The Iron Age 1915-07-08: Vol 96 Iss 2

®@ THEIRON AGE New York, ES {ED 1855 July 8, 1915 VOL. 96: No. 2 3 Organizing Safety Committees Satisfactory Methods Followed in x the Case of One Company—Safety , Wall for Iron and Scrap Yard BY H. A. RUSSELL When we compare the machinery catalogs of to- jay with those of only a few years ago, we find the emphasis placed not only on the improvements in the mechanism and on the greater amount of output obtainable, but also on the safety features. In the older catalogs, gears were shown unguarded and nere and there a projecting set screw could be seen. To-day the gears are shown guarded, and if it is necessary to reveal the plan of the gearing, the guards are placed near the machine and included in the photograph. Projecting set screws are no longer used and in the printed text will be men- eae Skt + OT ned the various features that have been planned protect the operator and others who may come n cl i close proximity to the equipment. Safety guards are not the results of new ideas so much as they are the logical outcome of these ideas. In times past we thought they were good things and the only difference is that now we know they are. li we go into the mills and factories we find that - Satety rules are more rigidly enforced. If, as Wil happen in exceptional instances, a guard-hood over an emery wheel is swung backward or to one + 0 Are + ine side to grind oddly shaped castings, as soon as the operation is completed the hood is replaced in its proper position. Formerly it might have remained in the incorrect position indefinitely. Again we find ladders with non-slipping shoes for concrete floors or with steel points for wooden floors. We find that the workers on a first floor are protected from having castings or similar articles fall on them by a pipe railing, covered with wire netting, and placed along the edges of the galleries overhead. In many shops a large gong is placed on the overhead crane and when a load is being carried over the heads Wall of a Special Shape, Capped with Metal to Minimize Breakage of the Wall, Serves as a Safeguard to Passing Workmen Propelling Wheelbarrows of the workers, the gong sounds its warning. Dark passageways and corners are no longer allowed. Railings are placed at all doors opening on railroad tracks. Where formerly the safety methods were haphazard, they are now the results of careful plan- ning and thought. There are several ways of building up competent safety departments. One is to appoint several of the office men and one or more of the factory force to give the matter attention from time to time, but another and a better way is to include the workmen, 69 ee ag 70 THE IRON AGE July © 1915 or at least a few of them from each department. By organizing a head committee of, say three people, representing both the office and the factory and by having sub-committees in each department, consisting of either the foreman or assistant fore- man and two or more of the workmen, and by still further having a definite mode of procedure, such as a specified time to make inspections and hold meetings and provision for making out a written report giving the recommendations of the sub- committee, there will be given an impetus to safety regulations and improvements that will more than recompense the value of the time spent by those participating. A plan that has given splendid results was based on this method. Eighteen different depart- ments were included and the meetings are called for different days; as the first Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in each month. All of the inspections could be arranged for the same day, but usually there will be some one in the office or factory whom it is thought best to have at as many meetings as possible. In the event of any one of the inspection SAFETY COMMITTEE SUGGESTION Lasak SUB-COMMITTEE OF DEPT _@ SUGGESTS 4 / Bast A / Am a jf rx C f Jf ” - 4 (pct Gee ry Chan tukewge tt citms tolefee toa g com 4. Be a ae Din ei Meg tl Gata ka __ff/ ark fleas Lt - i p-- Ls 0 atasgew ie oe eilel ill tasernaileags } wert re eed 62 ge A Typical Safety Report Blank Which Suggests “That a foot board about 12 in. high be put on each side of the rail ing at rear steps,” etc days falling on a holiday, the inspection is post- poned to the following day. On the day previous to the meeting of any sub- committee, the office telephone operator notifies the chairman of the sub-committee interested as fol- lows: “Sub-committee on safety, department No. 6, will meet to-morrow at 1 p. m.” This gives him plenty of time to notify the other members of the sub-committee. Again on the morning of the meet- ing day, the operator sends out the message changing the word “to-morrow” to “to-day.” At 1 o’clock the members of the sub-committee start on a complete tour of inspection of their de- partment. Elevators and machinery are carefully inspected, also stairways and railing guards along the different galleries. Inspection of fire prevention equipment is under the charge of the factory fire department. Electrical equipment is in charge of the chief electrician. Particular attention is given by the sub-committee to all new machinery that may have been installed since the first inspection, as well as to observe that the recommendations previously made have been properly attended to. The form illustrated is used for the report. The report is sent in to the head committee even though there are no recommendations to make. It is not necessary to wait until the meeting day to make rec- ommendations; these can, and occasionally do, come in between meetings. As some departments were considered too large for one sub-committee, there are two or more in several departments. Near the bottom of the form, on the first line starting with the word “signed,” the members of the sub-com- mittee place their initials. The next line | { On- tain the initials of the members of the head imit- tee, who have approved the recommendati: The filled-in form is then sent to the foreman the department whose duty it is to see that the -hange is made promptly. When the work is completed the foreman fills in the date and adds his initials. Tho form is then returned to the office and filed for fy, iU- ture reference. The accompanying reproduction of a phot graph shows a concrete wall placed along the foundry switch to keep the pig and scrap iron from rolling on the track. Sufficient width has been allowed so that a man with a wheelbarrow can pass up and down without his hands coming in contact with either the wall or the car. On the top of the wall g piece of No. 10 gage steel has been placed and held in place by bolts fastened in the concrete. This prevents the top of the wall being chipped when either pig iron or scrap is being unloaded. Half way down the wall will be noticed a 4-ft. opening: this permits the entrance of the wheelbarrow and does away with the necessity of going down to the extreme end of the wall in order to load up the material. Standard Screw Company’s Report The fifteenth annual report of the Standard Screw Company, 81 East Madison Street, Chicago, covering the year ended March 31, 1915, shows a deficit of $47, 494, after the payment of dividends of 6 per cent on the A preferred stock, 544 on the B preferred and 3% on the common. The income account for the year com- pares with the two preceding years as follows: 1915 1914 1913 Net profits, after ample charges for repairs, renewals, administra- tion expenses, etc... $277,336 $460,464 $373,657 Interest wat aia Sekar 33,871 52,243 46,055 De. oo kceeeneee 193,465 408,221 327,602 a 240,959 232,500 195,000 Deficit sevccscccce 947,494 ©$175,721 ©Si33,602 *Surplus The balance sheet, as of March 31, 1915, compares as follows: Assets 1915 1914 Plant and equipment........ $5,356,655 $5,268,042 Materials and supplies.... . 1,479,934 1,015,552 Accounts and notes receivable 598,721 468,301 Prepaid expenses err e 60,742 23,445 Cash 5 aber area a are 816,736 134,373 Total i'n 5-0 win dee ee $8,312,788 $6,909,713 Liabilities Preferred stock A........... $1,071,100 $2,000,000 Preferred stock BB. ....<iivse 2) i ee Common stock é.& biad@ oan |. ee 2,500,000 Debenture bonds 360,000 420,000 Notes payable se she son acai 889,000 716,000 Accounts payable ‘Sleies bs 212,481 162,413 Reserve for incomplete con- WE: age icasheur ns as oe SED cv néccecetsnackcunake 1,063,807 1,111,300 BEE. 4556s dn eke $8,312,788 $6,909,713 President W. B. Pearson, in his accompanying re- marks, says: “Toward the end of the year there was 2 decided improvement in our business, but it did not come soon enough to much improve the present statement; besides this we were at considerable expense in pre- paring to handle certain contracts which are now in hand. Returns from these contracts, which are of con- siderable magnitude and which extend over a consider- able period, may now be expected, and your directors have no hesitancy in predicting very satisfactory re- turns for the coming year.” The company’s subsidiaries are the Chicago Screw Company, Illinois Screw Company, Western Automatic Machine Screw Company, Worcester Machine Screw Company, Hartford Machine Screw Company, Walker & Ehrman Mfg. Company, Pearson Machine Company and Detroit Screw Works. Recent Mill Practices in dered Coal and Clean BY 0. J if decadence in the bar-iron industry ie with greater freedom than accuracy, he operation of the Tudor mill of the n & Steel Company at St. Louis was in June, 1912, after forty years of nion was not lacking that another page dded to the record of evidence. The com- the new mill of the St. Louis Screw Com- Louis is primarily conspicuous when Warehouse Extension Mon nail . Well, Tank & Pump Homage Future Hot Seale a z ~ 5 nd Puddle 2 © Bdiicceer = Cooling Bed ms = a Piling Beneh . “ ° - * y Blevated- Track : Sana ae Metor 5 « Tumbbing Mach ~ Ss a eee Clirhilulitiiells 6 8 Scrap Bulwer Termina RR Agaox General Plan of Present in that connection. In addition this new mmands attention because of a number of ‘ which, as an indication of progressive de- ent in practice, rank with contemporary im- its in steel mill equipment. These features ne use of powdered coal as a fuel for the ‘urnaces, the installation of an overhead nd mono-rail service available to the entire inique installation for the cleaning of all electric motive power throughout, with a ‘in drive on the 18-in. mill, a novel device PY + Nev Iron Mill Equipped to Assure Low Costs The St. Louis Screw Company Follows Most and Part of the Building Its Mill—Pow- Scrap Used Exclusively . ABELL for cinder disposal and a general type of mill build- ing construction which conduces to exceptional light and ventilation, as may be seen from the accom- panying illustrations. The plant, as at present equipped and operated, is part of a complete unit which, as indicated in the general ground plan Fig. 1, includes a 20-in. puddle mill, an 18-in. bar mill, a 14-in. roughing and 9-in. finishing mill. The product of these mills will in- wv Monorai Seale House . Ton _Track_Seale Avenue iation Tracks Future Buildings of the St. Louis Screw Company clude bars for the market and raw material for the screw and bolt manufacturing operations which have been conducted by this company for many years. The ground plan shows the proposed ioca- tion of a bolt, nut and screw works adjoining the mill, but as yet this part of the construction has not been undertaken, the company still occupying its old plant a short distance from the new works. The erection of the new screw works on the mill site will follow immediately upon the disposal of the old plant. The puddle or busheling mill and fur- 71 Ss 2 3 se Peeges sa ied 72 THE IRON AGE July ~ 1935 Fig. 2—View in the Powdered Coal Building Showing the Monorail and Bucket Equipment for Unloading Coal fron Cars into the Hopper for Elevation into the Steel Bin at the Right naces, likewise, are not yet set up, although the mill building is erected and some of the equipment is on the ground, but the layout indicates the har- monious arrangement in which the already com- pleted mills can be hooked up with the portions of the plant yet to be built. The producing capacity for the present mills is estimated to be 2500 tons per month for the 18-in. mill, covering a range of from 1-in. to 3-in. rounds and squares, and flats up to 8 in. wide, and for the 9-in. mill about 2000 tons per month, with a range of %-in. to 114-in. rounds and squares and flats from 5% in. to 4 in. wide. The choice of powdered coal as a fuel was made Fig. 3—View in the Powdered Coal Building Showing the The Williams Mill is Placed in the expectation of greater operating mies as compared with the other types of fue! more common use. The location of the plant at Louis was presumed to be as favorable for the u ing as could be desired, by reason of the p of the Illinois coal fields and cheap coal. (pers. tions in the beginning were conducted using 1.jp, and 1°4-in. Franklin County, Ill., nut coa which, so far as the record shows, constitutes the first time Illinois coal has been used in this way. ; [t was subsequently found that slack coal] could be used with equally good results. Since the be ginning of operations the heats obtained in the fyr. naces with the powdered fuel have been exception. ally satisfactory, and the advantages of operating without the necessity of cooling down the furnaces to clean grates have been marked. The first cost of the installation is stated to be not unduly in excess of the first cost of the necessary equipment for the use of producer gas, and in the light of anticipated economies the brief experience thus far is held to amply justify expectations and the greater first cost. Figures as to the exact cost of heating a ton of metal are not yet available. The powdered coal plant, with the exception of a Williams pulverizing mill, was built and installed by the Power & Mining Machinery Company, Cudahy, Wis. Two views in the pulverizing building are shown in Figs. 2 and 3 and the general eleya- tion and plan is presented in the line drawing, Fig. 6. Outlined briefly, the pulverizing process begins with the unloading of the coal from cars, alongside of the building, by means of an overhead trolley and a 11'5-yd., electrically operated, Hayward grab bucket which discharges into a 5-ton hopper, as 2. From this hopper the coal is fed lertak. Xlmity shown in Fig. 2. through a reciprocating feeder into a spiked roll crusher mounted in a sub-floor pit and discharging directly into the boot of a 40-ton bucket elevator. The roll crusher breaks up the coal to a uniform size of about °4-in. cubes. This coal is discharged Rotary Dryer in the Foreground and the Tube Mill Beyond. at the Far End of the Dryer the Heating Furnaces from the Piling Storage Hoppers and the Piping for the Burners m the elevator to a horizontal belt conveyor, in turn drops the coal through a hopper, after assed over a magnetic separator, to a 12-in. veyor which distributes the coal in an verhead, steel, storage bin for subsequent the dryer as required. This storage ca- es flexibility to the pulverizing plant as supply, the capacity of the present gy limited by the dryer, which will handle the rate of 8 tons per hr. he dryer the moisture of the coal is reduced per cent. The general character of this apparent from the illustrations. At the end a combustion chamber, shown in Fig. rranged both for hand firing, as at present, r the use of waste heat from one of the furnaces, subsequently to be installed. ng gases from the combustion chamber through a brick-lined, steel flue into the n exhaust fan affording the necessary draft stribution of heat and the discharge of the far end, through a steel pipe to a cy- arator. The cyclone separator serves to » fine particles of coal which are carried sus- the heated gases from the dryer so that negligible residue is reclaimed, to be piped ed coal elevator. "he dry coal is discharged from the dryer into N Williams pulverizing mill, direct driven 0-hp. motor which reduces about 50 per the coal to a fineness sufficient to pass igh a 100-mesh screen. From this mill, coal rged into a sealed, bucket elevator of -/-tons per hr. capacity. At the head of the eleva- chanically agitated 100-mesh screen allows ent to pass through and the coarser por- fed to the tube mill for final pulverizing. THE IRON AGE Bench ind Faggots by Push Buggies One Furnace it the Right s Not ided T) re Shown as Well is the Method of H : : s ind Overhe 1 Troll H t From the tube mill the coal, pulver zed to the re quired fineness, is elevated in a sealed bucket ele vator which discharges into a screw conveyor that delivers the coal to a 10-ton automatic Richardson scale, having a gravity discharge into a 6-ton hop per that provides a final storage before distribu tion of the coal to the furnaces in the mill building ne The general sequence of treatment of the coal i pulverizing building is indicated in Fig. 6 The coal dust is carried to the mill building ; in a 9-in. dust-tight, screw conveyor to &-ton el¢ vated steel bins, of which there are two for eac! furnace,‘as shown in the general view, Fig. 4 These bins, likewise, are made dust-tight, tarred felt gaskets being used throughout the conveyor and bin construction where necessary. ‘To avoid the possible blocking or stripping of the conveyor when these bins become filled, an overflow is pré vided in the nature of a steel downspout to a cylin drical tank. An automatic controlling device imme diately stops the motor operating the conveyor lin when dust begins to discharge into the overflow. The feeding of coal from the bins through the bottom valves to the burners is subject to a me chanical control consisting of a worm feed which forces the coal through a screen into the burner and is driven by a variable speed motor with a T 7 > — 3 . ‘ ect oo 3 oo Se ee " . <4 i — a Z La tH $a Ax ——— —— mS ’ . ~S —— P \* xf i a ../ ae , , f + go ‘ 3 rs pote > — we NE SEES an TT, as ee he —— — Ale ar 74 THE IRON AGE July 1915 regulating rheostat conveniently located for the fur- nace operator. The speed with which the worm feed is driven accurately determines the quantity of coal being fed to the burner, and the furnace operator, watching the character of the flame, regu- lates the combustion as desired. The coal forced through the feed screen drops down over an air nozzle and is picked up by an air jet of just suf- ficient pressure to carry the coal into the burner. This air jet constitutes the primary air of the burner, and the manner in which it is admitted is indicated in the cross-section of the burner, Fig. 5. The secondary air, which is the air of com- c “Ti - 4-| & t Ag ra = all te =e J 1 TEs t 4s 1 he + 4 et sf} ~ eet < « " io | bs 4| [ ee = | K 5 lik } Lh [r Sor + I T NT + + . : a Let ee ee 2 — ~ Vi% i>» me m " 0K onveyor "D~ te i} mf Ph al aed te WiTon 3 Seale = Hopper emnnemrene = 8 e e } I ; =i } re j S} i t hed } rang? Spout *6 | F te oP { ea | i Yij ; a} | fl + | bah 220° | Fs Bike? el I Tube Mil ay aa ' fy +<—_# ue pte [Uf Piooe tine : AY Spout #5 nr) 6 Elevation and Plan bustion, is delivered through a 14-in. pipe, under very low pressure, from an overhead blower. This air is super-heated by contact with the stacks of the furnaces, effected by means of a steel jacket which rises to a height of 30 ft. from the bottom of the stack. The air enters at the bottom of this jacket space and is given a spiral motion about the stack by means of deflector plates. It emerges at the top of the preheating jacket at a tempera- ture increased 175 to 200 deg. above the initial temperature, entering the burner at about 260 deg. Fahr. Each burner has a capacity of approximately 900 Ib. of coal per hr. The five-door heating furnaces for the 18-in. mill are 23 ft. 6 in. long from the bridge to the flue opening, 8 ft. 6 in. wide and 6 ft. 6 ; ; irom the bottom to the back at its highest point, being inside sizes. Cross-sections of this furnac show. ing its lines, are presented in Fig. 8. Th. cinder from the furnaces discharges, as shown ji; Fig, 9 directly into a bottom dump bucket about 5 ft, jn diameter and 5 ft. deep, which will hold about § tons. A stream of water granulates the cinder a. it falls and the crane picks up the bucket when full to be emptied into cars for shipment. The danger of cinder explosions is also minimized. The provisions for bringing piles to the furnaces for heating are for the most part apparent in the 40} fon Elevator |’ of Coal Pulverizing Plant accompanying illustrations. Temporarily, the 18-10. mill is making break-down bar, the puddle mill being not yet available. Scrap from the storage yard, or directly from incoming cars, is picked uP by the locomotive crane and magnet and is dropped into the twelve chutes arranged above the piling bench. These chutes slope at an angle of 32 deg. from the horizontal, the tops having an elevation of 29 ft. and the bottoms 19 ft. 2 in. above yard level. The angle of incline was determined experimentally, the object being to have the scrap slide freely ye not too rapidly. The chutes have a storage capacity of about 12 tons each. Immediately below them and mounted on a runway elevated immediately above 9-In. Mill Piping Furnace for the ondary Air Door 60 x 144-in. bench, is a tumbling mill, through which all scrap for the mills the piling traveling passes and is cleaned. The tumbling mill is motor en and is propelled on trucks horizontally at the 10 ft. per min. When lined up with a par- ilar chute the scrap discharges directly into the irrel. The dust collector is mounted on the trucks carry the mill. This equipment follows a and was illustrated in THE IRON AGE of It was built by the W. W. Sly Mfg. Com- veland, Ohio. The mill has a capacity for ae To T : = po THE IRON Showing Coal from AGE Hoppers, Foot Valves, the Burners nd Se the Overhead Blower! cleaning 30 tons per hr., and by virtue of the ar- rangement provided, nothing but clean scrap is de- livered to the piling bench and no manual handling of the scrap is involved. The piling bench, 140 ft. long and 10 ft. wide, is built of concrete and steel with removable surface plates. Equipment for preparing the scrap includes portable yard shears and a 100,000-lb. steel frame lever shear with capacity for shearing 5-in. squares. It was built by the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Com- pany. It is drawn by a 100-hp. motor mounted on tal — a wot 28 6 +A CHR == 1 He = he Bb uy ap ot ; TTTTTY?T TTT? A + 4+ : eee a y ur ~ — U Poy 5 , 5 \ 7 \ — e > ff) Bin 7 1 v Grad 1 x i x 4 = <2) xc 3) eee SS Fig. 8—Sections of 5-Door Heating Furnace 76 THE IRON AGE Fig. 9—The Device Shown Granulates the Furnace Cinder and Provides for Its Disposal When the Crane Picks up the Bottom Dump Bucket for Direct Loading into Cars a sliding base which permits a change of driving pinions to give two cutting speeds, 12 and 20 strokes per min. Protection for the machine in case of overload at the cutting point is provided by mounting the pinion from which the shearing jaw is operated on a sleeve on the main shaft. The sleeve is then bolted to a flange solid with the shaft and the connecting bolts are designed to shear off before other damage can be done. For the delivery of the break-down piles or fagots from the piling bench to the furnaces, two means of transportation are provided. An over- head crane bridge spans the building and on this a 5-ton Shepard electric trolley-hoist is operated. This trolley, delivering a load of fagots to the furnaces of the 9-in. mill, is shown in Fig. 4. Small buggies Fig. 10—View of the High Duty Silent Chai Drive or 18-In. Mill and the Rope Drive for the 9-In, Mill The Ce trol Pulpit is at the Lef July 1915 operating on narrow gage tracks which from the furnace charging floor to the pil are also available as an auxiliary. These shown in the illustration. The 18-in. mill consists of two stan 1 high, and one finishing stand, three hig TY length of the roughing rolls is 80 in., of thé 2014 in., of the strand rolls 56 in., and ot ishing rolls 24 in. The feature of chief interes in connection with the 18-in. mill is the 600-hp Morse silent chain drive which hooks the mij] directly to the driving motor. It is the largey unit of this kind in service and consists oj bate strands of 2-in. pitch chain, each 17 in. wide ang 152 links long. The chain operates at a rate of 1450 ft. per min., on sprockets of 29 and 79 teeth, The pull is estimated at 13,750 lb., against a break. ing strength of 250,000 Ib. for the chain, and the drive is guaranteed to stand an overload of 100 per cent with a normal efficiency of 98 per cent. A view of this drive is shown in Fig. 10. The mil has an 18-ft. steel fly-wheel, weighing 66,000 lb. The cooling beds for both the 18-in. and 9-in, mill are of standard construction, 110 ft. long and 31 ft. wide. The live roll tables, built by the Dun- can Foundry & Machine Works, Alton, IIl., are 116 ft. long with rolls spaced at 4 ft. centers. The rolls have roller bearings and a 5-hp. motor suffices for driving. At the warehouse end of the roll tables, and set up at the proper height so that the roll table delivers the bars directly to the shear blades, are motor driven vertical cold shears, furnished by the A. Garrison Foundry & Machine Company. The shear for the 18-in. mill has capacity up to 31-in. squares and that for the 9-in. mill up to 2-in. squares. The 14-in. roughing train consists of two, three high stands with pinions 17% in. long, roughing rolls 53% in. long and strand rolls 36% in. long. The 9-in. mill is made up of two stands, three high, and two stands, two high, with pinions 14!% in. long, the three high rolls 30 in. long and the two- high rolls 12 in. The 9-in. mill has a 10-ft. steel fly-wheel weighing 30,000 lb. and is direct driven by motor. The 14-in. mill is driven from the 9-in. by fifteen 115-in. rope strands, which is about double the number actually needed. The scale from the mills is sluiced off in concrete troughs to the ends of the mill, where it is collected in bottom dump buckets and removed by crane. The mill housings are of standard type with screw tops and bottoms, the middle roll being stationary. Both these mills and the 18-in. mill and the drives were built by the Wheeling Mold & Foundry Company. The driving motors for both mills are two-speed, 600-hp. units operating on three-phase, 25-cycle, 2200-volt circuits, and were built by the Allis- Chalmers Mfg. Company. The speeds afforded are 300 and 214 r.p.m., with full power at both speeds. On the 18-in. mill drive the chain gear reduces these speeds for the mill to 110 and 78% r.p.m. The 9-in. mill is a direct drive from the motor and the 14-in. mill with rope drive runs at 150 and 107 r.p.m. The control for both motors, furnished by the Cutler- Hammer Mfg. Company, is located on control pan- els assembled on a central pulpit, as shown in the illustrations. An emergency stop button is located at the mill within easy access for the roller. The 2200-volt current which operates the motors is stepped down from a 13,200-volt primary current which is brought to the plant on the lines of the Union Electric Light & Power Company, distributor for the Mississippi River Power Company’s current, generated at Keokuk. For the receiving and trans- forming of this high tension current, a complete stalled, the transformers being fur- Wagner Electric Mfg. Company, St. switchboard by the General Electric transformer station equipment pro- on to the 2300-volt step-down trans- 140-volt current for the small West- notors and a 115-volt lighting circuit. rect current power for crane service by a 50-kw. General Electric motor ng mill equipment will include a 20-in. | of two stands, three high. The fur- stalled will include two pile-on-board, ttom and two cinder bottom. A steel r is to be used for carrying the balls rnaces to a 60-in. squeezer. The scrap naces will be loaded in scoops in the 4 on the monorail direct to the fur- harged without further manual labor. THE IRON AGE ing is inclosed with galvanized corrugated sheeting, the siding being brought down to within 9 ft. of the floor level. The building bays are 23 ft. 4 in. be- tween centers of columns. The vard level has been brought to an elevation of 2!. ft. above that of the surrounding ground. The building elevations place the mill floor 4 ft. above the vard level, the height to the bottom of the monorail beam 22 ft. 9 in., the height of the top crane rail 26 ft., the height to the bottom of the truss chords at the low point 34 ft., and above that a 9-ft. elevation to the roof. In addition to the bar products which the St. Louis Screw Company is now equipped to supply, the ultimate building of the new bolt and nut forging works will give it increased capacity in the manufacture of its established lines of screws, ma- chine screws, bolts and nuts and screw machine products. The officers of the company are E. J. Miller, president; W. S. Ashton, vice-president; the 9-In. Mill in the Foreground with thel4-In. Roughing Stands Beyond and the Piling Bench in the Background the facilities for handling materials in and the plant constitute one of its most advanced tures. In the scrap yard a 15-ton Orton & Stein- ner locomotive crane, equipped with a 52-in. tric Controller & Mfg. Company magnet, or -c. grab-bucket, is available for general service. the mill buildings a monorail and traveling rane system has been combined in such a the electric traveling hoists operating on rail from the yard or pulverizing building, the mill buildings, may be transferred to bridges spanning the puddle mill and bar ngs. The monorail hoists are 5-ton Shep- operated lifts. The crane bridge serving e mill has a 77-ft. span and the bridges l8-in. and 9-in. mills are each of 67-ft. addition to the 5-ton trolley, a floor con- hoist of like capacity is installed for the cranes spanning the 9-in. and 18-in. warehouse is served by a 5-ton 3-motor erhead traveling Northern crane. buildings are of steel skeleton con- irried on concrete piers and having the type of roof construction. The build- + George Gruenwald, secretary and treasurer; C. P. Burgess, general manager and J. P. English, su- perintendent. Benzol Plant at South Bethlehem The Lehigh Coke Company, which now operates at its South Bethlehem, Pa., plant 214 coke ovens and has 214 additional ovens under construction, has awarded the contract for a plant for crude and finished benzol products to Carl Still, Reck- linghausen, Germany. It will be ready for opera- tion in the fall. The Carl Still interests have opened a Pittsburgh office in the Farmers Bank Building, in charge of Arthur Kuhn, who is their representa- tive in this country. The Globe Automatic Sprinkler Company, Cincin- nati, Ohio, will increase its capital stock from $1,000,- 000 to $2,000,000. No extensions to its plant are con- templated, nor will any extra equipment be needed. The company is opening seven new sales offices in dif- ferent parts of the country, and reports the business outlook very encouraging. pe ene on ee me 78 Additions to Ryerson’s Hagar Plant Joseph T. Ryerson & Son have completed an addi- tion to the recently acquired Hagar plant at St. Louis, which, to a large extent, provides the ware- housing facilities for the stock of iron and steel products that was added to the established Hagar line of mill supplies when that business was taken over. The new building and beam yard occupies a site of 82,000 sq. ft., separated from the original Hagar plant only by the tracks of the Terminal, Burlington and Wabash railroads, which provide the shipping facilities for the warehouse. The new building and the adjoining structural yard are of like ground area, 80 x 300 ft. The design of the building is the result of a careful investigation of the requirements for warehousing service and is of steel construction with corrugated sheet covering. In the building, which is traversed by a 10-ton crane, serving the full span, are stored the universal, sheared, tank and flange plates in long lengths and stock sizes. Capacity is provided for carrying a stock of 5000 tons of plates and there is installed a plate shear of a size and capacity adequate to cut plates 96 in. wide and 1 in. thick. A feature of the structural steel yard, which parallels the piate warehouse, the Pawling & Harnischfeger, single-leg, gantry crane, having a iS THE IRON AGE July 1915 International Engineering Cong ess The materials of engineering constructi ceive special attention in the proceedings a sions of the International Engineering Cong 7 held in San Francisco, September 20-25. The ‘eld wi be treated under 18 or more topics, covering + % sources, preservative methods, brick and cla) in general, life of concrete structures, aggr: concrete, waterproofing, volume changes in world’s supply of iron, life of iron and steel special steels, status of copper and world’s loys, aluminum, testing of metals of full sized and of structures. Some 25 papers are expected to be pre builders representing five different countrie with the discussidns will be published as vo the transactions of the congress. A number of excursions have been provided, inely os 8 ing the following: San Francisco high-pressure fj system; the Potrero gas works, and one of the electric stations of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company; the Spring Valley waterworks properties on the east side of San Francisco Bay; the storage reservoirs and pump- ing stations of the Spring Valley Waterworks on the San Francisco peninsula; the delta lands of the Sacra- mento and San Joaquin rivers; the Great Western Power Company’s hydroelectric development on the Feather River and dredging at Oroville; the Pacific Gas & Ele. tric Company’s hydroelectric development at Lake Storage Building and Beam Yard at the St gantry crane with an 8&0-ft. span another building in which The crane runway is built so that case a span of 80 ft., or the full width of the yard. This crane serves a yard storage capacity of about 6000 tons. The crane is of such construction that it can be operated without interruption in the event of the beam yard being inclosed in a building similar to the one already erected and also, so that for the outer leg of the crane, a permanent runway may be substituted as part of the building structure. Equipment for handling material and cutting to sizes to afford the same facilities in the filling and dispatching of orders as obtain at the Chicago ware- house is installed, including a high-speed friction saw with capacity up to 24-in. beams. The Hagar plant, in fact, with the completion of this addition, has been put upon the same operating basis of service standards as has been worked out at Chicago. The Milwaukee Separator Company, 265 Sixth Street, Milwaukee, Wis., has filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, claiming assets of $179,408 and lia- bilities of $54,243. Principal creditors are foundries. The company manufactures cream separators. Willis Collins is president. Louis Plant of Joseph T. Rye forming a part of the bu it can still he & Son A feature of the latter is a single-leg in the event of the yard being inclosed by ructure may be substituted for the outer leg used Spaulding and drum power house and the gold mines at Grass Valley and the oil fields at Coalinga. A book- let covering the general program has been issued and a copy may undoubtedly be had on request by addvess- ing W. A. Cattell, secretary International Engineering Congress, 417 Foxcroft building, San Francisco. The R. K. LeBlond Machine Tool Company, Cin- cinnati, has taken out a blanket life insurance policy covering all employees with the company one year or more. Each is insured for one year’s average wages, or salary, in the event of death by accident or otherwise. It was also arranged that employees who had not been with the company for one year would automatically be insured when that period of employment was reached Fred Schelben, proprietor of the Greenville Boiler & Sheet Iron Works, Greenville, Miss., has secured the contract for installing four 72-in. x 18-ft. tubular boil- ers, to be set with steel casings, and a 72-in. x 120-ft. stack, for the Paepcke-Liecht Lumber Company, at the same place. The Waterbury Company, manufacturer of cord: age, wire rope and music wire, has moved its NeW York quarters to 63 Par Row. Two D and Shell Hardening Furnaces s & Co., Inc., Empire Building, Pitts- is brought out two new types of hard- s. One of these is buic with three bers for hardening dies, while the lead bath and was designed especially nnection with the manufacture of shell an Government. ardening furnace has three chambers, h are 18 in. square in plan, while the n. wide and 18 in. deep, the height of ¢ the same, 10 in. Individual combus- rs are located underneath the heating the top, a firebrick slab forming the rtition. Each chamber is fired inde- a natural gas or fuel oil burner and from the combustion chamber passes ng narrow slots at the sides of the fire- nto the heating chamber, thus giving semi-muffle construction. It is thus use two of the chambers for long soaking heats before bringing the work up to the ening temperature in the other chamber, red the three chambers can be used inde- for entirely different work. \ lever arm fastened to the rear sheave bracket ed to the lifting links on the door by a rrangement so that the movement of this er raises or lowers the doors. The doors are nterweighted and the weight drops in the rear the Lurnace, The other furnace is known as a preheated lead bath furnace and was designed for construction of Russian shell. The lead bath is 12 in. wide, 24 in. ng and 12 in. deep, and at one end has a pocket to ommodate a pyrometer couple. A distinctive fea- ture of this furnace is the entire separation of the mbustion chamber where the oil or gas fuel is burned from one in which the lead bath is located and the heat passes from one chamber to the other igh openings, this arrangement being relied n to distribute the heat evenly over the surface f the bath. The lead bath proper is covered by a cast-iron piate 17 which there are eight openings through e Hardening Furnace in Which All mbers Are Independently Fired Jul THE IRON AGE 79 , Lead Bath Fur e for Shell Work Equipne wit! Pr r Chamber which shells can be inserted in the bath. The shells are placed in the holes with the open end up and a plug placed in the shell, thus forcing it down into the lead bath until the plug strikes the top plate. The amount of the bath in the pot is sufficient to bring the surface of the lead up to the bottom of the plate covering the pot, thus immersing the shell to within about 1 in. of the top. This portion of the shell is heat treated when the shell is nosed after the heat-treating operation. The preheating chamber at the rear of the fur- nace provides room for twenty shells. The hot gases from the combustion chamber of the furnace pass through this preheating chamber and heat the shells. Germany’s Steel Output for March Germany’s steel production for March, according to official data in Stahl und Eisen, was 1,098,273 metric tons, against 1,634,297 tons in March, 1914, and 946,191 tons in February this year. The March production was made up of 567,964 tons of Bessemer ingots, 567,671 tons of open-hearth ingots, 45,278 tons of steel cast- ings, 8105 tons of crucible steel and 9255 tons of elec- tric steel. It is interesting to note that the March production this year exceeded the March production last year of: Bessemer steel ingots by about 6000 tons, of basic steel castings by over 7000 tons, of acid steel by about 1200 tons and of electric steel by 1000 tons. The total output for the first quarter of this year was 3,008,254 tons, against 4,746,562 tons to April 1, 1914, a decrease of about 37 per cent. Departures of Italians for the War In view of the published statements concerning the return of Italians and former residents of the Balkan States to their respective countries recently, the facts as to their departures from New York in June are of interest to the iron and steel trades. From the office of the Commissioner of Immigration, New York, we learn that in June about 3600 Italians returned to their native country and 650 Greeks. Very few Bul- garians, Turks or Serbians have departed from the United States in recent weeks. The summer school of management which Frank B. Gilbreth, 77 Brown Street, Providence, R. I., held at Providence the last two summers, is to be repeated this year for three weeks, beginning August 2. The course is open to professors of engineering, economics, psy- chology, business administration and subjects allied to management and also to doctors and superintendents in active charge of hospital administration. Neglected Phenomena in Steel Treatment’ A New Way to Tell When Steel Has Been Heated Through Its Transformation Point—Temperature Rela- tion of the Furnace and the Steel’s Surface and Interior BY M. E. LEEDS The experiments described in this paper were METHOD OF THE EXPERIMENTS undertaken to determine the variations in rates of The temperature of the furnace, controlled he heating of specimens of different sizes to various two pyrometers, was first brought to that to whieh furnace temperatures, and particularly to deter- the specimen was to be heated, and held there » mine the relation in temperature between the atmOS- jeast one-half hour. The cold specimen was then phere of the furnace, the surface of the specimen placed in the furnace. This immediatel; Lonwesel and various points in the interior of the specimen. ‘hoe furnace temperature, and it was again brosets [The phenomena discussed are referred to as neg- up as quickly as possible to that desired and at lected phenomena, because it has seemed to the there until the specimen assumed approxin bade writer that many of those engaged in the heat the same temperature. Four specimens were ysed tr -atment of steel who have been at much pains to Three of them were brought to four different tens investigate physical properties, to determine criti- peratures, and the 8-in. specimen was brought te cal temperatures and to find out on small samples six different temperatures. There are here ore in the laboratory the most favorable temperatures sented the results of 18 runs. at which to treat, have neglected a study of the During each run on the 12-in. specimen, continy. furnace conditions, and the phenomena of heat one temperature records were taken of six posi. transfer to the specimen and of heat flow in it. tions, two in the furnace, one at the surface of the _ A thorough understanding of these phenomena specimen and three in the interior. On the 8-ip, is quite essential to a precise control of the tem- specimen continuous records of five different posi perature of the specimen and must be understood IN tions were taken, and on the 4-in. and 2-in. speci order to bring it up to the desired treating tempera- mens, four continuous records were taken on each ture at a fairly uniform rate, and in order to de- A Rockwell oil-burning furnace was used. Its termine from measuring instruments when this construction and the way in which the test spe. temperature has been attained. Thermocouple py- rometers, which are the instruments almost uni- versally used, can only show the temperatures of | their hot ends, and it is very important to know under what conditions the temperatures of the in- terior of the specimen may be correctly inferred from the pyrometer reading. The experiments, made at the Midvale Steel Com- pany, Philadelphia, Pa., in 1914, cover round speci- mens of normal open-hearth carbon steel (0.5 per cent carbon), ranging in size from 12 in. in diameter by 24 in. long, to 2 in. in diameter by 24 in. long. Each specimen was heated to four temperatures, namely, 1000, 1200, 1400 and 1600 deg. Fahr., and during the time of heating a continuous record was kept of the furnace temperatures, the temperature of the surface of the specimen, and of one to three ( points in its interior. The interior points were 2 . Elevation 4 and 6 in. in from the surface. ¢ ? , , Top Furnace Couple @ Hot Junction at € @Hot Junction 4*from @ Hot Junction 2 "fron Furnace Floor ouple Arrangement for Specime! Diameter mens were placed are indicated in Fig. 1. The dis position of the thermocouples for each experimett is shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The furnace ten peratures and the rates of heating of the var! parts of the different specimens are shown in charts in the paper. Instruments.—The temperature records we taken on a multiple-point printing recorder ot te potentiometer type. The thermocouples were rol constantan, and both the couples and the potentiom eter were frequently checked for accuracy during the progress of the experiments. The device ust tine itl} ] for taking the interior temperatures was a mu couple made with a single iron wire, to wil were attached at 2-in. intervals the constant wires. For convenience in making the connectio! Fig. 1—Section of Heat-Treating Furnace § as well as for the purpose of minimizing conduct of the Specime: errors, the constantan was not welded directly ¢From a paper presented at the eighteent cetine the full-size piece of iron wire, but to a small pi of the Ametican Society for Testing Materisis at Atlantic split off from it, as chews i Fee contac’ the Leeds & Northrup Company, Philadelphia, couple had its welded junction exposed and was hee SO eaby § THE IRON AGE ‘ ; h the surface of the specimen. The \ite well shielded, however, from the furnace gases by ceramic insulators. CONCLUSIONS esting conclusions may be drawn from ents: in Time of Heating with Size.—As ted, the smaller specimens heat more e larger. In curves (in the paper) the n the size of specimen and time of heat- temperatures are brought out. Except ral way, this information could not be ie to heating practice, as the rates would ca aS ize of furnace and probably with other en RP Between Time of Heating and Furnace ed 1 The time of heating for a specimen of ht ; when it is brought up to 1600 deg. Fahr. ; ' ought up to 1200 deg. Fahr. and less for hr. than for 1000 deg. Fahr., although it is 100 deg. Fahr. than for any other tempera- difficult to account for the fact that the atures are attained more rapidly than the e ( This fact, however, appears to be clearly It may be that the specimens received Us rg int of their heat by radiation from the The heat transfer by radiation between ne it different temperatures is proportional to fference between the fourth powers of their abso- peratures, and so for a 100 deg. difference in e between furnace wall and test specimens, , Fahr., the heat transfer would be at a i . cher rate than for the same temperature difference at temperatures. Relations Between Surface and Interior Té mper- rom all of the curves (given in the paper) it . K--eee Gomme me D foo Furnace Couple Ho? Juncton at Center / ® Hot Junction 2" from skim i — eee > | 7 mon - Sorc Floor Elevation Arrangement for Specimen 8 In, in Diameter there is no large difference in tempera- he points inside of the specimen. This was ng, as it was expected that the 12-in. 1 show considerable differences of tem- een a point 2 in. from the surface and the thought that the type of multiple couple would be subject to errors due to con- ts common iron wire, but this point was gated before it was used, by comparing with those of independent couples at the an iron pipe, heated to different tempera- length, and it was found free from such ! expected, there is a greater difference f heating than at slow rates of heating. uns show that the contact couple is at a ature than any of the interior couples imen has attained the temperature of the annot properly be assumed that the tem- by the contact couple is exactly that of the specimen. oO — Elevation Fig. 4—Thermocouple Arrangement f Spe When the contact couple attains the furnace ten perature, all parts of the specimen have also attained that temperature. This suggests a practical method of using contact couples in conjunction with furnace couples, namely, by means of the furnace couple the furnace should be held at the temperature at which it is desired to treat the specimen, and the contact couple should then be used to determine when the specimen has assumed the desired temperature. 4. Contact Couple Shows Time of Transformatior —The curves showing the heating of the 12-in. and 8-in. specimens to 1400 and 1600 deg. Fahr. in the pape show that the transformation point is clearly shown by the couples inside of the specimen, and that it is also shown by the contact couple. The interior couples show, with approximate correctness, the temperature at which the transformation takes place. The contact couple shows a corresponding flexure in its curvature, at the same time as the interior couples, though not at the same temperature The close correspondence ir time between the flexures of the contact couple and th: interior couples points to what the writer belie ‘ ; is an important nei method of determining hen a piece of steel has been heated throuagl if transformation povrnt. DETERMINING THE TRANSFORMATION POIN1 In Fig. 6 is shown the arrangement of three couples, one at the surface and two in the interior of a small block of steel. This specimen was heated uniformly in an electrical furnace, and the tempera ture of each couple recorded on a curve-drawing re- corder, the charts of the three recorders having been carefully synchronized. Even with the small block of steel there is a distinct flexure in the contact couple at exactly the time that the interior couples show the specimen to be passing through its trans- formation point. . gk \ \No.6 Iron | No.16 Gonstantan cm ay 82 This method of determining the time of trans- formation of a piece of steel has been used under the writer’s observation for hardening a large num- ber of punches and