The Iron Age 1918-02-14: Vol 101 Iss 7

HE-IRON ACE New York, February 14, 1918 ACID KALI past TRADE | MAR K > TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - 457 serv een teers INDEX Buye Index Section 259 Contract Work Section 346 g Hou Secti oe ae Help and Situations Wanted.. Wanted Section BS Business Opportunities. . 339 Prof mal Notice Te Srey 2 THE IRON AGE February 14, 1918 ) es KNOX X 9933.9 eX 3.3.9 KX Xe X w) a 9938.9:9:3.3.9 KX Xe X 3.6.9 X) X Xe) ) “ ) XK XD © © ©, OF ©. () - j) OX X “ Xe Xe Xe) ) POO OOOOOO OOOO cs Ke Xe KX X hn yt J VIII ° a EXE Kee K XK IKK iy * XeX XY) XO) KK y A aN) ep iY ©0100. 0.0.0.0.00000.0 0)” ~ ~e New York, February 14, 1918 ESTABLISHED 1855 VOL. 101: Ne. 7 Advanced Ideas in Gray-Iron Foundry Two Cupolas Deliver Their Product to a Forehearth from Which Both Iron and Slag Are Taken—Thought for Employees ° BY CHARLES LUNDBERG HE James A. Brady Foundry Co., 4500 South Western Avenue, Chicago, has in full and smooth operation its new foundry containing nearly 100,000 sq. ft. of floor space, chiefly devoted as a general work or jobbing plant to the produc- tion of gray-iron castings. The plant is thor- oughly modern, of handsome design structurally and in every sense a daylight shop. In its construc- tion many features were combined, making not only for expediency in production, but for the health and well-being of the employees. Doing all he can for his people is something very much in the mind of the company’s president, G. S. Burtis, not altogether because of altruistic motives, as he admits, but be- cause he expects that his methods will result in mak- ing his men stick, as well as do better work. He wants every man employed to think of the foundry as his own. The buildings of the new foundry are in the form of a U, two wings, each 90 x 250 ft., extending from the main building, which is 140 x 300 ft. and which contains the main molding room and a bay, the latter being devoted to bench molding. One wing is entirely used for the cleaning of castings and shipping, and the ether to core making, machine and pattern shops and pattern storage. The roofs are of mill construction, and the side walls of sash and brick, with very little of the latter. The main Forehearth Connected With Two Cupolas from Which Iron Flows Continuously with firebrick, is removed each day. bottom. When placed in position it The bell hanging from the bracket is rung when the blast goes on, and the shelf above provides After Melting lined with firebrick, and its bottom made up between heats similar to the cupola bottom Begins The forehearth is The cast-iron cover, also lined is lowered by crane on a roll of clay, so sealing top and a place for ladles not in use 435 436 THE IRON February 14, 1918 ACE Cars at Left Enter Cleaning and Shipping Building It will be center trom building is 45 ft. from floor to roof, the latter being so constructed that it slopes to the center from both sides. On the perpendicular sides of the angles so formed are windows for light and ventilation. The design affords smoke and gases a wide sweep on their way to the outer air, the space being but little constricted as the windows are approached. The windows swing on perpendicular pivots, this arrangement causing less dust and dirt to settle upon them with a consequent greater admission of light. Three traveling cranes in the main molding room are each of 15 tons capacity, with a span of 62 ft. and a lift of 25 ft. They were made by the Bedford Foundry & Machine Co., Bedford, Ind. The bay has a monorail for hoists along the side where pouring is done. The melting equipment consists of two cupolas, one 90 in. and one 72 in., outside diameter, located at the center of the main building, the charging floor overlooking the yard between the two wings. The charging floor and the necessary supporting structure is of concrete, this including the stairway to the floor. The flexibility of the cupolas is en- hanced by the use of a forehearth, a receptacle of 5 tons capacity, into which metal from both cupolas flows simultaneously. After the charge begins to melt, there is a continuous flow of metal into the forehearth, which serves at once as a mixer and a reservoir, assuring a more homogeneous mixture of iron from the two cupolas. Among the advantages asserted for the arrange- ment is that the charge has a cleaner drop; and, The Faith Reposed in the Motor Truck Is Exemplified by This Photograph, Which Shows a Truck Starting Out, Despite the Deep Snow, to Deliver Half the Top of a Sulphuric Saturator Used in a Chemical Plant. The piece weighs nearly six tons Incidentally, the snowfall in Chicago in January totaled 40.9 in noted that the either side root of the main molding building slopes to the it being unnecessary to hold a heat, pending pour- ing, there is less danger of the charge bridging over. Likelihood of the iron flowing into the tuyeres is obviated, and a hot metal is procured, the crucible zone being shallow. The forehearth is tapped in the ordinary manner. All slag is taken from the back of the forehearth, which has a heavy removable cast-iron cover. Before use, the forehearth is heated with a wood fire, first being daubed so far as has bee, made necessary by the action of the previous heat. The smaller cupola may be tapped direct, if desired, and the larger one may be tapped separately by permitting its iron to run through the forehearth. Analysis is made of each heat. The cupolas, the combined capacity of which is 150 tons a day, are of Newten design, made by the Northern Engineer- ing Works, Detroit. In the floor of the molding room where large work is done is a reinforced concrete pit, 18 x 40 ft. and 715 ft. in depth. Considerable space is devoted to the core department because of the manufacture of the company’s specialty, the Brady ash conveyer, an application of the vacuum principle for remov- ing ashes from steam boilers, which requires a pipe of great hardness. These are cast from a mixture called Brady metal. A stock of machine- made small cores of varying sizes is stored in racks. Over the core room and pattern storage is a 10-ton crane which has a span of 45 ft. The cleaning and shipping room, on one side of which is a railroad spur, is served by a Northern 15-ton crane having a span of 90 ft. Air is used for cleaning and chipping. Unusually effective use is made of large tumbling barrels, one of which is 6 ft. inside diameter and 8 ft. long, and is used to clean wheels 54 in. in diameter, weighing 1785 lb. each. The material yard extending back from the charging platform has a covered runway support- ing a 15-ton Northern crane with a span of 45 ft., which is equipped with a magnet for lifting pig iron and scrap from railroad cars or piles and placing it on the platform. INTEREST IN MEN EXTENDS TO HOMES The company employs a registered nurse, who not only looks after dressing cases, should there be any, as well as the general welfare of the employees around the plant, but she follows the example set by systems in vogue in larger institutions and de- votes a part of her time to visiting the homes of the workmen, especially the homes of those whose actions or appearance suggests they are not living properly. At the home she helps by advice and suggestion. In a few instances she was not alto- February 14, 1918 THE " ames [iT irr rT > ae RTL Se ie tee 26 Rear of the James A. Brady Foundry Co.’s New Plant on Western Avenue, Chicago, Showing Crane Runway in Center IRON AGE 437 Also to be noted is the large number of windows gether welcome at first, but when it became under- stood that the visitor was a nurse and that her mis- sion was one of helpfulness, the attitude changed, and the wives of the men are now glad to have her call. These visits constitute a means by which knowledge of which men are worth while can be ascertained. If a man is away from his work she ascertains the reason. A report on each visit goes to the executive offices of the company, where such action is taken as may be deemed advisable. When men are employed the nurse makes medical obser- vations and obtains the family history of the appli- cant. Each Thursday the company has a meeting of its foremen for the discussion of shop problems and means of betterment. One noon hour a week it is endeavored to have a speaker from outside give the men a short informative talk on subjects of timely interest, those of recent date having been on Liberty Bonds and other subjects calculated to help the Government. A point recognized with regard to the speakers is that it does not do for them to talk over the heads of the men; in other words, they must express themselves in language the men un- derstand, and win approval by using homely terms. The plant has an emergency room for first-aid treatment, locker rooms and shower baths. Coffee is served to the employees in pails supplied by the company at a cost of 3c. a pint. This, of course, is at the noon hour, and serving, as it does, to keep some of the men from nearby corners where liquor is sold, it is regarded, small as it is, as a proposi- tion that pays well. Negro labor is favorably regarded by the man- agement; it being found, however, that negroes usually need training, and that, in doing this, it is well to imbue them with a sense of the importance of the work they are doing. The resultant vanity goes a long way in making them more useful. Mr. Burtis entered the employ of the James A. Brady Foundry Co. fourteen years ago as a shipping clerk. He previously taught Latin and mathematics in a school at Leadville, Col., and subsequently, for a short time, worked as a switchman on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. It has been said of him that his early lack of knowledge of foundry procedure, especially of the ancient prejudices against various methods and materials that so often were found in a foundry, was largely responsible for the growth of his company. In other words, not knowing foundry fetichism, he did not fear it, but aggressively went ahead to find the best available methods suitable for his business. He was one of the first foundrymen to use by-product coke, and when he assumed control he speedily caused use to be made of a large jolt-ram molding machine that had been neglected. Many more molding machines have followed the jolt-ram machine, electric riddles screen the sand, stock cores are made by machine and every part of the plant is accessible to crane service. The three overhead traveling cranes in the main molding room obviate waiting. What is related here is not intended as a eulogy of Mr. Burtis, but as an exemplification of the fact that a man with an open mind, susceptible to sug- gestion and new methods, may sometimes make a business grow, despite a lack of long training in minor details, if he studies his problems intelli- gently and to a great extent disregards moss-grown precepts such as those to which the older school of foundrymen were particularly inclined to cling. The James A. Brady Foundry Co. was estab- lished in 1900 as a jobbing foundry. It has occu- pied two locations in Chicago prior to the one where it is now situated. G. S. Burtis, president, is as- sisted by I. E. Burtis, secretary of the company. The telephone operator is an employee who lost his eyesight several years ago in an accident which occurred in the foundry and who was given a life- job at good pay. He handles the switchboard most efficiently. The collapse of short thin tubes has been investi- gated by Prof. A. P. Carman, department of physics, University of Illinois, and a bulletin, No. 99, has been issued on the subject by the Engineering Experiment Station of the University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. The object was to obtain an equation by which the pressure required to collapse the tube can be calculated from the dimensions of the tube and the elastic properties of the material. Seamless brass, aluminum, glass and rubber tubes were used in the tests. First-aid Room in the Plant of the James A Co., Chicago usually found in jobbing foundries. The nurse shown in the picture also makes it her business to know something of the home life of the employees Brady Such well-equipped rooms of the kind are not Foundry Speeding Up Work at Hog Island Extravagance to Be Curtailed at Shipbuild- ing Plant and Other Conditions Improved —Admiral Bowles Will Direct the Work WASHINGTON, Feb. 12.—Vigorous measures have been taken by the United States Shipping Board to bring about a speedy reformation of conditions at the Hog Island shipyard of the American International Corporation. Extravagance is to be curtailed on every hand, engineering methods are to be revised, labor is to be speeded up and every possible device employed in the hope of recouping a part of the big 100 per cent deficit which now threatens the Government. Rear Admiral Bowles, who is in direct charge of all the shipyards of the country receiving Government aid, will at once move his offices to Philadelphia and devote himself almost exclusively to straightening out the affairs of the Hog Island yard. A naval constructor of long experience and for several years president of the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Admiral Bowles is fully equipped for this important task and it is be- lieved that, if his time had not been necessarily divided among so many projects but could have been devoted entirely to the fabricated shipyards, the present un- fortunate situation at Hog Island would not have de- veloped. Admiral Bowles will take with him a staff of experts who will not only provide the necessary in- spection for the Hog Island yard but will also install immediately a cost-accounting system that will prevent a recurrence of anything like the amazing conditions developed by General Manager Piez’s report in which he lists items of cost exceeding from 100 to 574 per cent the original estimates, not to mention nearly a million dollars expended for necessary items of which the engineers had taken no account. Two Important Tasks Admiral Bowles and his staff will concentrate them- selves upon two tasks; first, to expedite the completion of such parts of the Hog Island yard as will permit the speedy construction of a part of the ships contracted for, and second, to cut expenses to the quick. The original layout of the yard contemplated 50 shipways and the engineering plan involved the contemporaneous building of all these ways and the auxiliary shops and other facilities. The Shipping Board has approved Mr. Piez’s recommendation that work on 18 of these ship- ways be temporarily abandoned and the remaining 32 will be pushed as rapidly as possible. All other units, including power, machine shop facilities, etc., will be treated in the same manner and to all intents and pur- poses the yard will be reduced a little more than one- third in the hope of gaining proportionately in early production of ships. According to the plan heretofore followed, few, if any, ships have been completed during the current calendar year. By devoting all facilities and the greatest possible energy to the work, it is hoped that within the next six or eight months actual deliveries of a few ships can be made and that there- after the rate of delivery will steadily increase until the projected maximum of three ships a week is reached. Closer Supervision It is understood here that the American Interna- tional Corporation has promptly agreed that the Ship- ping Board shall exercise a closer degree of supervision of expenditures at the Hog Island yard and will co- operate in the effort to bring down costs. There is little hope that the yard can be completed for anything like the original estimate of $21,000,000, but Admiral Bowles believes that with rigid economy and a much more rigorous policy with respect to the supervision of labor, the total cost of the yard will not reach the figure predicted by Mr. Piez, which was approximately $45,000,000. In view of the fact that weather condi- tions during the coming months are almost certain to be more favorable than they have been since the yard was started, it is hoped that the excess of cost over estimate may be kept down to 60 per cent. The labor problem at the Hog Island yard is to be handled in vigorous fashion. There is to be no more indiscriminate hiring of men not immediately needed and it is believed that the labor turnover which, ac- cording to Mr. Piez, has at times approximated 100 per cent, can be very materially reduced. The labor bureau of the yard is to be reorganized and the quali- fications of every man are to be carefully looked into before he is hired. The report made to the Shipping Board by Mr. Felton, an engineer attached to the War Department, that only five out of every 100 men about the yard have actually been employed has resulted in orders under which there will be a greater measure of supervision than heretofore. Foremen will be as- signed to smaller working gangs and the entire working force will be carefully combed over in search of expert mechanics with sufficient personality to make good foremen and superintendents. Speeding Up Delivery It is hoped that by the time the 32 shipyards at Hog Island are completed the labor at the yard will be so organized that it will be possible to put on three shifts at the actual work of shipbuilding. It is in- tended to run all shops and auxiliaries on the same basis, if necessary to keep up with the shipbuilders, and plans have already been outlined for speeding up the delivery of material and especially for hastening the work at the fabricating shops where plates and shapes are cut and fitted for assembling at the yards. The steel producers, though badly hampered by weather conditions, fuel shortage, and congested transportation, have the matter of supplying material for the fabri- cated ships well in hand and no serious delays on this account are expected. The accurate standardizing of this material has proven an immense advantage not only in getting it out but in moving it, as all parts are interchangeable. Care has also been used in routing this work so that the parts first needed would first be delivered. This precaution has also obviated the ne- cessity for storing material in quantity, and adherence to this plan is counted upon to effect a substantial sav- ing in the cost of assembling the ships. Mr. Baldwin’s Statement The Shipping Board is in receipt of a statement pre- pared by George J. Baldwin, vice-president of the American International Corporation, delivered by him before the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 7, reviewing the work accomplished at the Hog Island yard and describing some of the difficulties en- countered which have contributed to the greatly in- creased cost of the work as reported by Mr. Piez. Mr. Baldwin also makes public for the first time some interesting details of the contracts for the construction of the yard and for the building of the 120 ships or- dered by the Emergency Fleet Corporation. “It is impossible,” says Mr. Baldwin in this state- ment, “for the public mind as yet to grasp the size of the task confronting the Emergency Fleet Corpora- tion, or the vast readjustments of national industries and the many changes of occupation which have been forced upon millions of our people by the war. We are passing through a period of both reasonable and un- reasoning criticism of almost all of our great lines of war effort. The Shipping Board is criticised for not having produced more ships; the railroads are de- nounced for not transporting our freight more ef- 438 February 14, 1918 ficiently; our great corporations are. held up to scorn as profiteers; many of the departments of Government are under fire charged with inefficiency and inadequate preparation. Our own corporation is thought by some to be extravagant in its shipbuilding methods and pro- ducing ships too slowly. A wave of hysteria seems to be temporarily clouding the calmer judgment of ordi- nary times, but all of these things are temporary and will pass away as the country steadies itself in a definite and effective concentration upon the work before it.” Great Demands of Plant The Hog Island yard, Mr. Baldwin says, contains 900 acres and will have 50 shipways in five groups of 10 each, and a fitting-out basin containing seven piers, each 1000 ft. long with a capacity of four ships per pier. The classification, storage, holding yards, and distribution tracks for material entering into the con- struction of the 120 ships will require 75 miles of standard gage railroad track. The covered buildings, such as plate and angle shops, blacksmith shops, ma- chine shops, and so forth, with office buildings, mess halls, fire stations, police headquarters, living quarters, will include more than 25 acres under roof; 75,000,000 ft. of lumber will be used, about half a million tons of steel, and nearly 30,000 men will be required as a maxi- mum, a larger force than has ever been organized for shipbuilding in any previous year. Mr. Baldwin contends that but for unforeseen circum- stances there would have been no important increase in the cost of the Hog Island yard over the original esti- mates. “It is impossible,” he says, “to estimate the cost of such a proposition conducted under its many inherent difficulties, but we believe that the original estimate submitted last June of approximately $20,- 000,000 for the yard, which was concurred in by the best judgment of the officers of the Emergency Fleet Corporation and the engineers of the American Interna- tional Shipbuilding Corporation, would have been suf- ficient if the work could have been commenced at that time. Difficulties in transportation and labor which could not be foreseen and the all-important fact that postponement in starting the work made it necessary to perform the heavy part of it during most severe winter weather will very materially increase the cost of the work. Estimated Costs i “The total estimated cost of the first 50 7,500-ton boats at $1,100,000 each is $55,000,000. The fee for constructing each boat is $55,000 with certain penalties which may reduce it to $41,000, one-half payable when each boat is one-half completed, and the remainder when it is accepted by the Government. The second lot of 70 8-000-ton boats, at an estimated cost of $1,- 650,000 each, totals $115,500,000. The fee per boat is $82,500, perhaps reduced by penalties to $65,000. The aggregate estimate for the boats and yard is $200,- 500,000, in addition to a.probable expenditure for nec- essary housing for laborers of perhaps $10,000,000 or $12,000,000. “We have estimated that we can deliver 25 of these boats in 13% months from Sept. 13, 1917; 25 more in 15 months; another 25 in 18% months; a fourth 25 in 20 months, and the last 20 in 22 months from this con- tract. date, which will require an average delivery of one ship every two days during the eight and a half months specified.” Value of On-Time Deliveries Mr. Baldwin presented some interesting figures showing from a financial standpoint the value of on- time deliveries of the vessels to be built at Hog Island. The total tonnage so far ordered is 935,000 dead- weight tons, capable when constructed of earning at rates fixed and approved by the Shipping Board Chartering Committee for steamers of 6000 tons or greater deadweight capacity, approximately $10 per month per ton, or $307,186 per day or $9,215,593 per month. These figures emphasize the importance of saving time as a commercial proposition, but of course THE IRON AGE 439 the value of early completion for the purpose of win- ning the war is beyond computation. The extent to which the ships to be built at Hog Island have been planned as a standardized manufacturing proposition is emphasized by Mr. Baldwin, who declares that it marks a new era in shipbuilding. “The fabricated idea,” he says, “simply means that you have a ‘manu- factured’ ship instead of a ‘made-to-order’ ship, just as we have ‘manufactured’ automobiles instead of ‘made- to-order’ ones. Non-Essentials Suppressed “All non-essentials have been suppressed. Curvature of plates, especially those requiring multiple bending, were as far as possible eliminated. Ordinarily struc- tural steel beams were submitted for special ship shapes. No camber of the decks, but flat like those of a battleship; no shear, but a straight deck line from bow to stern, perpendicular sides, and a flat bottom, a strictly rectangular midships section only curving on the bilges; a design of boat carefully combining the best ship and bridge builders’ practice with that of our most efficient manufacturers. Maximum cargo space, was adjusted to maximum safety, utilizing a multiplic- ity of bulkheads, which have saved more than one tor- pedoed oil tanker from going to the bottom. This de- signing has been so accurately and carefully done that the model tested in the Government testing tank shows a speed as great and requires as little power as the average vessel turned out in our best shipyard practice. “If fabricated shipbuilding is a success, and there is no reason to suppose that it will not be, the methods of building cargo ships may be revolutionized and Phila- delphia become the shipbuilding center of the world.” In conclusion, Mr. Baldwin says that if a steady flow of material to the yard can be assured and if the full program of 50 ways after the completion of the 32 on which work is being hastened is adhered to, it is not unreasonable to expect the ships to be delivered in accordance with the original program. Notwith- standing the increase in expenses and despite the delay caused by circumstances beyond control he is con- fident that the increased final cost of the 120 ships “will not exceed 10 per cent of their total cost, even charging the entire cost of the yard solely to these vessels.” A Combination Swivel and Chain Repair Link The Cleveland Galvanizing Works Co., East Cooper Avenue and Pennsylvania Railroad, Cleveland, has brought out a substitute for the ordinary repair link and swivel used with chains. The new device combines the two in one and among the advantages claimed for it are strength, simplicity and the freedom of motion which is said to be equal to that of a high-grade ball bearing. The link has but three parts, two half links and a simple connecting section. In use the two half links are slipped through the ends of the portions of the chains which it is desired to join after which the connecting member is slipped over the ends of these links. In making the connection a hammer, a pair of pliers or a vise is all that is claimed to be required. The link is furnished in three sizes for use with differ- ent weights of chain and in addition can be supplied for joining, welded, weldless or flat link chains. What is claimed to be a satisfactory substitute for platinum for use in the electrical industry is set forth in a patent (U. S. 1,248,621, Dec. 4, 1917) granted to Hugh S. Cooper, Cleveland, and assigned to the Electric Metals Products Co. of that city. It is an alloy of gold, silver and osmium having a high melting point and great hardness. It is also stated to possess ductile and malleable properties and an electrical conductivity similar to platinum. The Duriron Castings Co., Dayton, Ohio, announces the removal of its Chicago office to the Harris Trust Building, to continue in charge of George A. Cocup. 440 RAILROAD TRACK DEFECTS Reduced Ballast and Rail Design to Mitigate Alternate Stresses OLDING that the transitory depression of standard railroad track as a train passes over it sets up in the rails excessive repeated alternate stresses which, augmented by torsional moments, lead to fractures such as occurred on the Galveston, Harrisburg & San An- tonio Railroad near Iser, Tex., Jan. 31, 1916, an investi- gation of which was made by the Interstate Commerce Commission as described in THE IRON AGE, June 7, 1917, G. H. Barbour, assistant chief mechanical engineer, Carnegie Steel Co., Pittsburgh, in a paper presented before the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science at its annual convention in Pitts- burgh, Dec. 28, discussed what he deems fundamental defects in track construction. A review of his paper follows: Standard steamroad track comprises a well-drained subgrade of compressible soil on which is spread and compacted a cushion of broken-stone ballast from 15 to 24 in. in depth. On this are strung at intervals of about 22 in., 7 by 9 in. by 8% ft. wooden crossties for supporting the rails. Track is anything but restful under the hurtling mass and projectile impulse of fast- flying equipment. The rails undulate and wave, the crossties rise and fall and the whole track depresses under the wheel contacts of the train. While the cushioning action of these undulations is necessary, excessive deflections are perilous. The ex- treme fibers of the rails are bound to experience the stresses induced by such curves and so it is advisable to reduce the depth of the ballast and to increase the bear- ing area of the crossties, since from 75 to 80 per cent of the subsidence occurs in the ballast and the remainder in the subgrade. Danger is involved in increasing the height of the rail to obtain the requisite girder strength now that 85 to 100-lb. rails are found to be inadequate; for the stresses in the extreme fibers increase with. their distance from the center of gravity of the rail section. An. unappre- ciated feature of track is the sufficiency and frequency of the rail’s lateral fastenings. Turned-out rails and spikes forced back into the wood are of common occur- rence and reveal the magnitude and intensity of the lateral forces. Double fastenings could be provided for each crosstie were broader ones adopted. Wheel Spans and Loadings The rail is commonly considered a girder spanning from crosstie to crosstie, but it has been demonstrated that the span from wheel to wheel governs the maxi- mum vertical bending moment. Maximum combined stresses are experienced at a wheel contact when it occurs half way between a pair of crossties, for in that position the lateral forces produce the greatest hori- zontal bending moment. The head of the rail is in compression at the wheel contacts and in tension be- tween them and its base vice versa; hence continually repeated reversals of stress and alternate vertical de- flections result. Independent of magnitude and spacing is the im- portance of so loading the locomotive wheels that heavy loads do not have wide spacing. An ideal loading would have the forward truck wheel the lightest with a gradual increase to the middle driver and a gradual de- crease to the trailer which should not have over two- thirds the static load of the main driver. A great many locomotives produce greater stresses under the trailer than anywhere else, to which its position approximately under the center of gravity of the combined engine and tender and its wider spacing are contributory. Defects of Rails and Their Amelioration The joint is the great defect in rails, due to 14 in. more or less of the rail end being held so rigidly in the viselike grip of the splice bars that it cannot deflect freely. For this condition there is no cure, though it can be ameliorated by diminishing the depth of the THE IRON AGE February 14, 1918 transitory depression of the roadbed as the train passes over it and by the use of a splice bar in contact with the rails only at its ends and center. Other defects, even in such heavy installations as the 130-lb. Penn- sylvania Railroad and the 136-lb. Lehigh Valley rails, are lack of lateral strength, insufficient width of head and low center of gravity. In rail design the problem is not only to satisfy the vertical loads on the wheels plus their dynamic augments, together with the lateral forces resulting from the swaying, lashing and tangen- tial impulses of the equipment; but also to compensate the accompanying torsional or polar moments. These are, first, the product of the lateral forces by the verti- cal distance from the top to the center of gravity of the rail and, second, the product of the load on the wheel by the horizontal distance from the rail’s vertical axis to the center of the black streak or line of wheel con- tact which generally occurs on the outside of the rail- head. At the same time the height of the rail should be maintained at the minimum to relieve the critical fibers of its head during the transitory depression, because the head is the point of peril on account of the peening punishment of the impinging wheels, the grinding action of their flanges and the friction of their brake-bound treads, cumulatively aggravated as the wheels become ragged and worn. These considerations are best met by making the railhead broader to bring the black streak nearer its center, by raising the rail’s center of gravity to reduce the torsional lever arm of the lateral forces as well as the distances from its center of gravity to the critical fibers of its head, by increasing the rail’s lateral strength to resist the horizontal bending moment as well as to augment its polar or torsional section modu- lus; and withal, by striving for the lowest rail that will provide the necessary girder strength and satisfy the above conditions. With locomotive wheel loads as great as 35,000 lb. plus dynamic augments as high as 50 per cent contributing to the prevalence of transverse fis- sures, relief is to be found in distributing the weight of the equipmen* on more wheel contacts and in main- taining the treads of wheels in better condition. The American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Railway Engineering Association are now en- gaged in exhaustive researches to determine the stresses in railroad track, through a joint committee under Prof. A. N. Talbot, University of Illinois. The railway in- terests have this matter at heart and are doing all they can* considering their financial handicap. The weights on the wheels are known within reasonable limits, but dynamic augments are uncertain. George L. Fowler has made authoritative and exhaustive experiments on lateral forces. European practice cannot help us much; their toy vans and Lilliputian trains place them where we were a generation ago and our boys abroad are as likely to teach as to learn. A Safe Factory and Workshop Step-Ladder The Chesebro-Whitman Co., Inc., 1167 First Avenue, New York, has brought out a new design of portable step-ladder. The front member of the ladder extends about 2 ft. above the rear one and terminates in a round bar as a safety hold and to allow for working in cramped quarters. A pocket approximately 5 in. wide and 5 in. deep is located directly below the top bar for holding tools. The back is provided with rungs, which allow two men to use the ladder when necessary. A safety spreader is relied on to prevent accidental cutting or pinching of the hand when opening the ladder. The Reynolds Electric Co., 422 South Talman “Av- enue, Chicago, has developed a type of automatic con- troller or rotary switch. Although designed primarily for operating a fire alarm siren the controller may be used for light and audible signals and similar services. The controller is started by pressing a pushbutton switch. This starts the driving motor, and the cir- cuit is interrupted at the end of 2 min. by another switch on the controller, thus giving what is practically an automatic device. Electric Drying Ovens in a Rod Mill Three Units Have a Greater Capacity Than Seven Gas-Fired Ovens and the Life of the Drawing Dies Is Lengthened has been made by the National Screw & Tack Co., Cleveland, which recently substituted elec- trically heated ovens in its rod mill for gas-fired ones for drying the acid out of rods before drawing. Owing to the cutting off of the natural-gas supply to industrial consumers because of its scarcity, the company was compelled to provide some other method for heating its ovens. The electrically heated ovens, which have been in use several weeks, have given general satisfaction, and have been found to have a much greater capacity and various other advantages over the gas-fired ovens. Formerly seven gas-fired units were required to do this work, which is now accomplished with three electric ovens. Of these only two are used at a time, one being kept in reserve. It took from 2!» to 2%%4 hr. to heat up the gas-fired ovens to a temperature of from 380 to 400 deg. Fahr., but with electric ovens the required temperature is obtained in 15 to 18 min. In practice the rods, usually in coils, are pickled and then given a coating of lime before drying. When gas-fired ovens were used the rods, after being pickled and coated with lime, became cold before the ovens were brought up to the re- quired temperature in the morning. Now that the ovens are electrically heated they are ready for use as soon as the rods leave the tanks in which they are lime coated, and the coils go direct to the ovens at a temperature of 100 to 150 deg., at which they leave the tanks. When gas was used it was necessary to keep the rods in the ovens from 114 to 1% hr., but with the electric ovens the rods are dried in from 10 to 20 min., the longer period being required for larger sizes. The comparatively long time required for \ NEW use of electricity in industrial plants drying out the rods in the gas ovens is attributed to the moisture in the hot gases that pass over the coils, but which is not present in the dry radiant heat of the electric ovens. When gas was used from 16 to 18 tons of rods were dried in an oven in 12 to 13 hr. With the electric ovens 45 to 55 tons of rods are dried in one oven in a 10-hr. run, and an output of as high as 80 tons has been secured in that time. Another advantage found in the use of electric ovens is that rods electrically dried can be handled better through: the dies during the drawing opera- tion, and the dies are found to last longer. This is due to the fact that a glazed coat is left on the rods when dried in a gas oven, and this coating scratched the rods and clogged the dies. When electrically dried this glazed coating does not ap- pear. The cost of electricity for heating is greater than gas, but it is stated that the increased output makes the cost per ton less. The increase in ton- mage is about 200 per cent, with an increase of only about 33 per cent in the cost of electricity for a given period. The ovens are standard gas ovens of the Craw- ford type with chambers 21 ft. deep, 6 ft. high, and 5 ft. wide. Each oven is provided with 24 standard low-temperature japanning oven heaters with a capacity of 3'5 kw. each. Instead of placing the heaters along the sides of the oven as is cus- tomary in electric japanning ovens, the heaters are mounted in two rows in a pit under the rails that provide a runway for the buggies on which the coils are loaded for charging into the ovens. A wire screen extends from the rails to the sides to prevent coils from dropping into the pit and injuring the heaters should the coils fall from the trucks. With Each of the Ovens, One of Which Is Shown at the Right, Has an Independent Control Panel Equipped with a Double Switch, Contactor, Reversing Relay, Fuses and Indicating Lamp, the throw Meters Being Located in Cabinets Above the Panels 441 POP me 442 the substitution of electricity for gas the ovens will be covered on the sides and top with a silica brick, this installation being provided to reduce the heat losses. The usual charge is about 6 tons of coils loaded on three buggies. These are of steel weigh- ing about 500 lb. each. The current is two-phase, 60-cycle, with a volt- age of 440 on the heaters and 110 on the control circuit. The energy required for each oven is 144 kw. The current consumption is 45 kw.-hr. for each charge of the oven. Each oven is provided with a standard indus- trial heat control panel mounted on pipe supports. Connection to the panel is made through eight cables by a four-pole double-throw switch on the panel. The control panel also carries a four-pole contactor, reversing relay, fuses and indicating lamp. Automatic control of the temperature of each oven is obtained by a Tycos electric contact temperature control instrument, which is connected to the 110-volt control circuit. Although the range of the temperature is 20 deg., the stationary con- tacts to the instrument can be placed close enough together to keep the range of temperature between 10 deg. As a safety feature, the two oven doors at each end are provided with door switches. These are on the control circuit, and are located so that when either door is opened the current is shut off, making it impossible for the workmen to get a shock when entering the oven. The current is also auto- matically turned on when the door is closed, making it unnecessary for the attendant to go to the con- trol panel to turn on the electricity. While the ovens are now used only for drying the rods, it is the intention to use them also for annealing, which will require a higher temperature and longer time. The heating units, control panels and other elec- trical equipment except the temperature control in- strument, were supplied by the General Electric Co., which will shortly make a similar installation at the Elyria, Ohio, plant of the Elyria Iron & Steel Co. Book Review Principles of Iron Founding. By Richard Moldenke: pages, 517, 6 x 9 in.; illustrations, 45. Published by the McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York. Price $4. For sale by the Book Department of THE IRON AGE. Dr. Moldenke’s identification with the American foundry and its advance in the past 20 years makes him peculiarly the man of his time to “set in order” the principles of modern iron founding. At times it has seemed that of the making of many books dealing with the foundry there is no end, but nearly all of the pre- vious works have followed the plan of describing foun- dry equipment and processes without going very deeply into underlying principles. Some of them again have covered only the particular part of the field in which the author’s experience had been gained. Dr. Mol- denke’s connection with foundry operations at the be- ginning was with the metallurgical side, but since the early nineties, when he had to do with the production of malleable castings, his work has been constantly broad- ening, his activities as secretary of the American Foun- drymen’s Association for a dozen years or more and his special investigations of foundry processes and ma- terials giving him an acquaintance with foundry prac- tice in the United States that is probably duplicated in no other single experience. The study of the metallurgy of cast iron and the resultant literature had long been coupled with a series of carbon diagrams which originated in Great Britain, and it was not so many years ago that the papers read in the various foundrymen’s associations throughout the country were a. monotonous reiteration of well- known facts concerning the influence of the various THE IRON AGE February 14, 1918 metalloids on the properties of pig iron and the metal resulting from melting it in the cupola and pouring it into a sand mold. There was a sameness also in pre- vious literature dealing with foundry equipment, par- ticularly a sameness in the illustrations. In the pres- ent volume Dr. Moldenke treats comprehensively the principles underlying the approved foundry practice of to-day. In the first chapter the development of the foundry from early times to the present is rapidly sketched, and Chapter 2 deals with the industrial status of the foundry. Organization is the subject of Chapter 3, which is brief. The first three chapters seem scarcely germane to the main theme of the book, which is really modern foundry processes, materials and metallurgy. Dr. Moldenke is particularly at home in the section dealing with cupola processes, as these have had the benefit of much of his research work of the past fifteen years. Following a chapter on the technology of com- bustion are two long chapters on melting processes. In these is the most valuable material of the book. There is a chapter also giving an outline of iron metal- lurgy, another dealing with iron making processes and one devoted to the properties of cast iron, this last em- bodying some interesting matter on analyses of special cast irons. The chapter on the classification of castings is more elaborate than anything that has appeared, due credit being given to the laborious investigation of this subject made by Dr. John Jermain Porter some years ago. Dr. Moldenke does not hesitate to take a stand on debatable questions in foundry metallurgy and reit- erates with some elaboration his position as to the ef- fects of oxygen in cast iron and the properties possessed by castings made from pig irons to which oxygen addi- tions have been made. Time has brought no change in the author’s attitude toward “semi-steel.” The good results coming from additions of steel scrap in cupola mixtures are recognized, but it is insisted that the re- sultant castings are still simply cast iron and that no kinship with steel should be claimed even though there is the modifying prefix “semi.” It is a question whether in the now well understood use of the term “semi-steel” there is either any such misrepresenta- tion by the maker or misunderstanding by the buyer as the book would attach to the present-day commer- cial product carrying this name. The chapter on Mixture-Making is the nearest ap- proach made by the book to the long familiar studies of foundry associations and the early foundry experts into the effects on the casting of varying contents of silicon, sulphur, manganese, phosphorus and carbon in the mixture. Dr. Moldenke has had a vast amount of experience in the testing of cast iron, and one might have expected a longer chapter on that subject. The au- thor’s extended investigations of American molding sands made for the American Foundrymen’s Associa- tion are summarized and considerable new material added. The whole discussion of foundry raw materials is practical and serviceable. Later editions will no doubt eliminate the few minor oversights in editing and make more definite some of the statements on metallurgical points that are too con- densed to satisfy every demand of accuracy, as, for ex- ample, “when the carbon percentage runs below 2.00 we have a steel; when above, a cast iron.” No other work on foundry metallurgy, melting processes and materials has brought together so much new and val- uable matter and in form so highly interesting and serviceable, and it is to be expected, therefore, that it will be widely circulated and read. Graham furnace at Graham, Va., operated by the Pocahontas Pig Iron Corporation, is about to start up on ferromanganese, having operated on spiegeleisen for the past two months. The ferromanganese will be pro- duced on a conversion contract. The Beatty Machinery Mfg. Co., builder of punching and shearing machinery, is now located at 150th and Oak Streets, Hammond, Ind. Work for Which 250,000 Mechanics Are Needed Template for marking rivet holes Keel plates at the bow Fabricating a steel mast Spee “ LLIN : Pee ‘ie s Sar <2 help the Department of Labor mobilize the industrial army for shipbuilding, readers of THE IRON AGB are asked to encourage what employees they may release to a enter this service. The illustrations are from copyrighted photographs of the Committee on Public Information. An illustrated catalog giv- ing a complete list of the titles of the 800 or more official war pictures has been is- sued. Any picture may be obtained for 10 cents each, for private collection purposes, by sending cash, check or money order to the Division of Pic- . * tures, Committee on — Z ™ - ames Public Information, pe OF & Frucces 10 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C The catalog will be sent upon receipt of 5 cents. 444 CORROSION OF IRON AND STEEL Their Preservation in Reinforced Concrete— Inhibiting Effect of Alkalies | a paper on “Corrosion of Iron and Steel with Special Reference to Reinforced Concrete,” recently read before the Concrete Institute (British) by Dr. J. Newton Friend, the author, after a historical survey of the subject of iron and its uses and the early records extant on the subject of corrosion, submitted the fol- lowing facts bearing on the cause of rust formation: Water, alone, is without appreciable action upon iron at ordinary temperatures. This he illustrated by tubes ex- hibited containing iron and air-free water, hermetically sealed 11% years ago Apart from the merest trace of tarnishing, which could only be detected under a powerful light, the metal appeared to have undergone no change whatever Water vapor is without visible action upon iron at ordi- Wary temperatures. Iron might be heated for prolonged periods in steam up to about 300 deg. C. without undergoing any apparent change At 350 deg. C. and somewhat above, ferrous oxide was produced, the surface of the metal being tarnished and gaseous hydrogen evolved At still higher temperatures magnetic oxide of iron resulted and formed a skin on the surface of the metal, which tended to protect the underlayers from attack. This, however, was but rust- ing in the ordinary acceptation of the term. It was oxidation, and was the principle of the Barff process of protecting iron from corrosion. From the foregoing it was clear that oxygen and liquid water were essential to corrosion. After a few remarks upon the chemical nature of rust the author proceeded: At ordinary temperatures a very dilute solution of sodium carbonate is consid- erably more corrosive than tap water. But if the con- centration be increased to 0.25 per cent and above, the metal is entirely protected from rusting. Similarly, a 3 per cent solution of common salt at about 10 deg. C. is much more corrosive than tap water at the same temperature, but as the temperature rises the relative corrosivity falls, so much so that at 21 deg.