H. P. Faunce, president of Brown University. THE MACHINE TOOL BUILDERS The National Machine Tool Builders’ Associa- tion, many members of which will have been in at- tendance at the sessions of the Metal Trades Asso- ciation, will hold the opening session of its semi- annual meeting Thursday morning, which.will be given up to reports of committees and routine business and to an address on “What Features of Electric Motors Can Be Standardized for Machine Tools,” by Charles Fair, General Electric Company, and an address by J. C. Spence, superintendent of THE IRON AGE Apri! the Norton Grinding Company, Worceste; Can We Induce Ourselves and Our Me; More Money?” Thursday afternoon an morning will be devoted to meetings of mittees representing the various branch machine tool industry. Friday afternoon clude the convention. Committees will the, and R. G. Williams, safety engineer of t} Company, Worcester, will give an illust; dress on “Safety as Applied to the Use of (. Wheels.” Thursday evening the associat be entertained at dinner by the Worcester tool builders. The ladies who may visit Worcester with members of the two associations should have a , pleasant time, for elaborate preparations ha made for their entertainment. ‘How Earn DOUBLE CRANK CUTTING PRESs New Line to Suit Varying Conditions—Details of the Special Clutch Used A new line of double crank cutting and stamping presses has been recently put on the market by the Max Ams Machine Company, Mt. Vernon, N. Y. Ip designing the machines an effort was made to pro- duce presses that would suit the varied conditions oc- curring in practice, and it is emphasized that every detail as to the adaptability and proper distribution of material has been carefully worked out. The presses are made in four sizes for exerting pressures of 15, 25, 50 and 100 tons, and each size has a number of different widths between the up- rights, the narrowest space being 24 in. and the widest 120 in. The design of the frames is sym- metrical and there are openings through the sides, thus enabling long pieces to be fed through. The beds and the flanges on the slides are made in a number of different shapes, wide, narrow or round, as the requirements of each particular case may dic- tate. The distances between the bed and the slide are great, and the latter have long, adjustable guides. pitmans. Parallel adjustment is provided for the One of a New Line of Double Crank Cutting and Stamping Presses. 1914 THE IR . lutch is of a new positive design which npany plans to apply to nearly all of its It is a departure from the patented now in general use and possesses a num- novel features. The operation is accom- hed in the customary way. The wedge m, which ted with a hand lever or treadle, is pulled d causes the spring / to move the hardened r locking pin b, which has two or more prongs ind is located in the center of the shaft, into the | hardened plate c. This operation connects wheel f to the shaft a. The hardened plate c opening in the center with two or more and is fastened to the flywheel by two or its e. The flywheel f runs continuously the shaft a, being held in place by the nut /. the shaft has made a revolution the wedge m ipon the pin lever k, withdrawing the locking » and disconnecting the flywheel from the shaft. s pointed out that the clutch possesses the ctive features of durability, simplicity and easy ess. The flywheel is gripped centrally on two or ore points, an arrangement which is relied upon to d irregular wear of the bearings. The striking aces, Which are large and on the outer end of shaft, are located as near as possible to the cen- { the shaft, which tends to reduce the velocity minimum and avoid a hard blow. It is er emphasized that as all the striking surfaces vays in full view, it is possible to examine t a glance, and the parts subject to wear can ved quickly and easily, without interfering ne flywheel or other parts. If it is desired at ne to remove the locking pin ¢ this can be pressing it against the spring /, so that the r k can be pushed out sideways and the lock- thus left free. When one side of the steel which ha& the striking surfaces, becomes t can be removed and reversed by taking out ts e. With a view to avoiding clicking, the is cushioned and to prevent the press from ‘ a second stroke unless the wedge is pulled cown it is furnished with a shoulder. This igement does away with the necessity of hav- tight brake. A separate bracket is used for ting the wedge and the springs used are of the table compression type. The flywheel is ON AGE 901 f the Clutch Us bronze bushed and can be turned backwards to fa cilitate setting of the dies and releasing punches when they are stuck. If desired a positive stop at- tachment can be applied to compel the operator to depress the treadle for each stroke. Automatic Self-Adjusting Wrench An automatic and self-adjusting wrench, the ratchet principle of which is apparent from the ac- companying illustration, is being manufactured by the Cochran Pipe Wrench Mfg. Company, 7800 Woodlawn avenue, Chicago. The manner in which one end of the wrench handle is formed as a pinion, —_-——————__—__—_- and Self Adjusting Drop Forged Wrench Al Automat the handle being pivoted and acting as a lever and the pinion driving a rack which is integral with the adjustable jaws, is such that the act of pulling the handle tightens the wrench on the nut and when tight turns the nut. Pulling the handle in the op- posite direction releases the wrench. To unloosen the nut the wrench only requires to be turned over and applied in similar manner. The wrench is simple in construction, consisting of but three pieces, and is made from drop forgings of ample strength. It can be furnished with an ad- justment adaptable to sizes from. to % in. The manufacture of wrought pipe is to be shown by motion pictures at a joint dinner of the Providence Association of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at Masonic Hall, Prov- idence, R. I., April 29, by Harold T. Miller, National Tube Company, Pittsburgh. td ee ew er errr gen 3 A Th roof of the Ford Se tilizing the N interesting evolution in the general design A of a building suitable for warehouse purposes, for machine shop and assembling operations, is presented in the new buildings which the Ford Motor Company is adding to its plant at Detroit and elsewhere, as compared with those previously erected. The change has been influenced by the problem of handling materials. To unload raw material and distribute it within the plant and to load finished materials from the plant into the cars, is now recognized as of paramount importance. It is conceived to be a mistake to have single story buildings with wide continuous floor areas, across which it a handicap to transport materials, whatever the means available may be for reaching the common medium of transportation between floors or between buildings. The general type of building now adopted may be built any number of stories in hight and in duplicate units. These is Ground Floor of the Ford Service Building. the floor above is shown at the left incandescents with D’Olier reflectors furnish artificial light 902 New Development Factory Buildings e Evolution Growing Out of Metho in Handling Materials and Involving Ve: Units Rather than Horizontal Expa: BY 0. J. ABELL rvice Building as a car testing floor units may be of any length, but are restricted in width, and are joined one with the other by crane- ways or shipping courts. This craneway is an open well from loading track to roof, with a crane run- way immediately under the roof girders, allowing only the necessary clearance. These craneways be- come the common arteries of transportation for all of the buildings and the connecting link between floors. The use of elevators is intended to be ob- viated except in auxiliary capacity. One of the typical units of this type of building has been erected by this company in Chicago, to serve as an assembling and service station. The idea of the shipping court is presented in an illus- tration of this Chicago plant. An essential feature of this craneway are landing platforms at each floor. While these platforms are arranged one di- rectly above the other, it will be noted that the lowest platform is the longest, the one directly The deep concrete beam and column construction supporting the loading trac} Wiring conduits are carried up in the columns—note push buttons. Single built tungst and so to the top platform, which st. Thus the upper platforms do not th the landing of material by the crane e lower platforms. rent that this arrangement of the cen- is a form and extension of that shop commonly used where a crane spans ter monitor bay, the floor space of for assembling and the heaviest ma- hile in the side bay, both on the main the galleries the lighter operations are fhe criticism of this type of building, e are only a main floor and a gallery, is building is too expensive and involves . waste of overhead space for the purpose The same criticism does not apply in the f the Some of the ietails of the de- sign of the huilding are un- usually interest- ng from the standpoint of re- nforced con- rete ‘onstruc- This six- ry structure s 164 x 232 ft. n plan. The in- losed shipping court is 35 ft. wide and 205 ft. long, with equal floor space units ! ther side. In the court at tk f line are forced con- girders rrying the crane rails. The shipping and unloading plat- form at second r level] is served by a de- pressed switch track. The court overed by a General View of the Unusual Craneway in the Ford Service Building 14 THE IRON AGE 903 of the building are carried on a continuous footing. The typical panels are 25 ft. x 28 ft. which are unusual spans for flat slab construction. The re- inforcement for the floor slabs consists of rectangu lar belts of square twisted bars extending in two directions only. The main belts of bars between columns are bent so as to be in the top of the slab over the column heads and the immediate vicinity, and in the bottom of the slab between the column capitals. The bars in the portion of the slab en closed between the main belts are placed parallel and perpendicular to them and similarly bent, thus reinforcing the upper portion of the slab over the middle portion of the main belts in a transverse direction. The bars were bent previous to placing and held rigidly in place by supporting bars and blocks, thus in- suring their proper position in the finished slab. To provide for future exten- sion the floor slabs at the south end of the building are car- ried out 4 ft. beyond the col- umn centers. They are pro- vided with a continuous steel angle shelf to carry the future slab. Short stub bars were placed through holes in the angles at 6 in. centers to tie the future slab to the pres- ent construc- tion. All stairs in the building are of reinforced concrete, de signed as slabs with the risers cast integral th therewith. monitor skylight enclosing of all floors with glass partitions has now been completed. The crane These stairs reinforced nerete con- stru tion. The first story 20 ft. high is being used ‘or show rooms and garage space, the second floor the shipping floor and the upper stories as as- mbling floors. The upper stories have a hight ft. The floors are served by two large ght elevators with platforms 9 ft. x 16 ft., in ‘ccition to the traveling crane in the shipping Che floors are of the Akme system of girder- r construction with flat slabs 11 in. thick, for a live load of 150 Ib. per square foot. An ‘labs are carried on reinforced concrete oped columns of octagonal section with olumn heads of the same shape, capped by juare plate 9 in. thick. The columns are the floor levels by lapping the bars from nn below with those above, thus to trans- ‘ress in the upper bars to the lower bars The interior columns are carried on pread foundations of reinforced concrete, exterior columns along the street sides as runway is immediately under the roof girders. The crane is equipped with special rigging for handling bodies, chassis and parts.in multiple were concreted at the same time as the floors and are provided with metal nosings. The railroad switch track enters the building at the south end at a level about 4 ft. below the second floor and extends to within one bay of the north end. The track is carried on a reinforced concrete slab 21 in. thick, hung from reinforced concrete girders below the second floor, or 28 ft. span, 7 ft. 3 in. deep. These girders are 16 in. wide and spaced 16 ft. 6 in. centers, one being car- ried on brackets on the main building columns while the other line is supported on auxiliary col- umns. The track structure being placed to one side of the court bay, a considerable clear space is left along the other side. This is used as a ship- ping and loading platform, from which materials are picked up and transferred to the various floors by the overhead traveling crane. The landing platforms project out 8 ft. 6 in. beyond the center of the court-way columns. They are of the same thickness as the main floor slabs; 904 viz., 11 in., and as cantilever slabs, are reinforced in a similar manner, without deepened supporting girders as is more commonly adopted in such con- struction. The load carrying capacity of these bal- conies was very forcibly demonstrated by the application of a test load of 55 tons of cement to one of the fourth floor balconies, 42 ft. long. Under this load of 310 lb. per square foot (over twice the designing load) or 2600 lb. per linear foot of bal- cony, a deflection of only 5/32 in. was recorded 24 hours after full load was applied. It should be noted that in making this test no load was applied on the interior slab beyond the column centers to care for the uplift caused by the load on the balconies; in other words, the test was made as severe as possible. The court is inclosed along the face of columns with steel sash and sliding steel doors glazed with wire glass at the balconies. The north end bay forms a connection between the two portions of the building separated by the craneway. This bay, 28 ft. x 35 ft., consists of a panel slab 11 in. thick inclosed by deepened slabs between columns with a thickness of 20 in. This is no doubt the largest panel ever built, em- ploying this type of construction. The traveling bridge crane, with a capacity of 5 tons, a weight of 9 tons and a span of 34 ft., is carried on reinforced con- crete girders and is of 28 ft. span, as stated, These girders are carried on and bracketed to THE IRON AGE Ap) A 70,000-gal. steel water tank carrie: tower 50 ft. above the roof is supported four of the building columns at the roof | columns being designed to carry this This storage tank supplies the sprinkler stalled throughout the building. The ma one side of the monitor is covered with a , tile and is used as a testing floor for the assem) cars. The building was built after the genera signs of John Graham, supervising architect , Ford Motor Company, while the Condron Compan Chicago, designed the reinforced concrete frame ame, The Staten Island Flexible Pipe Contract The Westinghouse Machine Company, East burgh, Pa., has received a contract for the ma: Pitts- ifactur of 9800 ft. of 36-in. flexible-joint, cast-iron pipe, to be used in extending the New York City water supply to Staten Island. The pipe will form a siphon under the Narrows in connection with the water supply brought from the Cats. kills. The siphor will extend fron Seventy - ninth street and Shore road, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to the junction of Arri- etta street and Stuyvesant place, Staten Island. The pipe will be laid in a trench in the bed of the Narrows, the dredging of which will be a difficult job, the specifications prescribing that not more than 1000 ft. of the channel may be obstructed at any time. E x periments View Showing Test of One of the Craneway Landing Platforms with a Load made by the city the tops of the of about 310 Ib. to the Foot of New York with reinforced con- 36-in. flexible - crete columns and designed as fully continuous joint pipes have proved that such joints are watertight beams. The crane rails rest on 34-in. steel plates before, during and after deflection under water pressur on 2-ft. centers anchored to the concrete and the rails are clamped down by means of American Bridge Company rail clamps, pattern No. A-24. The girders are designed to allow future extension read- ily at the south end of the building. In the new buildings at Detroit an interesting heating plant is installed. The indirect hot air sys- tem is used. The heating coils and fans are located on the roofs of the building and the air pipes are brought down through the hollow centers of the concrete columns, the discharge openings for the several floors being located at the base of the columns. In cold weather this system is used for supplying hot air and in the summer as a ventilat- ing plant for distributing cooled and moist air. In the Chicago building a hot water heating sys- tem has been adopted. One of the special features of this system is the carrying of the water to a hight of 250 ft. in the building. The expansion tank also is equipped with special devices intended to create a greater than atmospheric pressure on the system, so that the water will not boil at 212 deg. Automatic devices are provided so that the pressure in the expansion tank is adjusted as the pressure in the system increases with the super- heating of the water. up to 2000 Ib. per sq. in., and give every promise of be- ing acceptably tight joints without the necessity of su! marine calking, which has heretofore been made 4 extra item in contracts. The features of the joint ar the flexible bell turned on the interior, reinforced by 4 band of wrought iron, set, shrunk, or pressed on; 2 spigot having a tap grooved for the retention of th lead; a narrow turned collar to bear on the bell in orde! to insure uniform leaded space to carry the weight. The specifications provide that the average laying length of the pipe is to be at least 12 ft. The thickness of the metal is to be not less than 0.1 in. les standard thickness, except for spaces not exceeding > in length in any direction, and variations from the standard thickness of 0.03 in. in excess of the allow ance above given will be permitted. No diameter of 2”) pipe at any place in its length shall be greater or ‘= than the standard diameter by more than 3/16 in. The pipe is to be coated inside and outside with a bitumast' solution or bitumastic enamel. Before the first coat ® been applied, each pipe shall be subjected to a hydro- static pressure of 350 lb. per sq. in., and to a hamme test under this pressure. The angle of maximum dete tion of the joint is to be 10 deg. in 50 ft. The pipe which will aggregate about 4100 tons, including os tons of hub and spigot pipe, will be cast at the Traffore City foundry of the Westinghouse Company, while te machine work, of which there is a considerable qU*™ tity, will be done at its East Pittsburgh works. LUG CENT FOUNDRY PRACTICE R vs. Sand Blasting—Cupola Linings and Molding Sands mnthly meeting of the Newark Foundry- ciation, Newark, N. J., April 1, a paper practice was read by J. S. Hibbs, assist- | manager J. W. Paxson Company, Phila- Out of his more than 30 years’ experience ndry work, Mr. Hibbs related much of in- oundrymen. First of all, he was of the that many natural deposits in New Jersey avs, sands and gravels, were more appre- itside of the State than within it. The im- of the molding sands found in New Jer- ndicated by the location in and near the State of many large cast iron pipe plants. After dwelling at some length on sand, Mr. Hibbs took up facings, their sources, methods of preparation, ete. There had been cases; he said, where fault had been found that blacking would t mix with water; that it seemed to be oily. He attributed this to the fact that finely ground ma- terials seldom do combine readily with water, and to eliminate the difficulty he recommended the use of a mechanical mixer. The blacking should be placed in the receptacle of the mixer first and the water then poured in. MICA SCHIST FOR CUPOLA LININGS [he speaker went into the subject of cupola linings, laying special stress on the use of mica schist, which is a natural laminated silicate, not sub- ject to expansion or contraction. It was first used by Bessemer steel makers for lining converters, but later proved to have great merit for use in cupolas and lime kilns. It can be shipped as cheaply as rough stone and the only objection made to it is that it costs more to lay, but this is offset by its lasting three times as long as fire brick. It should be laid edgewise, like books on a shelf, otherwise it will spall. The interstices should be filled with the smaller pieces, some of which may be ground, to make a solid wall. Laid in this manner it offers great resistance to abrasion and eventually its sur- face becomes glazed and smooth. He did not rec- ommend the use of mica schist in cupolas under In speaking of molding, Mr. Hibbs said nat no other shop work is so little appreciated. He pointed out that the machinist is gyided to the last detail by his drawings and that other departments nad similar facilities, whereas in the foundry an nalytical mind, foresight and individual judgment are essential to uniform good results. He believed e chemist should be subject to the cupola fore- Good chemists are easy to secure, he said, in- as the colleges are turning them out in numbers. He touched on other phases of nary practice, including the location of tuyeres eaning of castings. At the conclusion of his Mr. Hibbs explained a number of lantern owing the digging, handling and transpor- and, also views of equipment in a number foundries, LING FOUND CHEAPER THAN SAND-BLASTING ‘ discussion, C. G. De Laval, general man- ry R. Worthington, Harrison, N. J., raised n of the cost of cleaning castings by sand ls experience being that rumbling cost s than the sand-blast. He said that since sand-blast machine imported from England 1914 THE IRON AGE 905 several years ago he had worn out four sand-blast outfits. He got satisfactory results in rumbling a large locomotive cylinder and was considering the use of 12-ft. barrels, some 8-ft. barrels already be- ing in operation. H. P. Macdonald, Snead & Co. Iron Works, Jer- sey City, N. J., called attention to trouble that had been encountered with one batch of Jersey sand, lumps having formed on the castings. An examina- tion disclosed small black nodules in the sand. Mr. Hibbs said that the trouble probably was due to par- ticles of iron in the sand. Answering a question by W. F. Prince, of Henry R. Worthington, Mr. Hibbs said that the so-called vegetable bond in Lumberton sand was a misnomer, as it really was an admixture of marl. Mr. Prince said he believed that sand should be bought on analysis, as iron is purchased, and then a good bonding sand would be assured. He had conducted some tests, giving various sands an equal amount of water, and in casting a block 6x6x6-in. he had found that one sand stood 30 heats, another 20 heats, while another “went to pieces” after 7 heats. Mr. Hibbs did not concur in the sand analysis proposal and remarked that he once had a customer who wanted him to guarantee the amount of moisture in sand. He believed that such a practical demonstration as Mr. Prince had conducted was a sufficient index to the qualities of sand. Mr. Hibbs pointed out that foundries in Albany, N. Y., and Lynn and Fitchburg, Mass., and the Dominion Iron & Steel Company used New Jersey sand in large quantities, although the sources of other sands were nearer at hand. Mr. De Laval was of the opinion that the prejudice of molders was responsible for some of the long-distance ship- ments, as they preferred sand with which they were familiar. Personally he believed there was but little difference. The thanks of the association were voted to Mr. Hibbs, A. E. Barlow, the secretary, pronouncing the paper to be one of the most valuable the organ- ization had heard. The meeting was then addressed by a representative of the New Jersey State Cham- ber of Commerce who appealed for the co-operation of the foundrymen in the work of that organization. At the business meeting which followed the ad- dresses, President G. Hannay, Oscar Barnett Foun- dry Company, Irvington, presiding, the following were nominated for officers and members of the ex- ecutive committee, to be voted on at the May meet- ing: President—H. P. Macdonald, Snead & Co. Iron Works Vice-president—James Flockhart, Maher & Flockhart Secretary—J. S. Kinne, Riverside Steel Casting Company Treasurer—John Campbell, Maher & Flockha