The Iron Age 1920-01-22: Vol 105 Iss 4

ESTABLISHED 1855 VOL. 105: No. 4 Bye ea aueey Ie Ne VILE. AEST Ca, Ue Electrically Treated Light Wall Tubing Process Developed by Snead & Co.—Proper- ties of the Metal— Application of Nickel Steel Tubes, So Treated, to Automobile Shafts HE proper heat treatment of light wall steel tubing on a commercial scale has been a desid- eratum for some time. One successful solu- tion of this problem seems to have been found by Snead & Co., Jersey City, N. J. One of the difficul- ties in improving the quality of steel tubing in any heat-treatment process has been that the tubing, after being heated up to proper temperatures by the ordinary methods applied to other steel products and then quenched, has been distorted so as to be unfit for the use intended. By an ingenious applica- tion of electricity as the heating medium, this and other objections have been over- come by the company mentioned. The new process was developed as the result of a search for a method of heat-treating steel tubing to be used as the shafts for lances for the Russian cossack cavalry. This was early in the war. Because of certain market conditions the only steel obtain- able was a soft welded steel tube 1 in. in diameter, 20 gage and of 0.35 per cent carbon. In the fin- ished lances an elastic limit of over 83,000 lb. per sq. in. was re- quired to obtain a high degree of stiffness. The length of these tubes being 1014 ft. and extremely light, it was not possible to prop- erly treat them vertically in any fuel-fired furnace. The evolution of the process to its present commercial application is recounted as follows by H. P. MacDonald, vice-president of Snead & Co.: A plan was developed for em- ploying an electric current of low voltage and high amperage to heat the tubing by its own internal re- sistance and an apparatus was de- signed to accomplish this. The tube was held in a ‘Vertieal position etween copper contacts, which gripped it at its upper and lower ends, the upper contacts being fixed ertically and the lower ones free to 1ove up and down with the tubing, The Electric Heat-Treating Apparatus Developed by Snead & Co. for Treat- stop. The contacts were gripped by powerful springs and opened by cams attached to a vertical shaft. The current was led from a low-voltage transformer to the upper and lower contacts and the tube heated by its passage, in about 20 sec. On reaching the required temperature the contacts were opened and the tube allowed to fall vertically into a deep bath of oil situ- ated directly underneath the machine. This process proved very successful. On this machine no attempt was made to measure temperatures accurately, the elongation for a given temperature being figured out and the electric current shut off by a mechanically operated switch was tripped when the desired elongation was reached. It was ob- served, however, that the tempera- tures necessary for hardness were much lower than those required when a fuel-heated furnace was used, and in an endeavor to learn the cause for this I met Prof. James S. Mac- gregor of Coldmbia University, New York, who was looking for means to heat treat a lot of aircraft tubing for the Italian Royal Flying Corps. Asa result a large quantity of tubing of various diameters, in lengths up to 22 ft., was heat treated satisfactor- ily, no difficulty being experienced in keeping the tubing straight and the process taking place so rapidly that the tube was not sealed. Dur- ing this time the apparatus was be- ing gradually improved and it was discovered that when the critical point of the material was reached the tubing, instead of continuing to expand, actually shortened in length, thereby indicating in itself the crit- ical temperature, and means were devised for multiplying the move- ment and indicating the tempera- ture on a dial. Later on further improvements were made, such as hanging the upper contacts to cables passing over pulleys at the top of the ma- chine, connecting these cables with a drum at the bottom and having the latter connected through spiral ing Light Wall Steel Tubing. — : aa the fatal the : : changes in temperatures are recordec earing so as change int o latter being brought to the same on the dial in the lower left-hand cor- . ad & po \itial position for the start of each peration by a treadle and positive ner as the electric current traverses the tube, which finally falls into the oil tank below the floor leverage on the teraperature-indicat- .ing pointer in such a way as to 249 REP ERNE tigre «, ome eaoceonanate gal haa Sn ae ~ nme $ Ale ll me agin tee a ing ll make the movement of the pointer constant for all lengths of material undergoing the same temperature change. About this time work was also done for the United States Bureau of Standards, which was developing wing beam structures for all-steel airplanes, and tests on samples cut from a chrome-vanadium steel beam of about 0.25 per cent carbon and 0.018 in. thick showed the following results: Proportional limit, lb. per sq. in... .. 112,000 Ultimate strength, lb. per sq. in..... --- 218,000 ) maommation in 2 Wi, DOF CONE... ..cccnece cee 2.7 S« leroscope hardness ° ° eats 75 These beams could be cut with a hacksaw after heat treatment. A large quantity of steel tubing for use in landing chassis of Handley-Page airplanes was also put through this process with complete satisfaction to the Govern- ment inspectors, who required an ultimate strength of 110,000 lb. per sq. in. and an elongation of 15 per cent in 2 in. Samples of 3.50 per cent nickel steel axles submitted to the Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. and tested in its laboratory gave the following results at different tempers: Elastic limit, Ultimate strength, Elongation in lb. per sq. in lb. per sq. in 2 in., per cent 154,000 172,400 6.5 198,600 223,500 6.0 220.500 246,000 6.5 When the war ended we were working with the engineering division of the Air Service conducting tests on round steel tubes to be used as interplane struts. Appearance of the Electrically Heat Treated Nickel Steel Tubing After It Has Been Joined to the Spider of the Automobile Propeller Shafts The tests developed the interesting fact that the ordi- nary column formula failed to hold in steel of such high tensile strength. In the case of a tube having an ultimate strength of 193,000 lb. per sq. in. the compres- sion results were 12 per cent higher than the strength computed by the formula, which checked out very closely on ordinary materials. In the machine as it is now used the work is held in copper contacts operated by compressed-air cylin- ders and the temperature is indicated on the dial at the left, as shown by one of the illustrations, the pipe containing the quenching oil being shown projecting above the floor of the shop. The present type of ma- chine allows the critical temperature of the material being treated to be determined readily while the work is in process, especially in the case of high carbon or alloy steels in which there is a very definite retrograde move- 250 THE IRON AGE January 22, 1920 ment of the pointer when the calescent states of the material are reached. It has been found that these critical periods occur under electric treatment at very much lower temperatures, that is, from 50 to 100 deg. Fahr., than when the ordinary furnace treatment is used. It is not, however, necessary in the use of these machines to know beforehand the critical temperature as it is automatically determined in the process. The advantages of this method seem to lie in the low temperatures necessary, speed of the heating opera- tion which is usually a matter of less than one minute, thereby in most cases completely obviating the forma- tion of scale and making possible the heat tre itment of extremely light material, the com) lete cor ‘ol of the work and the high physical characteristi. cbtained, the reduction in area of the test pieces be. + particu- larly noteworthy. The process is also useful for dis- covering flaws or thin spots in the material undergoing treatment, this being particularly applicable to tubing, where any irregularity in the wall is shown up by that part overheating or Keating more quickly than the other portions of the tube. Three volts per foot of length of the material to be heat treated are found ample for any analysis, and a current density of 8000 amp. per sq. in. in cross- section is usually employed at the start of the process. The voltage between contacts increases as the tempera- ture of the material goes up and the amperage cor- respondingly falls, the figures given being for the am- perage taken at the first rush of current. In general practice for tubing, 0.1 kw. hr. per lb. of material heated up through its critical state is required. Solid bar stock takes about 0.06 kw. hr. per lb. Previous experiments showed that where the ma- terial was quenched before the pointer showed the tem- perature beginning to increase again, the results were uncertain, and to obtain proper quenching conditions the old idea of “quenching on a rising temperature” had to be followed. The tests show that after the needle has once begun to indicate an increase in temperature after the drop at the critical point, practically the same results are obtained until the maximum temperature, reached before entering the critical period, is passed. After this there is a tendency for the grain of the steel to coarsen. These tests also indicate that a single quench on nickel steel heated electrically gives as good results as the double. The importance of completing the allotropic changes in the structure of the steel taking place in the critical period is too well known to be more than mentioned, and these figures illustrate the amount of internal work that must be accomplished, neglecting the factor of radiation. In other words, 30 per cent of the total heat units necessary to put into this steel go into it after it has reached its maximum temperature and is passing through the critical period and before the temperature again begins to rise. Additional investigations are de- sirable along these same lines, particularly with refer- ence to chrome-nickel and carbon steels. The calibration of the machine was accomplished in the following manner: For the lower temperature lead, tin and zinc were fused on the work and the temperature run up until these materials were succes- sively melted and then allowed to freeze slowly, and the reading on the dial noted. For higher temperatures and as a further check, the leads of a platinum-iridium pyrometer couple were placed inside of a heavy wall tube and pyrometer and dial readings taken simultane- ously, the temperature of the tube being held con- stant at various stages by switching the current on and off. A most interesting application to the automobile industry of nickel steel tubing, treated by this process, is the latest development in this field. It January 22, 1920 How the Snead #Tushion Drive Is Applied to Automobile a feature of this is the use of such tubing as propeller shafts for passenger ¢ars und trucks. Snead & Co. already has a large department devoted to the manufacture of various sizes of such shafts which a number of automobile builders are using. In the average propeller shaft a carbon steel tubing, untreated, is the main part, coupled to the universal joints in the usual manner. It is evident that the use of an electrically heat-treated nickel steel tubing in such shafts, is a source of distinct advantage. In the first place there is decidedly in- creased strength, the nickel tubing after the treat- ment having several times the tensile strength of the carbon tubing, even if it were heat treated. The automobile builder can readily appreciate this factor in the added stability of the motive power. An important claim made for this kind of shaft is that its strength and toughness are such that under no conditions will the shaft whip. It is stated that this has been tried out in a number of cases and been satisfactorily demonstrated. An ingenious method of attaching the propeller shaft to the spiders is a feature. One of the illus- trations will elucidate this. The tubing is inserted cold into the center of the heated spider, which is so constructed that the counter-sunk position of it is hexagonal in shape. As soon as the tubing has been inserted properly, its edge only is heated to a cherry-red temperature by an oxy-acetylene flame. An hexagonal cap or sealing wedge of steel is then driven into this opening with a pneumatic hammer and the outer edges arc welded. The process is claimed to not only insure an unusually strong union Will Advertise Surplus Products WASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—The method of conducting surplus property sales has been revised by the Director of Sales of the War Department with the view to better familiarizing a larger percentage of interested buyers and purchasers with the various materials and articles available. Such surplus articles as are usable in the average household, of which the entire quantity can be sold through the quartermaster retail stores, will be offered for sale only through those stores. Similar items of which the quantity is too great to sell entirely through the quartermaster retail stores will have their unsold balances together with those items unsuitable for sale through the retail stores offered to the public in in- formal bids on advertised lists. Balances remaining after bids have been advertised and received will be sold at a fixed price which may be turned to a maximum price on a fixed trading basis. Items to be sold at auction will be offered in this manner and when the offers received are less than the satisfactory price they will be rejected and a fixed minimum price established. It is planned to have the Surplus Property Division, Washington office, publish daily lists of surplus prop- erty in commodity group lists. Included in these lists will be such information as name, quantity, location, THE IRON AGE 251 Sli hes —~\ END VIEW D> ve Ape Sf Shafts A specially constructed universal joint is a new departure of the shaft and spider, but there is the added ad- vantage that the nickel steel tubing is in no manner harmed by the heating of the tubing in order to attach it to the spider. The line drawing also fur- ther explains this proceedure. The method of connecting these propeller shafts to the propelling portions of the car is interesting. Instead of the usual universal joint, there is used a device consisting of three Thermoid Hardy disks separated by beaded washers and attached to both ends of the propeller shaft as indicated by the illus- tration. The use of this Snead cushion drive is claimed to insure remarkable steadiness in opera- tion as well as unusual strength and resistance to shock. It is believed that the possibilities of this process of heat treating steel tubing have been only par- tially developed, that the field has only been scratched. The cost of handling work by’ this process is dependent in the first instance on the available electric current. Heavy sections such as steel rails can be heat treated advantageously, it is asserted, but the success commercially depends on the solution of certain electrical problems. It would be easy to obtain a tensile strength of 130,000 Ib. per sq. in. in an 0.70 per cent carbon rail by this process and there would also result greater relia- bility than now obtained in the ordinary rolled sec- tion. The advantages of the process are increased by the fact that pyrometers and refractories are not needed and that the method can readily be taught to operators. American and foreign patents have been granted covering all these processes. shipping unit, minimum quantity upon which bids will be received, and a report of the condition, description of commodity as well as the conditions of sale. Copies of these lists will be forwarded to each zone at least 20 days prior to the date established as the closing date. The Washington office of the Surplus Property Division will place advertisements in the trade journals and newspapers when deemed advisable, calling attention to the sales. Publicity matter will be issued in such manner as to permit the general public to be informed at least two weeks prior to the date upon which the lists will be closed. The days upon which the various classes of com- modities will be sold have been fixed as follows: Mon- day, textiles; Tuesday, raw materials, machinery and engineering materials; Wednesday, general supplies; Thursday, medical and hospital supplies and motor vehicles; Friday, clothing and equipage; Saturday, sub- sistence. Each zone will accept bids until 3 p. m., Eastern time, on the closing day for each list. Abstracts of the bids will be forwarded to the Washington office within 24 hours. When rejections are made on the list the items rejected will be considered immediately and the fixed trading price established. This will be a price at which the commodity will be offered to all buyers, subject to prior sale. Pores Levy oe Se ee aii ity es A COKE LANDS SOLD Extraordinary Demand from Steel Companies to Insure Supply UNIONTOWN, Pa., Jan. 20.—An unprecedented situa- tion has been created in the Connellsville coke trade by the expansion of steel and furnace interests into the Connellsville coke region with the evident purpose of insuring a fuel supply by the purchase outright of coke properties. Almost overnight properties having a value of from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 found an active market. Two deals involving an aggregate considera- tion of from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 have been officially closed, and negotiations are known to be pending for the purchase of other plants. With the coming of the new year the march against the Connellsville coke region by the steel and furnace interests was commenced. The first deal closed was the sale of the Orient Coke Co. with 480 beehive ovens and 1000 acres of coal and surface to the American Coke Corporation, a new company being organized with a capital stock of $3,000,000. The identity of the interests back of the new corporation has not been offi- cially announced, but reliable information here is that the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Co. and the Wheeling Steel & Iron Co. are controlling factors. Frank E. Peabody and Eugene S. Reilly, of the Reilly-Peabody Fuel Co., Pittsburgh, are officially known to be in the deal. The second property to be taken over by steel interests was the No. 1 plant of the Thompson Connells- ville Coke Co., with 400 ovens and 1000 acres of coal. That property was sold by J. H. Hillman, who owns control to the Weirton Steel Co., Weirton, W. Va., and E. W. Mudge & Co., Pittsburgh. The considera- tion was not announced, but it is reported that the Thompson plant brought a better figure than the Orient property. Both are adjacent properties in the Lower Connellsville field. Julian Kennedy was president and principal stockholder in, the Orient company at the time of its sale. R. M. Fry has been retained by the buying corporation as its general manager. When the Orient deal was announced it also became known that other deals were pending for the purchase of coke properties by the new corporation. That state- ment has given rise to numerous reports. W. Russell Carr, of Uniontown; Frank E. Peabody and Eugene S. Reilly, are incorporators of the new corporation. All are directors in the American Connellsville com- pany operating the two old Sunshine plants, and it would not be surprising if they were merged with the new corporation. There are also persistent reports that the Tower Hill Connellsville Coke Co. and the Katherine plant of the Union Connellsville Coke Co. are figuring in a deal, but whether negotiations are pending with the new corporation or with any other steel interest cannot be determined at this time. When he announced the sale of the Thompson No. 1 plant Mr. Hillman took occasion to deny a report that the Thompson No. 2 plant and the two plants of the Hecla Coal & Coke Co. were under option to an inde- pendent steel company of Pittsburgh. New Rail and Water Rate Tariffs giving the new rail and water freight rates on Alabama iron to Boston and other New England points show a flat f.o.b. alongside rate to Boston of $5.75 per ton. That rate is to provide for the foundry interest desiring to purchase for shipment elsewhere along the New England coast, but comparatively little iron is so purchased. The rail and water rate to interior New England points provides a $5.62 alongside Boston rate. To this is added 40c. for handling charges and the local rate, whatever it may be. For instance, the local rate from Boston to Lowell on iron brings the delivered price up to $7.02%, to Portland $7.52, to Springfield $7.42%, ete. Heretofore the general delivered price was $8 per ton. THE IRON January 22, 1920 AGE The new tariff applies only to shipments made t. Boston & Maine and Boston & Albany Railroad points The tariff to New Haven points remains as heretofore owing to the fact that the Merchant & Miners Trans portation Co. has not agreed to the new rates. Takes Fabricated Steel at Half Cost WASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—Under a settlement jus reached by the Shipping Board and the Submarine Boa: Corporation of Newark, N. J., a large quantity of fabricated steel is to be taken over by that company for one-half its cost to the Government. The stee!] in question is practically enough for the construction of 32 ships, contracts for which have been canceled by the board. The Shipping Board originally placed the contracts for 150 steel fabricated vessels of 5350 deadweight tons each with the Submarine Boat Corpo ration. Contracts for 32 of the ships were suspended some time ago and claims were presented for settle ment. Under the agreement now reached the Sub marine Boat Corporation will complete the 118 othe: vessels, 88 of which have already been delivered under the contract with the Shipping Board. The Submarine Boat Corporation also intends to complete the 32 ships, but on its own account with the expectation of offering them for sale as under the terms of the settlement the company will take over all the steel that has been pur chased by the Government for these 32 ships. It is estimated that the total to be paid for this fabricated steel under the arrangement will be considerably in excess of $5,000,000. Officials of the Shipping Board believe they have made a satisfactory deal. They point out that in the recent sale of a large quantity of surplus steel the best price obtained for fabricated steel was $25 a ton. Inasmuch as much of this steel cost in the neighbor- hood of $70 a ton, not including the cost of fabrication, its sale on the 50 per cent basis will net considerably more than $25. The settlement with the Submarine Boat Corporation also provides that the company shall take over its plant from the Government. It will pay a rental totaling $4,000,000 during the next four years, and is given option to purchase the plant at the end of that time for the payment of an additional sum of $1,125,000. The company will also pay a rental for the year to the city of Newark. The Shipping Board has reduced the price of the Submarine Boat Corpora- tion type of vessels from $210 to $200 per deadweight ton. It is stated that the reason for this action is that this particular class of ships is less desirable than others, and that no reduction in other types is contem- plated. A desire to facilitate the sale of surplus steel and other materials is one of the reasons for the de- cision of the Shipping Board to move the Philadelphia offices of the Emergency Fleet Corporation from Phila- delphia to Washington. Washington’s View of the Iron Situation WASHINGTON, Jan. 20.—‘The outstanding feature in the iron situation,” says the December review of the Bureau of Mines, “is the great prosperity of the industry. A domestic demand for iron and steel prod- ucts that is sufficient to tax the operating capacity of the steel plants in the United States for many months makes the outlook exceptionally bright, especially with the domestic demand accentuated by foreign inquiries for American steel products.” Concerning the steel situation abroad the review says: “One of the greatest coal, iron and steel com- panies in German-Austria finds itself in a serious situ- ation in regard to an adequate fuel supply, as most of the mines which furnished the coal or coke consumed by the furnaces are situated in the new Czech territory, and the Czechs have practically ceased supplying the Austrian iron works. As the Germans are not in a position to assist the company out of its difficulty, it has been proposed to rescrt to electric smelting as a solution. In normal times the company operates 12 furnaces and produces about 600,000 tons of pig iron yearly. At the present time but one blast furnace is running.” Rolling Mill of Sharon Steel Hoop Co. Blooms Handled by Hydraulic Manipu- lator—21-In. Continuous Sheet-Bar and Slab Mill—The Steam Flying Shear a small company known as the Youngstown Iron & Steel Roofing Co., which had a capital of only $12,000, and which engaged in the manufacture of sheet steel roofing, conductor pipe and eaves trough, buying its sheets from mills nearby. The company was very successful under the management of John O. Pew, and in 1901 it erected at Haselton, near Youngstown, a plant containing nine hot sheet mills and other equipment for making black and galvanizing sheets, and in 1910 added a 72-in. three-high plate mill. The company found it desirable later to make its own steel, and it then acquired at Lowellville, near Youngstown, a site on which it built in 1915 an open-hearth steel works. This plant contained three 80-ton open-hearth furnaces, a fourth of the Same size being added later. Also a 36-in. three-high slabbing mill, a 30-in. three-high sheet bar mill and two four-hole soaking pits. A complete description of this steel plant appeared in THE IRON AGB, issue of Feb. 24, 1916. At this time, the Youngstown Iron & Steel Co. made a contract to secure molten metal from I: 1894, there was established at Youngstown, Ohio, Mary blast furnace of the Ohio Iron & Steel Co., also located at Lowellville. It was now self- contained, having its own molten metal, open-hearth steel plant, sheet bar and sheet mills, also own- ing and operating the Youngstown Pressed Steel Co., making pressed steel specialties. The company was doing a very large business, and was in a flourishing condition. : In February, 1917, the Sharon Steel Hoop Co., Sharon, Pa., of which Severn P. Ker is president, se- cured control of the Youngstown Iron & Steel Co. and took over all its assets and properties. The Sharon Steel Hoop Co., which operates a large plant at Sharon, Pa., in the manufacture of billets, sheet bars, hoops, bands and cotton ties, and which has its own open- hearth steel plants and finishing mills, decided to en- large the open-hearth steel output at its newly ac- quired plant at Lowellville, and there was completed early this year at Lowellville two more 75-ton ope: hearth furnaces, giving a total of six furnaces of this capacity, also a new four-hole soaking pit furnace, giv- ing a total of four pit furnaces, and an electrically driven blooming mill with all necessary accessories, also a 2l1-in. tandem slab and sheet bar mill. This mill equipment is to replace the 30-in. bar mill and the 24-in. universal mill which the Youngstown Iron & Steel Co. built in 1915. The two new open-hearth furnaces are similar in de- sign to those previously installed in the open-hearth eS ge - al De ee en ca a ne The 9000-Hp. Direct-Current Reversing Blooming-Mill Motor and Motor Generator Set Op- erating from 0 to 100 r.p.m., Shown Above. At the Left, the Drive for the pe Continuous plant. They are equipped with Blair electric operating valves and electric operating door lifts. The furnaces are served by a charging machine and 150-ton ladle erane built by the Morgan Engineering Co., Alliance, Ohio. This gives double handling equipment for charg- ing and tapping the open-hearth furnaces. Three Mor- gan producer-gas machines were installed for each fur- nace. Two of these machines will operate a furnace with the third for use when running on poor coal. Con- crete storage bins were built in the stockyard and so arranged that the raw materials may be Gumped from the railroad cars directly into the bins and the mate- rials then loaded into the charging boxes by means of a grab bucket which is operated from an overhead crane. The new blooming mill is a 34-in. motor driven two- high reversing mill with manipulator and tables, built by Mackintosh, Hemphill & Co., Pittsburgh. This mill 253 i GBs Se a a oan pa IRON AGE January 22, 1920 The Approach Side of the 34-In. Motor-Driven Two-High Reversing Blooming Mill, Equipped with Universal Couplings to Take Up Backlash in Reversing A special feature is the hydraulic manipulator, with new tilting mechanism is driven by 9000-hp. reversing direct-current, 700-volt motor, having a speed of 0 to 100 r.p.m. The blooming mill was designed and built by Mackintosh, Hemphill & Co., and is of the latest standard design. The rolls in this mill are 30-in. in diameter by 72-in. long and have a lift of 28-in. The screw- down mechanism is operated by two motors in series. All gears are totally inclosed and run in oil. The screw-down is of the hydraulic balance type. The feed rollers are driven by the extensions of the table side- shafts, making one continuous drive for each side of the mill. The mill is equipped throughout with universal couplings, to take up any back-lash due to reversing. All mill tables are of the latest design with cast steel The gears have cut teeth and are All tables are motor rollers and gears. totally inclosed, running in oil. operated. The Blooming Mill Drive The blooming mill is driven by a motor capable of delivering a torque of 1,000,000 ft.-lb. at 47 r.p.m. The motor is liberally designed to withstand the peaks en- countered in reversing blooming-mill drive, and is pro- vided with a thrust bearing to protect it from the se- vere mechanical shocks of the mill, such as the break- ing of a spindle. The motor is artificially ventilated, the induction motor driving the blower being so inter- locked with the main direct-current breaker in the re- versing motor circuit that the breaker cannot be closed unless the blower is in operation. The reversing mo- tor is controlled from the mill operators’ pulpit by a master switch. Once the flywheel set is brought up to speed, and the main circuit breaker closed, the reversing motor is controlled almost entirely from the pulpit in the mill. The ease and rapidity with which this motor can be started, stopped or reversed shows it to be inherently adapted to this class of service. This motor drives the mill without any sign of distress when taking 2-in. to 3-in. drafts on almost every pass, when rolling 22-in. ingots to approximately 4 x 8 in. and to6 x18 in. The reversing motor receives its power from a 2250-kw., 700-volt, 352-r.p.m., d.c., shunt-wound generator, which is designed to withstand the same peak load as encoun- tered by the reversing motor. This generator is driven by a 1500-hp. a.c. motor, which is designed to operate on a three-phase, 2200-volt, 60-cycle circuit, and is of the wound rotor type. A 60,000-lb. flywheel is mounted on the same bedplate with the motor and generator set, and between the two machines. This flywheel is entirely enclosed with a sheet-iron cover to reduce the windage losses, and also to afford protection to the operator. The flywheel bear- ings of this set are water-cooled as an emergency feature. A liquid slip regulator limits the peaks and equalizes the input to the flywheel set. When the load on the a.c. motor reaches a predetermined value, the regu lator introduces resistance in the secondary, which causes the motor to decrease in speed, thereby allowing the flywheel to give up some of its stored energy, and hence to absorb the peak loads. When the peak load goes off the regulator cuts out the resistance in the secondary, and thus brings the flywheel back to full speed. The regulator is so arranged that the a.c. mo- tor cannot be started until the maximum resistance is inserted in the secondary by means of the regulator being wide open. The switching of the a.c. motor is so arranged that the flywheel set can be brought to a standstill within a short space of time by opening the .forward primary oil breaker and closing the reverse primary oil breaker. The reversing motor and d.c. generator are separately excited, receiving this excita- tion from a small induction motor-driven exciter set. Auxiliary Power Apparatus There are two synchronous motor-generator sets in the power house for supplying the direct-current power to the auxiliary motors around the plant. Both are 250-volt machines; one is a 750-kw. and the other 500-kw. generator. In the power house there is provided a 100-kw. turbo-generator for emergency use in case the power from the power company is off for any length of time. This unit will furnish enough power to keep a part of the service pumps run- ning, and furnish some lights. This plant uses central station power throughout, which is purchased from the Republic Railway & Light Co. An outdoor sub-station was installed on the company’s property about 4 mile from the power house. The power is purchased at 22,000 volts, and is stepped down to 2200 volts through six 1500-kva. out- door oil transformers. A spare transformer is kept in the outdoor sub-station for emergency. The oil cir- cuit breakers for use with these transformers are elec- trically operated from the power house by direct-cur- SE RP chia ey Ba January 22, 1920 rent power. This direct current is supplied by a small flywheel motor generator set in the power house, which, in turn, receives its power from a small transformer in the outdoor sub-station. This small flywheel set was designed to be in operation at all times when power is on the 22,000-volt line, there being no switches be- tween the induction motor of this set and the 22,000-volt line. The flywheel was designed to maintain the speed of the set, so that at the end of a certain period of time after the power failed the generator would be capable of delivering the necessary power for operating the oil circuit breaker. By this means the operator can clear the outdoor sub-station from the power house after the power has failed. Hydraulic Manipulator of New Type The hydraulic manipulator is one of the special features in connection with this new plant, and is of Mackintosh, Hemphill & Co. type, and is so designed that it has no racks or mechanism of any kind under- neath the tables, everything being so laid out that it comes outside of the tables at all times. The tilting feature is new, inasmuch as the whole moving side- guard on the tilting side is raised up and has hang- ing on it several tilting fingers which catch the piece and turn it over. This is accomplished by means of a tilting cylinder placed alongside the table beams. The manipulator is self-contained and has no connection to the table whatever, except on the pusher side, where the end of the pusher bars are carried on the table beam. The shear approach table is of standard design, motor-driven, and adapted to fit into a 10 x 10 vertical geared bloom shear. The shear delivery table is so de- signed that the tilting and stationary sections may be moved away from the shear, a distance of 3 ft., to allow the crop ends and small slabs to drop into a chute ana then into the scrap box. The table is moved in and out, and also tilted by means of hydraulic cylinders. Following the blooming mill shear is a 21-in. con- tinuous mill complete with accessory equipment of shears, tables, cooling beds, etc., furnished by the Mor- gan Construction Co., Worcester, Mass. This mill pro- duces from the direct ingot heat sheet bars 8 in. in width, from 6 2/3 lb. to 46 Ib. per ft., and 12-in. sheet bars from 10 lb. per ft. upward. This mill also rolls edged slabs 2 in. thick and 7% in. to 16 in. in width for later re-rolling in the hot-strip mill of the Sharon Steel Hoop Co. at Sharon. The capacity of this mill is lim- THE IRON AGE 255 ited only at the present time by the supply of hot steel from the blooming mill. Its ultimate capacity can be developed up to 100 tons per hr. The product of the blooming mill comes to the 21-in. mill in the form of slabs, which are 2 in. thick and 8 in. to 12 in. wide for sheet bars, and 6 in. thick and of suitable width for the edged slabs that are intended for the hot-strip mill. The general arrangement-of the 21-in. mill, cooling beds and drive is shown on page 256. It consists of five stands of horizontal rolls and three power-driven ver- tical edging rolls. The use of these vertical power- driven edging rolls precludes the necessity for tongue and groove passes, and permits the rolling in the entire range of product on the same plane cylindrical rolls. In other words, no roll changing is required to get the full range of sections for which the mill is designed. The vertical rolls also render it possible to produce sheet bar and slabs of exceptional accuracy in width and quality of edge. When rolling sheet bars the first and second edging mills are employed, and free vertical loops are thrown after the second, third and fourth horizontal passes. When rolling slabs the second and third edging mills are in-use. After the second pass the ‘tandem rather than the pure continuous method of rolling is prac- tised, that is, the bar runs free between roll stands, as shown on page 256. The mill is driven throuvhout by high-carbon cast- steel cut bevel gears. The pinion housings contain herringbone pinions, which are cut from solid high- carbon steel forgings and are of the “built-up” type, standardized by the Morgan Construction Co. The two halves of the pinion are machined sep- arately and have their teeth cut before they are shrunk on the pinion center. The roller straightener tables have dust-proof, self-oiling bearings and cut steel gears. The Steam Flying Shear Immediately following the mill is an Edwards-Car roll patented steam flying shear, shown on page 256. The continuous billet and sheet-bar mill could not have established itself so firmly for the production of smal! billets and sheet bar from the direct ingot heat, as an adjunct to the blooming mill, without the steam flying shear, which solved the problem of caring for a stream of metal issuing from the finishing stand of mills of this nature at delivery speed, which frequently attains 600-ft. per min. After the sheet bar has been cut by the steam fly- a 3 i x . ei 3 2 a . eo * : ra ee ait t i" ook monaoes ; Serer chanks Ua ae eT Delivery Side of the 34-In. Blooming Mill, with View of Hydraulic Manipulator Mechanism at the Extreme Right ani Sener lipinee nega ae elpitatae Te ee i i aN a. Mla ety it eprint ean lis a 256 THE IRON ing shear into 30-ft. to 35-ft. lengths, it is, in this case, carried across the skew table to the bar piling rolls, which stack it in the piling bin. This bin has ad- justable sides so that any widths up to 15 in. can be piled in stacks up to 30 in. in height for convenient handling by the crane. A skew assembling table is also provided with a dis- appearing stop. This table is employed when the mill is rolling slabs. They are assembled in batches on this table and then pulled onto the cooling bed by a travel- ing straight edge. The general arrangement of this 2l-in. mill has been purposely made, so that it ean be used later as a roughing mill for an 18-in. Morgan continuous sheet bar and billet mill. When this additional mill is installed the 21-in. mill will not produce sheet bars, but will deliver a slab 2 in. thick to the 18 in. mill, which will finish it into sheet bars, thus relieving the blooming mill, which will then not be called upon to roll slabs down to 2 in. in thick- ness, but can supply all slabs to the 21-in. mill at a thickness of 6 in. The mill is driven by an electric motor through a reducing gear unit. The latter was also designed and built by the Morgan Construction Co. This gear and pinion are also of built-up herringbone type. The two halves of the gear ring are belted to a permanently shrunk and keyed gear center, which remains in place The Receiving End of the 21-In. Continuous Mill ment of Mill, Cooling Beds and Drive Shown in Plan. AGE January 22, 1920 on the gearshaft during the entire life of the gear unit as the gears can be replaced without disturbing the gear center. The bearings on the gear unit are of the chai oiled type. The gears cre fully enclosed in oil-tight horizontally split gear casings, so arranged that th: gear is readily accessible for examination. A smal] heavily stressed breaking spindle is interposed betwee: the pinion and motor shaft, in order to definitely limit the stresses in the reducing gears, and in the mill trans mission gear and ‘shafts. A 4000-hp., 360-r.p.m., 2200-volt, 60-cycle slip-ring induction motor built by the General Electric Co., drives the mill. in the design of motor and control. Characteristic o! this type of motor are: Large air gap; cast-steel rotor spider; rugged box-girder stator frame; thrust colla) on the low, heavy pedestal at the coupling end to with stand the laterel thrust due to diagonal fracture of the breaking spindle; and heavily insulated windings rein forced by wedges and binding bands to prevent move ment in the slots. Provision is made for moving the stator perallel to the shaft to facilitate examination of the rotor and also for movement at right angle to th: shaft for adjustment of air gap. are supported from the base, thus minimizing vibratio1 and increasing the life of the collectors. The auxiliary motors and control are also of standard EEE Skbl yy 2bLe Sie (Upper View), Delivery End (Lower View), General Arrange- It Comprises Five Stands of Horizontal Rolls and Three Power-Driven Vertical Edging Rolls Continuity of service is a vital consideration The brush holders er ee tote. a oe | aa January 22, 1920 THE IRON AGE 257 Cooling Beds for Slabs and Bar Piller for Sheet Bars General Electric menufacture, totally enclosed in steel frames. The use of-interpoles permits a minimum Pittsburgh Knife & Forge Co. Building New Plant The Pittsburgh Knife & Forge Co., which now operates a plant on the N. S., Pittsburgh, recently bought about 15 acres at Coraopolis, Pa., 15 miles from Pittsburgh, on the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, on which it has started to build a larger plant for the manufacturing of drop forgings, mine forgings, car forgings and upsetter forgings. The new shop will be contained in a brick and steel building, 65 x 700 ft., and there will also be a brick and steel machine shop, 70 x 420 ft., a new boiler house to contain 500-hp. uni-flow boilers, vertical water tube boilers and a new office building, 60 x 60 ft. The forge shop will contain 16 drop hammers of 1000-lb. and 5000-lb. capacity, six upsetters of 2-in. to 5-in. capacity, five bulldozers, Nos. 3 to 27 of the William-White type, and six Brad- ley drop hammers from 60-lb. to 500-lb. capacity. There will also be other equipment for bending eye bolts and doing other work in connection with the new forge shop. The company will install machinery capa- ble of grinding shear knives up to 18 ft. in width. Practically all the hammers will be furnished by the Chambersburg Engineering Co., Chambersburg, Pa. The company expects to occupy the new plant in three to four months, and will continue to operate its present plant on the N. S., Pittsburgh. Later, however, the present plant may be consolidated with the new works. Organization of Electric Alloy Steels Organization of the Electric Alloy Steel Co., re- cently incorporated at Youngstown, Ohio, for $1,500,000 to manufacture high-grade alloy steels, has been effected by election of the following directors: James A. Camp- bell, L. J. Campbell, L. A. Manchester, A. E. Adams, William A. Thomas, Charles S. Thomas and Jonathan Warner, all of Youngstown, and Maurice Joseph, Cin- ‘innati. Directors elected these officers: L. J. Camp- ell, president and treasurer; A. E. Adams, vice- president, and L. A. Manchester, secretary. Members f the advisory committee are James A. Campbell, \. E. Adams and William A. Thomas. President Camp- bell announced that a plant will be erected on a site in Trumbull County, between Warren and Girard. With exception of Mr. Joseph, the directors are all leading executives in the Mahoning Valley. James A. Campbell is president of the Youngstown Sheet & armature diameter, and consequently the low moment of inertia necessary for extremely rapid reversal. Tube Co.; L. L. Campbell resigned Jan. 13 as vice-pres- ident of the Sheet & Tube company; L. A. Manchester is general attorney for the company; A. E. Adams is president of the First National Bank, and was for- merly a director of the Brier Hill Steel Co.; William A. Thomas retired Jan. 10, after serving eight years as president of the Brier Hill Steel Co.; Charles S. Thomas retired last May as president of the DeForest Sheet & Tinplate Co., when its property was absorbed by the Republic Iron & Steel Co., and Jonathan Warner is president of the Trumbull Steel Co., Warren, Ohio. Wickwires Will Control Under the plan for the consolidation of the Wick- wire Steel Co., Buffalo, and the Clinton-Wright Wire Co., Worcester, Mass., as the Wickwire-Spencer Steel Corporation, the Wickwire interests will have the vot- ing control. There will be 330,000 shares of common stock, of which the Wickwire family will own 180,000. Of this number 80,000 will be known as class A common, and will be distinguished from class B common in that it will have preference as to divi- dends. Before a dividend can be declared on the class B shares, class A shall have received its dividend, but the amount is not yet announced. The class A shares are confined to the 80,000, which are in payment for the Wickwire ore lands. In addition to this stock the family will own 100,000-shares of class B common. In addition to the announcement that T. Harry Wickwire, Jr., will be president of the Wickwire- Spencer Company, and George M. Thompson and Ward A. Wickwire, vice-presidents, the former as general manager, the latter in charge of the Wickwire plants, Frank Kilmer will be the treasurer of the corporation. He is now treasurer of the Clinton-Wright Wire Co., and before the Spencer Wire Co. entered the combina- tion was assistant treasurer and secretary of the Spencer Company. The meeting of stockholders of the Clinton-Wright Co. to ratify the consolidation has n@ttbéen called. ‘During the past month the Standard Tank Car Co., Sharon, Pa., has received orders aggregating 400 cars of both types, flat and tank cars, and is unable to make deliveries on new business before May. Within the past two weeks final deliveries were made on an order for 500 cars placed with the American and French governments. ctor dnattinien stpharranrs papenie SAE Sa Pe So Rpg ir “ii aty a eguenes tere Hani es e RE ota ey hc eh a, a Sin te tg ne A DIET se cory vc Abr ntn <i athnigeeenialin ns Lape too OO a i - ee THE REFRACTORIES IN 1919 Industrial and Research Developments in the American Industry—Plans for the Future BY F. W. DONAHOE* During the war there was such an unusual call for refractories that it was almost impossible to meet the demand for any but the lower grades. And to do this it was not only necessary to replace the miners and p:ant men who had entered the service but also to increase the entire personnel of most refractories manufacturing plants. This, without doubt, had its effect upon the quality of the material produced; it was impossible to get quantity production and maintain quality with such depleted forces. Since the signing of the armistice, however, fewer by-product coke ovens have been constructed, the pro- duction of metal has diminished and contemplated con- struction has been discontinued. The effect of this shortening of the demand for refractories has made itself noticeable in many ways, notably in workman- ship. A representative of a large foreign steel plant made the remark in an American brick plant during Noveniber, 1919, that the silica brick in the cull pile were as good as he bought for run-of-kiln in his own country. lant conditions in the refractories industry have ‘n improved during 1919; in several instances con- struction work and machine installation, begun in ‘1914, and then discontinued, was completed in 1919. The research fellowship established by The Refrac- tories Maufacturers Association (American) entered its third year last May. This feature of the work of the association has grown to a point where the corps of fellows has been increased and the laboratory space in the Mellon Institute extended. More than a thou- *Secretary, the American Refractories Association, Pitts- burgh. New England Coal & Coke Co. Within a week or so the New England Coal & Coke Co. will change its method of handling foundry coke after it leaves the ovens at its plant in Everett, Mass. By so doing the company will screen its product more satisfactorily than it does to-day, it will have closer regulation of moisture, and in addition it will mini- mize breakage. The company started business in 1898. Since then improvements in equipment have been made, but the number of coke ovens of the Otto Hoffman type has remained the same, namely 400. The ovens are divided into batteries of 50 each. The ovens measure 17 in. on the pusher side and 19 in. on the other, and are 33 ft. long. Originally they were lined with quartzite brick, but subsequently with silica. The ovens are ar- ranged in four groups of two each, two groups being lined up end to end. The other two groups are in parallel position. Locate