The Iron Age 1922-11-23: Vol 110 Iss 21

— = Beansassssssrs ESTABLISHED 1855 Br THE IRON AGE New York, November 23, 1922 VOL. 110, No. 21? Standard Machines Increase Production Savings Effected in Use of Fixtures Rather Than in Special Machines—Case of Quintupled Production BY L. very frequently be secured through the de- velopment of fixtures to be fitted to machines already in use in the machine shop, or through the purchase of standard types of machines to be fitted with special fixtures, or in many cases without any special fixtures at all, but simply with the use of commercial machines with standard tools fitted to them. This is exemplified in the changes which have been made in the production plant layout at the Gray & Davis Division of the American Bosch Magneto Co., since the latter company took over the Gray & Davis plant at Cambridge, Mass. In this particular plant starting and lighting motors and (vers frequent increase in production can - 4 Turret Lathe Ss . LOVE generators for motor cars are manufactured. These motors and generators consist of shells or frames in which are mounted four poles and the usual form of laminated rotor with requisite connections. There are two sizes of shells used in the present product, 4 in. in diameter and 5 in. These shells are drawn to shape from flat stock. The former method of drawing did not produce shells of suffi- cient accuracy to be used without boring. This operation, as well as opening of the closed end and chamfering the inside edge on that end was handled, on both sizes, in a single spindle auto- matic screw machine; the turning, beveling and shouldering operations being done in turret lathes. The present manner of production is the same the End Plates of the Motor Is Shown in the Lower Left Picture S ; Chuckings of S r Frame of an Auto e Starting and Light Motor (as Shown Top Illustration) ng Shouldering ng the Shells 4 § Quick Acting Fixtu nd Drill Guide ng the Holes in In the Lower Right Is Shown the Method of Drilling Pole Pieces to He Fixed. of Course, on the Interior of the Motor Shell The method in- creased output five times os To Give the Rounded Cor- ners of the Pole Pieces, the Device Shown in the Circle Is Employed The milling cutter requires no lubrication Pole Pieces Are Bored in Position in a 2-Spindle Drill Press This opera- tion makes them concen- tric with the end holes in the shell and thus main tains a uniform air gap between the rotor and the ? poies on the 4-in. shells, except that the boring operation is eliminated, the opening up of the closed end being the operation now on the automatic screw ma- chine. The boring operation is no longer required, as the drawing dies are held to closer limits, thereby producing shells of sufficient accuracy without that machining operation. In handling the 5-in. shells it has been found more economical to place the work in a standard type of two-spindle turret lathe. This machine is equipped with standard forms of tools having stellite bits, which are doing all machining operations of opening, chamfering, turning, shoul- dering and beveling in one chucking at the rate of 225 per day, which is a saving of 20 per cent from the old method. The expanding mandrels on which the work is mounted are controlled by air. This mounting is shown in one of the illustrations. After the shells are turned in the manner just described, they are moved to the next machining operation. This is drilling holes through the sides for attaching the pole pieces and brush holders. There are three holes in a straight line parallel with the axis of the shell, each line of holes being drilled radially and spaced 90 deg. apart. The work is handled in a two-spindle power-feed drill press of the high-speed type. Each spindle carries a mul- tiple drill head carrying three twist drills in a line. Shells are mounted on fixtures consisting of a hori- zontal expanding mandrel, which can be rotated and locked in the four positions required for spacing around the shell. Drill guide bushings are carried in a plate extending over the mandrel. The method of handling is for the operator to place the work in one fixture and engage the feed. -He then mounts a piece in the other fixture and engages the feed there, during which interval the first piece has been 1336 THE IRON AGE November 23. 1929 drilled, the feed disengaged and the sp turned to rest. He rotates the fixture to , tion and proceeds as described. The next operation is also one of dri] is likewise handled in a two-spindle high-spo. of machine with power feed. Here each « equipped with a multiple spindle head ha, drills in a circle for drilling holes to attach plates. The type of fixture used under each .¢ t these spindles consists of a heavy base in which are mounted two vertical guide posts. On these posts slides the top clamping plate, which serves not only to hold the work, but also carries drill guide bushings. The work is mounted on a plug in the base plate, which enters the open end of the shell. There are two dowel pins at the rear which enter two ot the pole piece holes previously drilled, thus regis tering it in relation to these holes. The top clamp- ing plate also carries a pilot plug which enters the shell at the top. It is thus registered from three points—both ends and the side. The top plate of this fixture is lowered by means of a lever actuat ing a shaft on which are carried two gears. These latter mesh with racks attached to the rear of the top plate bearings which ride on the guide posts, as illustrated in another of the reproduced photo- graphs. The tapping of these four holes for at- taching the end plate is done in a similar manner 1! a machine equipped, of course, with a tapping at tachment. Alligator Shear Leaves Insignificant Burr Pole pieces are delivered to the shop in bars mill lengths drawn to shape. These must be cut to the individual length required. The former method was to bundle four or five bars together ane cut then in a hack saw. This work is now being done one bar at a time in an alligator shear abou twenty times as fast as the old method, and the shear cuts this stock with practically square en® In addition to the saving of time, there 1s 4 © siderable item of saving in floor space. Copper segments for commutators are } sheared from formed bars, instead of being as formerly. This method produces 11,000 pe? 1KeWIs¢ saweu No saw operat mber 23, 1922 illustrated. cunded are turned out daily without the use of nst a former production of 1000 per day per [his operation is handled in an ordinary g press. h pole piece has two holes drilled in it for ent to the shell. These were formerly i in a single spindle machine, with hand ne hole at a time. The output was 1000 The present method utilizes a two-spin- rh-speed drill press with automatic feed. s equipped with two fixtures, one under indle as shown in an accompanying illustra- [here is a two-spindle head carried in each of the machine. Operator inserts a piece in ire and engages the feed, then proceeds to the xture and inserts work there, engaging the le then returns to the first spindle which has the holes in the first piece, disengaged the | returned to neutral position. This method practically continuous operation with a tion of 5000 drilled pieces per day. ther operation required on the pole pieces inding the corners to prevent abrasion of in- on the pole winding. This work was form- e by holding the pieces against a grinding At present the pieces are mounted in a n an ordinary knee type milling machine, pindle of which is a shell end milling cutter. ire swivels at a point which produces the radius at the corner, as the pole piece is front of the tool. Work is ejected by the r’s hand pushing against a spring plunger, Some 500 pieces with four corners itting compound, the cutter keeping cool by THE IRON AGE 1337 running in the air for a period greater than the actual cutting time. The pole pieces are next assembled in the shell and are carried to a boring operation, that they may be concentric with the end holes of the shell. This work is handled in a two-spindle power-feed drill press, of the plain bearing type, on the table of which are two fixtures, both handled by one oper- ator. As indicated in one of the illustrations, the base plate of the fixture carries a pilot which regis- ters one end hole, the top plate when clamped down registering the other end hole on a pilot plug car- ried there. The top plate and the lower plate both carry bushings to pilot the boring bar. Seats for bearings, laminated cores, etc., are turned on the rotor shafts. These are made from bar stock and were formerly produced on single spindle automatic screw machines. The present method employs practically the same kind of tool set-up, except that the work is handled in a four- spindle automatic machine, increasing the produc- tion three times from the same floor space. A special form of three-jaw chuck, also illus- trated, has been designed for use on turret lathes. The jaws on this chuck are levers pivoted in the body and have hooked ends. They rock in to grip the work. They are actuated by a tapered plug which enters the body of the chuck at the rear and pushes out on the jaws behind their pivots, thus closing them in at the front. Starter gear hous- ings are held for turning and boring in this chuck with a saving of 35 per cent over time required with the old standard chuck. The machine in which this operation is performed is provided with air to Bs [ ng Two-Stage Die of High * Making Lamina eased The ssemb1) iminations Are Barrel Located of the Machine and the Cutting Into Pieces Requires No Baling a — cation en te ia di ss — gether ’ ' “ -4 *, 2 4 a ge an ae ge a nner cy ie te - ered hh gt i a tr rr ee RRR eri tn ete ~ = “> “ Don ” ' ntti ltreest tana , 7 a - * - ai Pepcid ape nett COM Ngo” kar ea : te < ee jeg “~. « noe he . ee en A A name "= Peccaectinnn Haasan gates. dawnt ee oe Se as ae es eee SS Boe 1338 THE IRON AGE By Using This Chuck 35 Per Cent in Time Was Saved in Turning Starter Gear Housings operate the chuck. One end of the housing is in- serted in the open face of the chuck as far as the flange on the housing. The jaws of the chuck then rock, in gripping the piece and drawing it firmly back against the chuck face. thus holding the bore square with the flange. This type of chuck is used on several other oper- ations, in some cases being lever operated instead of air operated. One operation is the facing on both sides of the motor end plate flange. This chuck, while similarly constructed, grips internally. Two turning tools, set the proper distance apart, are carried in the front tool post on the cross slide of the turret lathe and fed in to rough the flange parallel. Two tools carried in the rear tool post are then fed in to finish face the flange parallel and to the proper thickness. Standard Tool Gives Better Production Than Special Starter pinion teeth are chamfered to facili- tate engagement with the starter gear. This work was formerly handled in a tooth-rounding machine at the rate of 200 per day. The present method employs an ordinary hand-milling machine on which is counted a hand-operated fixture. This fixture is provided with a spring latch pin for proper index- ing of the gear and has increased the output to 100 per hour. The stampings which make up the laminated rotor core were formerly stamped out in a press with a single operation die fed by hand. Per day 20,000 pieces were punched. The company is now producing 45,000 pieces per day by using roller feed and a two-stage die made of high-speed alloy. The first part of the die cuts out the winding slots and punches the hole through which the shaft passes. The second position in the die blanks the lamination out of the strip and drops it through the die and press bed to a stacking frame. This frame consists essentially of two upright rods set into a heavy base. The rods extend up into the die and catch the laminations as they come through, thus stacking them ready for use. Since developing this type of die and stacking frame, a further indirect saving of labor has been effected in handling the scrap. Formerly it came out in strips and was bundled. A new roller feed has been built with a shearing attachment, which, acting with the press operation, cuts the strip into small pieces and drops them into a conve placed barrel. Rotor shafts before receiving the core la tions are knurled in a special machine, sim appearance to an ordinary beading machine, . for the rolls, These are cut for knurls. The lower rolls are 3 in. in diameter and are cylind The top roll is 5 in. in diameter and is flatt: one side to permit of convenient insertion of shaft, one revolution of the top roll cutting thé knurl, A hand-operated forming machine is us¢ forming rotor windings. Flat wire is drawn the reel into the forming machine. By the opera- tion of a locking pin and lever the wire is folded back, thus forming the two legs of the winding. It is then gripped on both legs and formed by the movement of a second lever. A third lever sets the ends and cuts off. This operation is handled at rate of 6000 to 7000 per day per man. The company has just worked out a machine for producing 2000 per hour. This machine will be installed shortly. The field coils or windings which surround the pole pieces are wound in an old turret lathe fron which all parts but the bed and head have bee! stripped. Wire which is cut to proper length is fe to a slot in the special chuck carried on the spindle of the lathe. This chuck is a sort of mandre! formed to correspond to the shape of the pole piece. As the lathe spindle revolves, the wire is held against the mandrel by a roller rest supported by a spring. T! coils are then wrapped in insulating material a passed through a press operation to form then the contour of the motor shell. Another special machine which this compan) has developed winds 1600 turns on relay shunt colls While this machine is not radically different appearance from standard commercial winding machines, it has been possible nevertheless to pre- duce with it about 50 per cent more work. t During the past few months the Dominion Steel Co., Sydney, N. S., has been importing A'gera iron ore from Northern Africa. This when mixed wi the Wabana ore, is said to produce a grade of f ; iron which far surpasses that previously made by “ company from Wabana ore alone. nary Rotor g Are Form ? Hand How Bethlehem Became Armament Maker Reminiscences Covering the Introduction of Bessemer Steel, the Activities of Ericsson, Holley and Fritz and the Passing of the Builder of the Monitor BY H. F. J. PORTER ‘onstruction of a floating battery, which when shed he offered to sell to the Government; but the Navy Board appointed to inspect it made an unfa- I 2 Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., began vorable report upon it and it was not accepted. Robert |. Stevens died in 1859 and his brother, Edwin A., de- ied to reconstruct it. In 1862, discouraged because Capt. Ericsson at the DeLamater Iron Works, New \ rk, outdistanced him with the Monitor, he sent to Europe Alexander L. Holley, a very capable civil engi- neer in his employ on the Camden & Amboy Railroad, which his family’s fortune was invested and of was president), to study the foreign navies, pyards and armament forges in the hope of obtaining vy ideas to apply to his rejected battery. Country’s First Bessemer Plant While in England Holley seized the opportunity to investigate the Bessemer process of making steel, then ecently developed, and on his return, after reporting Mr. Stevens on the ordnance situation, he visited Captain Ericsson, who he knew would be interested in learning about his trip, as he was then engaged in con- junction with his “Battery Associates,” John F. Wins- low and John A. Griswold, iron manufacturers of Troy, N. Y., in building monitors of various sizes for the Government at the DeLamater Iron Works and in a number of other shipyards about the country. Inci- lentally Holley told him what he had learned about the semer process and Winslow and Griswold at once him back to England to secure the exclusive rights ‘its adoption in this country. On Holley’s return he formed the partnership of , Griswold and Holley, and in 1864 built the t Bessemer steel plant in this country in connection \lbany Iron Works at Troy, N. Y., under the 3essemer Steel Co. Shortly before this theré had been established at Wyandotte, Mich., an experimental plant of a similar inder the patents of William Kelly, of e, Ky., and of Robert Mushet, of England, the rights to whose patents had been secured intry. The Bessemer process and the Kelly process inter- locked horns in the courts but finally con- settle their differences by combining under name of the Pneumatic Steel Association. The pant at Wyandotte was discontinued and Capt. Robert ". Hunt, who had charge of it later, became superin- ‘endent of the works at Troy. They then began the n of the Bessemer process of making steel in entative iron rolling mills of the country, ch were in western Pennsylvania, Ohio and ere the necessary raw materials for the ore, limestone and coking coal, were lo- Mr. Holley acted as engineer of installation. t iis time railroad building had been slow ‘ing to the high price of wrought iron rails and trans- tat it the country was largely by stages and Manufacturing was carried on by water even when the steam engine became com- “claiized, industrial towns were still located on the rs and the coast because of the lack of portation facilities. The Bessemer process, ibstituted the cheap steel rail, and imme- came about an era of railroad building | the factory site to the raw material, and “lal towns sprang up all over the country. ;. 48S been said that the Bessemer process did more ~ “Villzation than all previous inventions of man put 1339 together. Holley deserves much of the credit for this advance. He made trips abroad annually, exchanging between European and American Bessemer plants ex- periences and improvements in practice, many of which were of his own devising. Early Warship Work at DeLamater Plant In 1868 when Edwin A. Stevens died, he left a mil- lion dollars to the State of New Jersey to complete his floating battery. In 1869 Theodore F. Randolph, a prominent business man in New Jersey, president of the Morris & Essex Railroad and interested in coal and iron mining in Pennsylvania, had been elected Governor of the State and he appointed my father, Gen. Fitz John Porter, who had become associated with him after the Civil War and lived on adjoining property in Morris- town, and Gen. George B. McClellan and William Ship- pen, who was connected by marriage with the Stevens family, as commissioners to reconstruct the Stevens’ battery. They selected Isaac Newton, U. S. N., retired, who had been first assistant engineer on the Monitor during her career, to superintend the work, which was contracted for by the DeLamater Iron Works. In connection with his mining associations, my father had come in contact with Asa Packer, at Mauch Chunk, Pa., who built the Lehigh Valley Railroad and in 1865 founded Lehigh University at South Bethlehem, Pa. He had placed in charge of it Capt. Henry Coppee, then professor of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Coppee and my father had been classmates at West Point and had gone through the Mexican War together, and several of his faculty were West Point men. When it came time for me to at- tend college in 1874 and I decided to study engineering, it was quite natural for my father to select Lehigh Uni- versity as the technical school for me which he knew most about and of which there were very few in exist- ence and all quite young. In that same year Alexander Holley installed the Bessemer process at the Bethlehem Iron Works at South Bethlehem, and in October, one month after I went there, the first “blow’ was made and the town went to see it. Governor Randolph’s eldest son, a boy- hood friend of mine, went to South Bethlehem at the same time I did and entered the iron works to obtain an idea of the iron and steel industry before joining his father in his coal, iron and affiliated interests. He and D. A. Tompkins, chief draftsman of the works, roomed together near me and I visited them there and at the works frequently during my college course and so ob- tained some familiarity with shop practices. It was during those visits that I met and got to know more or less intimately Mr. Holley and John Fritz, superintendent and engineer of the plant. They used to talk about the inadequate protection of this country from the attacks of foreign navies, which were growing stronger every year, and Holley told Fritz of Captain Ericsson’s work and of his own visits to the foreign ordnance forges. He brought Fritz and Ericsson to- gether at the DeLamater Iron Works, where much of the machinery for the Bessemer plants was constructed. Mr. Holley wanted Mr. Fritz to install a type of blowing engine designed by George H. Reynolds, chief engineer of the DeLamater Iron Works, and he took Mr. Fritz there to see it, but Mr. Fritz preferred en- gines of his own design and I saw them built and erected and chose one of them as the subject of my graduating thesis at Lehigh University in 1878. It was customary in those days for a boy after graduating as an engineer to complete his preparatory “te q ” *. > . eed te i o Bi ae Gs “ “iq : Bethy feat Cs jae : ae ‘ ut ive ~~ sg ie: ; 3 Wy -; ab Nd cm - ) mitt, viv eh. 7* > ba’ yet . nae Pr \ ee tee , > ie ba % 4 : : : . : <i i: . ’ we . : . * _ “5 & ’ ‘ , ; bh ’ " ¢ ? » 4 - ‘ t 1% y ? ° - * Y PT . ‘ wee, "1 ea’ . od _" + : : ” ; ’ ‘ . + «* a" ' ’ . . E 7 v ; &) fos = wy, is .» 4 ’ re D G8 p a . i > *,. . - ; bs . . ’ ‘ i + te a i 0S Bi ay ‘sy ye ; , 1% ,7 2%, ‘ ” . | 14 . ie p * ‘ f : mM 5 fy ° ee b @ ‘+? + ta oe WW “ 4, ws e* im @ Ay | : nee ie ‘ a: “Ss y “ ‘ mo . - ee s) ; + hy ! * ‘ 4 . . " 4s .~* - ‘ ‘ t, ‘ '? is ; : : 5 . 1 = é : ig t? . —% : ih x 1340 education by spending four years getting practical ex- perience in some iron works, and both Mr. Fritz and Mr. Holley suggested my going to the DeLamater Iron Works, which was the largest works of its kind in the country and where a greater variety of work was performed than elsewhere. Beginning of Society of Mechanical Engineers My father, who had become acquainted with Mr. DeLamater and Captain Ericsson, and the DeLamater Iron Works through his connection with the rebuilding of the Stevens battery, approved of the suggestion, and I went there in the summer of 1878 and spent four years in the shops, beginning in the pattern office and ending in the drafting room. Looking upon this ex- perience as a post-graduate course I considered the DeLamater Iron Works as my Alter-Alma Mater. There I used to see Mr. Holley on his occasional visits to Mr. DeLamater, and on one of these visits he came to my drafting board, which was just outside of Mr. DeLamater’s office, and expressed his interest in learn- ing that I was in charge of that part of the drafting department which had in hand the development of ice machinery, which was then new in this country, having been introduced here by Raoul Pictet in the French sec- tion of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 and taken up afterward by Mr. DeLamater. Mr. Holley told me of the then forming American Society of Mechanical Engineers, of which he was the founder and suggested my joining it and presenting a paper before it on the ice machine. I accepted the sug- gestion and joined the society at its first meeting in November, 1880, and at the following spring meeting in Hartford, Conn., I read a paper before it on the ex- perimental ice machine plant at the DeLamater Works. Mr. Holley attended this meeting and presided at the banquet held during one of the evenings. While in the shops at the DeLamater Works, I took part in the construction of the “Destroyer,” a semi- submersible torpedo boat designed by Captain Ericsson to supersede the Monitor type of war vessel and built at his and Mr. DeLamater’s expense. On its trial trip, I met Lieutenant William H. Jaques, a naval officer in the Bureau of Ordnance, who wrote a monograph on it entitled “Ericsson’s Destroyer and Submarine Gun” which was published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons as No. xxx in their series “Questions of the Day.” The Semi-submersible Torpedo Boat This vessel the owners offered to sell to the Govern- ment and the latter appointed a board of three naval officers with Capt. T. O. Selfridge at its head to inspect it. It was sent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and sub- mitted to a series of tests resulting in a favorable re- port and recommendation that it be purchased and sev- eral more ordered built. The novelty of the design deterred the Government from taking immediate action regarding it, just as they had acted in the case of the Monitor, but the activity of foreign nations in increasing their navies caused the appointment of another board entitled the Naval Advisory Board, composed of fourteen army and navy officers, to recommend a comprehensive plan of pro- cedure regarding the development of a new navy. The president of this board was Admiral John Rogers, who had commanded the monitor Dictator built at the DeLa- mater Works. The introduction of Bessemer steel in the principal rolling mills of the country naturally caused this board, among other recommendations, to propose that the new navy should be constructed of steel and naturally to confer with Captain Ericsson and Mr. Holley in the course of the study. The recommendation resulted in the appointment of the “gun foundry board” composed of three army and three navy officers with Commodore Edward Simpson, chairman, and Lieutenant Jaques, previously mentioned, secretary. Armor Plate and Guns at Bethlehem Both Captain Ericsson and Mr. Holley recommended that before making their report, they take the same trip to Europe which Mr. Holley had made and visit the ar- mor plate and gun forges of England and on the conti- nent. This recommendation they adopted and on their THE IRON AGE November 23. return home, Lieutenant Jaques had with him on the licenses from Whitworth in England and : der in France for the exclusive use in this cou; f their processes for making armor plate and These were offered to Mr. DeLamater, but hy was too old to consider them and contemplatin, ment rather than engaging in new ventures. \ ley had died while the board was away and | Ericsson recommended that they visit Mr. | Bethlehem as the best man to take up the pro Mr. Fritz had already realized that he « compete with the other Bessemer plants in t! which were more favorably located as regards : materials of the product. From his knowledg manufacture of ordnance obtained from Ho!) Ericsson, he saw also that by a change to th character of product he could sell a small amou in the shape of guns and armor plate for hund dollars per ton instead of a large amount in th; of rails for tens of dollars per ton. He had : placed the matter before his board of directors. . ing that by this change the distance of the pla: the raw material would not be so serious a mat! . when the gun foundry board came to see h Lieutenant Jaques showed him the options licenses to use the foreign processes of manuf ordnance, he induced the board of directors to the matter with the Government at Washington. | ceiving favorable consideration there, Mr. Fritz and Lieutenant Jaques went abroad and closed the cont with Whitworth and Schneider, while simultan rangements were made with the Government sufficient orders to guarantee the constructior works. The works were completed in 1887 and Licu tenant Jaques left the navy and joined the staff of t company. Mr. DeLamater and Captain Ericsson died in 1889 and the DeLamater Iron Works went out of existen the following year. The site was bought by New York. the buildings razed, the west side marginal way was cut through and modern piers for ocean vessels were built there. The Bethlehem plant already in ful! oper ation thus became the logical successor of the Dela mater Works. While I was a student at Lehigh University 1874-78, the Centennial Exhibition took place in Philadelphia Armed with letters of introduction to some of t fh- cials, I visited the exhibition under very favora cumstances. A letter to Lieutenant Lewis W. Ro! U. S. N., in charge of machinery hall, from the promi- nent Philadelphia engineer Coleman Sellers, whom |! knew well through college friendship with his younges! son, gave me especially favorable opportunity to stud) the exhibits there, which Lieutenant Robinsor casion to go out of his way to show me. Armor Plate and Commercial Forgings Exhibited at Chicago In 1891 I was appointed first assistant mechanic’ engineer at the World’s Columbian Expositior cago and took part in it during the constructior under D. H. Burnham, the Chicago architect rector of works. The chief of the machinery cer ment was my old acquaintance of the Centennia! ©* bition, Lieutenant Robinson, who when the const! of the exposition was approaching completio: me to become assistant chief in charge of ma hall. So I was able to assist Mr. Fritz and the Bet! hem Iron Co. in securing adequate space for th hibit of armor plate, guns and large forgings. After the exposition, I decided to open a Chicago and the Bethlehem Iron Co. made me W representative to handle commercial work At this time there was formed in Chicago the 1 nical Club, composed of engineers and others aff with that profession. Capt. Robert W. Hunt, we has been stated, was in charge of the Bessemer >'* Co.’s plant at Troy, N. Y., and had later esta ae 7 international bureau for testing rails and mater! construction, became president of the club. ©®*" E. Billin (now secretary of the Philadelphia Ee Club) became secretary and I became treasu club later developed into the present Chicago Chat Eng!- mber 23, 1922 Club, one of the largest social organizations of net P the rofession in the West. aring the 90’s a great development of electricity in the lighting and street railroad fields took place and huge power plants with their large steam engines were made possible only by the great forging presses of the Bethlehem Iron Co. When the Spanish war came on, as the company in accordance with the contract with the Government had to devote its whole energy to the pr tion of ordnance to the exclusion of commercial work. | was called to the works at South Bethlehem and there I was able to renew my association with Mr. Fritz and Lieutenant Jaques. Historical Landmarks Established fter the DeLamater Works closed down, many of the men who worked there, anxious to maintain their old associations formed an organization called the “As- sociated Veterans of the DeLamater Iron Works.” This exists, meeting annually at a banquet. During the past four years this organization has had several meetings memorializing the work of Captain Ericsson nd Mr. DeLamater in which quite a large number of other organizations civic, historical, technical, etc., have taken part. I have been chairman of the committee in of these meetings and at the last one, on March sixtieth anniversary of the battle between the L a WHY WAGES WERE RAISED \n Answer from the Experience of New England Brass Mills It will be recalled that some criticism was made ‘the 20 per cent advance in wages at steel works that became effective Oct. 1. It seemed to be the view in some quarters that the steel producers made the posi- f manufacturers in other lines more difficult, and eedlessly so. The fact was, as has been pointed out y THE IRON AGE, that the steel manufacturers, in view relation of supply and demand, in the market mmon labor, had no option in respect to the ad- vance. It was really made by conditions over which they had no control. The article below, reproduced ‘rom the Chase Diamond, the publication of the Chase mpanies, Inc., Waterbury, Conn., shows exactly the tuation in the brass industries that compelled n on the wages of steel workers: “Two months ago there was an increase in wages Chase Metal Works, the Chase Rolling Mills, e Waterbury Mfg. Co., and various guesses have een made as to why wages went up. “There has been no general demand for higher pay, re has been no talk of strikes. There is little rad- sm or bolshevism in Waterbury, and although re never was, and probably never will be, a time every one feels that he is earning as much money vould like, still men were not so discontented or “Why, then, did wages go up? __ “Had the companies made so much money that they - ‘ that they ought to divide some of the profit among heir employees? “Was another golden age of higher wages and pros- rl out to come? e profits large and business so plentiful that ages were raised as a kind of bonus? none of these reasons was correct. for two reasons: | here was a shortage of unskilled labor. _*. Living costs were slowly rising. The brass business has been in hard times. Last ne brass company lost a million and a half dol- ther lost nearly a million dollars, and another ‘ut three-quarters of a million, and other brass mills ‘actories have suffered in the same way. Business n “bad” for nearly two years. People did not s and the factories were almost idle. Thou- men were out of work and the millions of ‘nvested in brass and machinery stood idle. Wages THE IRON AGE 1341 Monitor and the Merrimac, I had the satisfaction of hav- ing the site of the DeLamater Iron Works, Twelfth to Fourteenth Streets and Tenth Avenue to the North River, New York, named DeLamater Square and a bronze tablet recounting the accomplishments per- formed there placed on the Cunard pier, which now occupies the space where the center of the old works was. I was thus instrumental in perpetuating the name of my Alter-Alma Mater in the locality where it was rapidly fading from memory. This committee is now arranging to place a histor- ical collection of the DeLamater-Bethlehem memora- bilia in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington as the nucleus of a national engineering museum in which every engineer in the country should be interested. We are told that a tree once marked retains the evidence, though a hundred years of growth may have overlaid it. We cannot foretell the future of the stately oak of American engineering planted during the middle of the nineteenth century on the threshold of a develop- ment which has placed this country in the forefront of all the others, but no time will come when the historian stripping off the bark and penetrating the rings of many generations will not find at the heart the names which were carved there by Captain John Ericsson, Alexander L. Holley, Lieutenant William H. Jaques and John Fritz. Taxes and overhead charges piled up and every month showed large losses on the ledgers. “Then slowly, like a sick man after a long illness, business began to get back its strength. The factories began to hire more men to take care of their in- creased business, but the demand for men found little response. The long lines of unemployed that besieged the mills for work last winter had disappeared. Many had gone to other cities, many had returned to Europe. Strict immigration laws were in force and the supply of immigrants had dwindled to a thin stream. The building boom had come with a rush and many were on new construction work and repairing the roads. “Men for heavy unskilled labor were scarce. “There was also another reason for the increase in wages. Living costs began to climb. The coal strike will be paid for by every man in the country this next winter, and the railroad workers’ strike has cost the country millions and millions of dollars, every dollar of which will sooner or later be paid for by the public. “There is, however, one side of the recent raise which has not been talked about, but which is easily seen to be true. That is, that the companies which have raised the pay of their employees at this time will suffer large losses from doing so. “Contracts have been taken to insure steady reg- ular business for our mills and factory, and these con- tracts have been taken at old costs. A piece of brass, for instance, may cost 20c. per Ib. to make, on which we may be sure of a fair profit. Add to this price the increased cost of this raise in wages, and the profit is eaten up, and the article sold at a loss. “Our customers who have already placed their or- ders may congratulate themselves, our men may ap- preciate that what is our loss is their gain, but we ourselves know that unless this raise is repaid by more effort and productive labor, it means a large expense and loss to our companies.” “Daylight the Natural Illuminant” is the title of a book of 48 pages published by the Skybryte Co., Cleve- land. From the premise that the intensities of artificial light in use in most factories are too low for the work- man to do his best, the author argues that by providing adequate glass areas and by keeping the glass clean, natural lighting will have a chance to save workers as assets instead of making them liabilities. He contends that daylight can easily provide the desired intensities and that with proper maintenance of glass, much higher intensities can be obtained than are commonly found in factories. The book will be sent on application to the publisher, 347 Bangor Building, Cleveland. a a as Reo ee er a ma Per nerpeieen enen ee we ere ee ee aa Se ee ete er ans a + * wa Po F Pe thse ena p St Aci R cane He tg te eS ™ a Poet PE ee eee ai * a eee =e © Fhe a ere i Sie, ee a oa) a vu tant Aly yi Seiten eiiitieedioneiiett oe 5 Pe | iy an ; a4 a 48 . 7: - i” : ¥ gc: § ' ‘ ‘ i 4 4 i 4 : i ° 5 ‘ "Ye . j ey 7 4 , , . ‘ : ‘ ; , *. ’ ot ; » * ' a : . t t ‘ ' ‘ ‘ + ; ‘ ¥ . ‘ j , Me . > , -. 7 . * oe o . ae 3 . . ‘ *s ».s a . . ‘* 4 - ‘ , . . 4 y ’ ‘ 4 > . ts . , Ma? . 5] ny » : 7 ret . + : Rawal ? \ a PS We ' i. . v .4 5 [ a ; . > . + Fe Go. ky . é »/ 4 SY ‘ i z - . *, ; a ‘ b ? - . b ae wm } “~s ’ . , §e axe * a5 , Het ’ a , Be Ny J ' . 4 oi f “t Bt, hl “ t a 3 . ee a ¢ a ' Sok P 1 at.) x , : ° ‘ ' . Big af > ey pat. j ot ” wey ee . ¥ <> eo * st. fe = be. j . tk 4 “ “ a ee - eva e : a a a R . an . fe? 4 5 . . ; . Pa DS ° ’ : ‘? Continuous Annealing Furnaces for She's Car-Type Furnaces with Daily Capacity of 125 Tons Each at Ashtabula Steel Plant—Pulverized Coal Used as Fuel ONTINUOUS annealing furnaces for box anneal- ing form the predominating feature of the new sheet mill plant of the Ashtabula Steel Co., Ashta- bula, Ohio, this being the first installation of furnaces of that type for box annealing. Departing from the usual practice of having a separate annealing depart- ment with a battery of standard type annealing fur- naces, usually located in another building at some dis- tance from the mill department, the box annealing is done in two large underfired car-type continuous fur- naces that, built as a pair, are located in the center bay of the plant, just below the sheet mills and adjoin- ing the pickling, galvanizing and finishing departments. These furnaces have a capacity for box annealing the entire product of the eight-sheet-mill plant, or approx- imately 250 tons per day. Various economies in production are claimed for these furnaces, particularly in handling. After the sheets leave the rolls the handling is confined to a comparatively limited area in the lower end of the plant. Another advantage claimed is that with the continuous furnaces the plant is always able to turn out without delay orders calling for quick delivery. With the elimination of a separate building for an annealing department, the entire production department is confined to the one main building 624 ft. long and 166 ft. wide. Powdered coal is used exclusively for fuel through- out the plant, for the sheet and pair and annealing fur- naces, for firing the boilers and also for the galvanizing pots. While powdered coal has been used for some time in sheet mills having separate sheet and pair fur- naces, it is stated that this is the first plant in which this fuel is used for firing combination furnaces. Both the annealing furnaces and the coal pulverizing plant were furnished by the Fuller Engineering Co. The annealing furnaces are 96 ft. long and, together, 23 ft. 5 in. wide outside the brick work. Each furnace is 6 ft. 3 in. wide between the bridge walls and 10 ft. 3 in. in height. Each is divided into two sections by a door in the center, providing two chambers of equal size, an annealing chamber on the charging side and a cooling chamber at the discharging end. Each fur- nace has a capacity for six annealing boxes, three in the annealing side and three in the cooling side. All annealing pot covers are of steel plate and the bottoms of cast iron. The pots are conveyed in and out of the furnaces on cars 16 ft. long and 6 ft. wide built by the Easton Car Co. Each car has six wheels, each wheel being mounted on a short shaft with two bearings so that, in case of warping, all the wheels will remain on the track. The annealing box bottoms when on the cars are 2 ft. 6 in. above the floor. Cars are charged into the furnace by means of two pulleys and a cable, the latter attached to an over- head crane. As a car is pushed into the heating cham- ber it shoves the six cars already in the furnace for- ward a car length, bringing the last car outside at the discharge end. A car is charged into the furnace every 1 hr., so that with a furnace capacity of six cars the material stays in the furnaces 24 hr., one-half of this time being in the cooling chamber. The usual car charge is about 20 tons. The end doors of the furnaces, and the center door dividing the heating and cooling chambers, are of cast iron and are operated simulta- neously by a 15-hp. motor connected to a line shaft. After the annealing pot is removed from the car, at the discharge end of the furnaces, the crane picks up the car, the bottom always remaining on it, and carries it back to the front end of the furnace. When necessary the cars can be lifted with their loads. For convenience in handling they are provided with movable lifting 1342 beams, which, when not in use, are pushed in u car platform out of the way. Only one spar required in the operation of the two furnaces Extending the length of the cooling chamber side are six 6-in. pipes with a 2%-in. corebuster through which air for cooling is circulated, blast supplied by a Buffalo Forge Co. blower located side of the furnace. Air passes from the blow: header and from this to the cooling pipes and, afte; passing through the pipes, is discharged through th roof. The plant is divided into three bays, the tw it- side bays being 50 ft. wide and the center bay 66 ft. A liberal amount of floor space is provided for al! de- partments and the building is of good height, being 44 ft. 9 in. high at the sides and 66 ft. in the center, to the peak of the monitor roof. In the north bay are located the squaring shears, the finishing department and warehouse and shipping department. A depressed loading track runs the length of this bay along the outer wall. In the center bay are the sheet mills and annealing furnaces. The south bay is occupied by th bar shear, sheet and pair furnaces and pickling and galvanizing departments. The north bay is served by a 5-ton crane, the center bay by a 30-ton crane with 10- ton auxiliary and the south bay by two 10-ton cranes, al! supplied by the Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co. Mill equipment includes five roughing and eight fin- ishing stands. The two largest finishing mills have individual roughing stands and the other six finishing mills have a roughing stand for a set of two finishing stands. The mills have 38-in., 42-in. and 46-in. rolls, al! the rolls being 28-in. in diameter. Chilled rolls are used in the finishing mills. The mills were built by the Hyde Park Foundry & Machine Co. There are six 156- in. resquaring shears and four doublers, one for each two finishing mills, all of the same make. Sheet bars which are stored in the upper end of th plant, are sheared on a bar shear built by the United Engineering & Foundry Co. This shear is served with a motor driven roller type approach table. After shearing, a crane in the south bay delivers the bars back of the furnaces. There are eight combination sheet and bar furnaces, one for each finishing mill These are of the Fuller type with chambers 5 ft. 6 in and 6 ft. wide and 25 ft. long. Bars are charged by hand into the pair furnaces from each side. Equipment in the pickling, galvanizing and finishing departments includes two plunger type pickling ma- chines with tanks 6 ft. deep and 13 ft. long, a drying machine, two galvanizing pots supplied by the United Engineering & Foundry Co., four roller levelers and 4 Streine corrugating machine. The powdered coal plant is located at the side of the mill building. Coal delivered in hopper cars is dumped into a receiving header, from which it is conveyed t a crusher which reduces it to a size which will perm it to go through a 1-in. mesh screen. It is then elevated into a magnetic separator and is discharged into 4 25-ton bin located at the feed end of a rotary drier, into which it is mechanically fed. After being dried until the moisture content is reduced to 1 per cel or less, it is elevated to two dry coal bins, one of *° tons and the other of 8 tons capacity. From tne bins it is fed into two pulverizers each having a capacity °° 4 tons per hour. In these it is ground to a fineness that will permit 80 per cent to pass through a 2UU _— screen. From the pulverizers a Fuller-Kin) = delivers the fuel to two 7-ton weighing bins ae ¢ pump being weighed it passes by gravity to anoth LLDOONEUEDNNDTOMBEDLONEEOENUNAADUGEtEAONA LunEREREAnoaeNseaenELITTY (Concluded on page 1362) Ae Pe ey - een ae a “- aren aee Wer - 7 2 we ® we? H ers ee ae le = SS SE - > ce ey a pate EE ae Gee ell ge ee ere — aed -* A AR PO BA ae. EE ge oy » a 7 = i Rares tee gama eet ran 8 a ro ee ype eR He eee Me 2 gS GO ee a fe 7 - ce a a a eT a ne te a me one me <n we ili tna ~~ Sg = ~ - : oe ems me . o- . opm ~ . .- _ . : . ‘ % . - é . . en 5 - . J ou ‘ = le rma prorat nn r= ol att ep tn ~ « a pow caper nagIrneng =< <eerengetr m temo a ore eee ot ee ee - enter ' . . - : Er ee - . ; . =A . = , a ‘ S., See we . - . ° 4 . . ‘ “ 7 . with Left, Pow- sheet piled at The bo is ready shown are delivered shown of the Ashtabula Annealing Plant Sheet Furnaces and car annealing bottom Hoppers, Which Supply Furnaces bars, up, am O < Z Oo x — uw o Ke Angular Wheel-Truing Device An angular wheel-truing device as illustrated, for use with its surface grinding machines, has been brought out by the Wilmarth & Morman Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. It is intended for use in shops that salvage and reclaim worn out milling machine cutters, reamers and drills, and also in shops specializing in cast Stellite cutters and tools. With this device, the wheel can be formed to cor- respond to the outline to be ground. In the illus- tration the wheel-truing device is shown in position for The Wheel Can Be Dressed Without Disturbing Set Up of Work dressing the wheel face parallel with the table. The diamond is fed to the wheel by means of the knurled knob at the top, which the crank is employed to feed the diamond across the face of the wheel. A graduated dial is provided for setting the device at the angle de- sired. The diamond-carrying member is tilted to either side for dressing the wheel face at an angle. The chief advantage of the built-in wheel-truing device is that the wheel can be dressed properly with- out disturbing the set-up of the work. Time is said to be saved because of its adaptability and the facility of operation. Merger of Press Manufacturers Reported Newspapers at Toledo, Ohio, and elsewhere have published reports that the purchase of a controlling interest in the Toledo Machine & Tool Co., manufac- turer of presses at Toledo, as reported in THE IRON AGE last week, is for the purpose of bringing about a con- solidation of four or five of the leading press manu- facturers in Ohio and Michigan. It is understood that a new corporation to be known as the Consolidated Machine Tool Co., will be formed with headquarters in Brooklyn, N. ae Nearly 60,000 Miles of Pipe in Oil Lines A report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that in 1921 there were 55,260 miles of pipe line operated in interstate commerce by 33 companies. The total investment was put at $652,138,894. Extensive additions have been made to the system in the present year, and the American Petroleum Institute, New York, estimates that the 1922 report will show more than 60,000 miles of interstate line. In addition to the main trunk lines, which are usually of 8-in. steel pipe and carry the oil from the producing fields to terminals located on the Atlantic and Gulf THE IRON AGE November 23. coasts and at the large listributing centers inlan are thousands of miles of smaller so-called gat! lines. It is through these lines, which are fro, 6 in. in diameter, that the oil is collected from ¢} and gathered in storage tanks for shipment t, points. Decarburization of Ferrochromium | Hydrogen In order to produce rustless iron it is necessa carbon-free iron and chromium be available. T} forms of chromium, commercial grades of chromium, contain comparatively large amou carbon. The discovery of rustless iron ha made it very important to be able to treat chromium by some process which will remo carbon. Among the methods proposed is that o! ing ferrochromium in contact with hydrogen. Through experiments conducted by the Bur Standards, it has been found that ferrochromium |} in hydrogen loses carbon slowly at temperature the melting point of the alloy. When hydro bubbled through molten ferrochromium, the los bon is very rapid. It may be possible to prepar carbon ferrochromium by blowing