The Iron Age 1925-04-09: Vol 115 Iss 15

THE IRON AGE New York, April 9, 1925 ESTABLISHED 1855 VOL. 115, No. 15 Foundries of Automobile Builder Cadillac Plant Houses Iron, Aluminum and Brass Units Together—Simplified Supervision and Reduced Overhead Expected BY FRED L HREE new foundries of the Cadillac Motor Car [co Detroit, represent a most important develop- ment in design and arrangement and, from the standpoint of interest, occupy a commanding position in the foundry field. One of the most prominent fea- tures is that the three foundries, iron, aluminum and brass, all arranged for continuous operation, are com- bined in one plant with one sand handling and storage department, a single core making, baking and finish- ing department and one pattern making and storage department for the three units, effecting economies in operation that are self-evident. This combination also permits merging other plant facilities, such as railroad PRENTISS tracks and service equipment, saves ground space and, from an organization standpoint, the combined manage- ment simplifies supervision and reduces overhead. Outstanding features include labor saving equip- ment for handling material, convenient arrangement of the different units, ventilation and heating. The use of manual labor has been reduced to a minimum. A conspicuous illustration of this is that core sand is not handled by hand from delivery to plant until it reaches the core maker’s bench. An unusual feature of the iron foundry is that it has two independent systems for preparation and distribution of the two grades of mold- ing sand used. Another conspicuous feature is the use =! _— Oa ea N the Cylinder Molding Bay, the Pouring Ladle Is Brought From the Cupola by a Hot Metal Carrier Which Is Switched From Its Own Monorail to an Overhead Traveling Crane Which Moves the Carrier and Ladle to Any Position Over the Pouring Floors. Molds assembled on the roller conveyor come from the left and are switched, on turntables, from the transverse conveyor to the lines of parallel conveyors extending through the pouring bay. Two men are required for pouring, one in the conveyor cab and one for skimming PER TS Pe ee Or ee ee 1035 Pe eee eter ommet Sak Nee ; 1036 of an overhead monorail system for distributing core sand and in parts of the foundries for delivering sand to the molding floors. Removal of the entire plant of the company to a new site permitted building wholly new foundries for mak- ing all the castings used in the manufacture of the : ] # the he . | > DU r ce i i ] q Cadillac car. This foundry plant is the last of th The combined foundry occupies a triangular i ; at TREAT Rae BLDG Lie he ia ; UMhiidhdddl, y sf | ' | 7 | F | ‘ 5 i z a 3 S o& € | , : a <= } | | = (eS wn j~. .. ~ ~ = 5 w : > a; noel = a v | -——+— rie ’ | 7 u y ‘2 “ va > 7 5 4 | ’ S : z j x + Pred f « a | | 7 Be 1 \\ TANK Lo a nde ground ve TA ae ~ + lat : ¥ ys 44 o Thai; “ Riu : > = 3 f . Layout of the Plant, Showing Movement from Sand Bins at West Side Through Core Rooms and Molding Bays = . to Knock-Outs Near East Side. This places the castings near the manufacturing department, minimizes handling and avoids i ES confused cross-currents a \¢ large plant units included in an extensive building pro- gram inaugurated. by the company a few years ago. Before the»plans far the plant were prepared, a com- mittee,of five, consistimg of three representatives of the Cadillac company, one of the General Motors Corpora- tion and another from the Austin Co., Cleveland, engi- neer and architect for the plant, visited 30 foundries, studying at length the various types and methods of operation and compiling their data in a lengthy report. G THE IRON AGE April 9, 1925 The plant was laid out, buildings and equipment d signed or selected and construction supervised by th: Austin Co., in conjunction with the committee. Con. struction work was started in October, 1923, and th last unit, the iron foundry, was completed early th year. bounded on one side by the New York Central and on another by the Michigan Central Railroad. The three main foundry buildings are in a parallel line, separated by 28-ft. courts, and face on the third or east side a large manufacturing building to which the castings are delivered, a concrete driveway separating the two build- ings. The foundry buildings, together with the pattern building at one side, form a line nearly 600 ft. long. Extending across the front of the foundries is a loading April 9, 1925 OME of the Spe- cial Grinding Ma- chines in the Core Finishing Department for Grinding Jacket, Crank Case and Transmission Cores. Labor is saved and exact thickness is as- sured by mechanically grinding the flat sur- faces of the cores. The core is held in a jig and ground on a horizontal emery wheel ee ee a ee l platform 20 ft. wide covered by a marquise. The entir floor space exceeds 200,000 sq. ft. In the central building are the brass foundry and core department. On the north is the iron foundry, with attached cupola building, and on the south the alumi- num foundry. At the front of each foundry unit is its respective cleaning department. The core-making dé partment is centrally located west of the brass four dry, while west of the core room is the sand storage building. Centrally located between the brass found: and core cleaning room is a general stock room that extends across this building and serves all the fow dries. Work and material is generally routed fron the west toward the east of the bui'dings. Cores ar knocked out in bays between the foundry floors and cleaning rooms and, after cleaning, the castings pass to the loading dock and are trucked across the drive way to the manufacturing building, which has a similar loading dock. A slight exception to the general dire« tion of routing is found in the brass foundry. In this a basement extends to the front of the loading platform, to which chutes are connected. Copper and other raw material are delivered into these chutes, which feed into basement bins. Iron Storage and Charging Piatform At the side of the iron foundry the storage yard, 80 ft. x 120 ft., is served by a 5-ton Shaw crane span ning the yard. Raw material is delivered over a rail road siding that extends the length of the yard under the crane runway. This runway extends over the cupola YORE Sand Mix- ing Department, Located Under One End of Sand Storage Building, the Sand Feeding into the Ma- chine Hoppers from Small Bins Above. Core sand is not han- died by hand from railroad car to the core makers’ benches. Two men operate the core sand mixing department, one for each machine THE IRON AGE 1037 charging floor, that is 56 x 60 ft. The charging plat- form is entirely covered, but is open on the storage yard side so that the yard crane can serve it. A magnet handles pig iron and scrap to the platform. On the side of the charging platform toward the storage yard are three rows of steel bins for pig iron and scrap and on the opposite side are four bins, three for coke (capacity, four carloads) and one for limestone. Coke is forked from railroad cars into self-dumping buckets handled by the crane. Coke breeze as it accumulates n the bins on the charging floor passes through chutes to trucks outside the building on the ground floor level. \ monorail carries the coke from the bins to the upola Cupola charges are made on 2-ton Whiting charging ars, each charge being weighed on Toledo automatic platform scales. The cupolas are charged by hand from doors on each side, but the cupola house is so designed that mechanical charging machines can be installed. Storage room for fire clay, cupola blocks and alloys s provided under the cupola charging platform. Two oil-fired ladle-drying ovens, 8 ft. long and 4 ft. wide inside, are located in this room. A monorail for han dling the ladles extends from near the front of the cupolas to these ovens. The charging floor is served by a 2-ton electric elevator for handling brick, sand and other supplies. There are three Whiting cupolas of the continuous type, with shells 72 in. in diameter lined down to 42 in These have a melting capacity in excess of 6 tons per ope aBy ee ae “nase ey Sr rae ESO Mo sp serpent - pe OnE % Paper iat ihe aptat dee TM Fy PAT rome ay» FO es tes tas toons ne ane ‘were. very , ee Baa rend s 1038 THE IRON AGE hour each. However, the inner lining can be taken out and the diameter increased to 54 in. if foundry opera- tions should require a greater melting capacity. Blast for the cupolas is supplied by three Connersville blow- ers located on the mezzanine floor Sand Storage and Mixing Sand is stored under cover in a sand storage build- ing 60 ft. x 180 ft. In this are a series of concrete bins having capacities of 20 and 40 carloads, holding 10,000 tons of sand, or a six-months’ supply. The bins are 27 ft. deep, their bottoms extending 7 ft. below ground level. Sand, brought in on a railroad track under a roof at one end of the building, is handled with a 5-ton Cleveland electric traveling crane equipped with a 1%-yd. bucket that serves the entire sand storage building. Incoming sand is either unloaded directly from the cars to the bins with the grab bucket or is discharged from the cars into pits beneath the track. If dropped into the pits, the cars can be immediately released and the sand conveyed to the storage bins when the use of the crane is not required for serving the mixing equipment. This arrangement prevents interruption in unloading, reduces labor of trimming cars and eliminates demurrage charges. New sand for the molding floors is delivered by the. overhead crane into bins over a driveway between the storage bins and unloading track. From these bins a Clark gasoline tractor carries it to the various foundry floors, where it is prepared in a riddle before being placed in the sand handling system. At either end of the sand storage building are separate sand-mixing departments, one for core sand and the other for facing sand. Above each mixing department are concrete hoppers of 10-ton capacity, the tops on a level with the large storage bins, from which they are filled each day with the grab bucket. There are two core-sand mixing machines supplied by the Standard Sand & Machine Co., each with a capacity of 15 tons per hr. and each served by four hoppers. Under each hepper a pneumatically operated measuring gate delivers the sand into the machine, permitting mixing the core sand in various proportions. Each gate has a capacity of 2 cu. ft., but can be arranged for holding a smaller amount of sand. As twelve different mixes are required for the combined foundries, batch mixing is necessary. All the work in the mixing department is done by two men, one for each machine. Core oil is stored in two 12,000-gal. tanks located outside underground, these being filled directly from tank cars. From these tanks the oil is pumped to two 250-gal. tanks above the mixers and then delivered by gravity to the mixer through a sight feed. As each batch is finished the mixer discharge gate is opened and the sand passes through a hopper to a screw conveyor’ under the floor and is elevated to one of two receiving hoppers at the end of the core room adjoining. A double bucket, bottom dump, electrically operated monorail conveyor delivers the sand from the hoppers to a series of twelve small bins, one for*each mix. From these bins a similar conveyor, on a lower level, delivers the sand to the core makers’ benches through hoppers that extend from the gallery under the monorail. Each core bench has a separate hopper, to take care of work requiring different grades of sand. With this arrangement flexibility is provided to meet the wide variation in classes of work. The only labor required for handling the sand, from the time it arrives on the cars until it is delivered to the core benches, excepting the two mixer operators, is done by two men, one operating the crane in the sand storage build- ing and the other dividing his time between the two monorail handling systems in the core room. Facing sand for the iron foundry, discharged from the bottom of the storage hoppers in the same way as the core sand, is delivered through a pneumatically controlled gate onto a belt conveyor which carries it to a Simpson mixer. Sea coal is added by an automatic mixing device that feeds into the mixer. From the mixer the sand is dumped into an elevator which car- ries it to a rotary riddle, from which it is dumped to a Sellers centrifugal mixer in which it is aerated. April 9, 1925 From this mixer it passes to a conveyor which dis- charges it into either of two storage bins, one for each of the two kinds of facing sand used. From the bins a gasoline tractor carries the sand to the iron foundry. Core Making and Finishing The central location of the core building, with the foundries arranged on the three sides, reduces to a minimum the distance cores have to be carried. The core department occupies a space 122 x 260 ft., the core- making department on one side, the finishing depart- ment on the opposite side, and the core-baking depart- ment near the center. Cores for the iron foundry are made on one side and cores for the brass and aluminum foundries on the opposite side. Cores are made on International and Pridmore standard core machines and the lighter cores on Swan-Woodison roll-over machines. Each core maker places his finished work on portable steel racks, which are placed in the ovens by electric lift trucks. An exception to this practice is in the light miscellaneous cores, which are carried by hand directly from the benches to drawer-type ovens. There are 28 oil-fired car type core ovens with lift doors, arranged in five batteries. Fouroftherows of ovens are arranged back to back and there is one single line, making three passageways between ovens and insuring the movement of trucks without congestion. Each oven, 13 ft. long, 6 ft. wide and 6 ft. 6 in. high, ac- commodates two racks. They were supplied by the Cleveland Foundry Equipment Co. and are equipped with indicating pyrometers. In addition, there are two drawer-type ovens. The core oven room is inclosed, being surrounded by a brick wall 6 ft. 6 in. high, above which asbestos sheet partitions extend to the roof line. Fuel oil that supplies the ovens as well as the aluminum and brass foundries is fed from three 20,000-gal. tanks under- ground, through tunnels by pumps adjacent to the sup- ply tanks. The oil is pre-heated and is metered to each department. Low-pressure air for the core oven burn- ers is furnished by two separate units of direct-con- nected centrifugal compressors of the Spencer type, so arranged that either unit can be operated individually or both together. Provision is made for the auxiliary use of gas in connection with the ovens. The oil burners, blower units and control for the burners are located below the core room floor in a tunnel having connection to the outside atmosphere. Ventilating grates that connect with the tunnel are located in front of each oven door, producing a circulation of air that carries the fumes upward when the doors are open. To insure satisfactory ventilation in the core-baking de- partment, louvers have been provided in the side walls near the floor to permit infiltration of air as required. After being baked, the cores are taken into the finishing room for cleaning, grinding, assembling and other operations. Five special machines designed in the plant grind jacket cores for cylinders, crankcase and transmission cores, these being cores that have flat sur- faces. The cores, made with an extra amount of stock, are ground down to exact thickness to provide a smooth surface at the joint. Horizontal emery wheels are used for the grinding, 12-in. wheels for the cylinder cores and 18-in. for the crankcase cores. The core is kept in position on a jig and the grinding is done with speed and accuracy. White core wash is used for the most part for coating cores, although some of the smaller cores are coated with graphite. After the cores are cleaned, pasted and dipped in the core wash, they are placed in continuous vertical gas-fired ovens. They make one round trip in these ovens, requiring about 15 min., and are dried at a temperature of about 250 deg. Fahr. These ovens, five in number, were built by the Detroit Sheet Metal Works. There are also two ovens with doors at each end for drying the cylinder cores after dipping, past- ing and assembling. These cores, placed on trucks, 24 to a truck, each oven holding two trucks, are kept in the ovens 2% hr. at a temperature of 300 deg. Fahr. The racks of finished cores are delivered to the foundries by means of lift trucks, the racks being used for stor- ing cores until used. Quite a few girls are employed eA April 9, 1925 in the core department in making light cores and clean- ing cores. A wire-forming and straightening department is located in an annex to the core-making department Due to the continuous production of duplicate cores, it has been found advisable to cut and form the wires on automatic machines. This department is provided with equipment both for forming the reinforcements = for straightening wires returned from the foun- ries. Iron Foundry The iron foundry building is 142 ft. x 320 ft., the molding floors occupying 220 ft. of the length. The building is divided lengthways into a 60-ft. center aisle and two 40-ft. side aisles, the cupola room being lo- cated at the center of one side aisle. At the front or east end of the building is the iron foundry cleaning room, 80 x 142 ft., and between that and the foundry THE IRON AGE 1039 drag of the cylinder mold are made for the most part on a Beardsley & Piper Co. sand slinger and it is the intention to use this type of machine exclusively for this work, although at present some of the molds are made on jolt machines. A special conveying device designed in the plant is provided for feeding sand to the sand slinger from the belt conveyor that supplies the unit. The sand passes from the distributing belt to a hopper, from which it feeds as fast as wanted to a cross conveyor about 7 ft. long that discharges the sand into the hopper of the sand slinger. The feeding device, motor-driven, is con- trolled by the same switch that controls the molding machine, so that it feeds sand into the machine hopper when the machine is operating, while the supply is cut off when the machine is stopped after finishing the mold. This is found to be a very convenient and eco- nomical method. Cylinder molds are placed on a roller conveyor at NE of the Vertical Continuous Ovens, at the Left, for Drying Cores. At the right are two truck type ovens, one shown with the door open, for drying cylinder cores. The ovens are heated by means of fuel oil, but gas ie supplied as an auxiliary fuel. Burners, blowers and control are located beneath the floor floors a knock-out room occupies one 20-ft. bay extend- ing across the building. This is a continuous foundry designed for day operation only. The heavier work, including the making of cylinder molds, is done at the east end of the foun- dry and the lighter work at the west end. Two grades of molding sand are used, a coarse sand for the cylin- der molds and for some of the other large molds and a fine sand for the lighter work. This necessitates two complete sand mixing and distributing systems, an unusual feature in a plant handling sand mechanically. Four grades of iron are used: One, containing 1% to 2 per cent of nickel, is used for cylinder castings. Another is a hard iron about the same as the cylinder iron but containing no nickel, from which sprockets, exhaust pipes and some other parts are made. A third is a soft iron for water pumps, brackets and some other parts not subjected to wear, and the fourth, a special iron for pistons, contains 1 to 1% per cent nickel. The nickel is added to the iron in the pouring ladle. Cylinder blocks are molded and poured in a 60 x 60 ft. section of the center aisle. The cheek, cope and the side of the unit and, after assembling, are pushed to the end of this conveyor and to a transverse roller conveyor, from which six lines of roller conveyors extend through the pouring side of the unit and on which the molds are poured. Turntables provided on the transverse conveyor, at the points at which it con- nects with the conveyors that extend into the pouring bay, make it easy for a workman to slide a mold from any conveyor line to the transverse line. Three pouring aisles are provided between pairs of the six rows of conveyors on the pouring floor. Matthews roller con- veyors are used in this unit and in various other foun- dry floors. Metal is handled from the cupola with two 2-ton Sprague hot metal carriers electrically operated on a monorail. While this system of pouring has been adopted recently in a few other foundries, it has here a new feature in that, instead of pouring the metal from the monorail track of the carrier, greater flexi- bility is provided by transferring the carrier from its own track to an electric traveling crane. The carrier, on reaching the pouring floor, runs from its monorail BS a i te é esa far Pree ee TRO RTE MELT RY LA TIBET 1040 THE IRON AGE Awa Conveyor Designed in the Plant for Feed- ing Sand from the Overhead Belt Conveyor to the Sand-Slinger in the Cylinder Unit. This saves labor and operates automatically, as the switch that operates the sand-slinger also starts and stops the con- veying device that feeds sand to the molding machine onto the connecting rail of a 6-ton crane with a 15-ft. span that serves the pouring floor. This crane, built by the Ricker Mfg. Co., provides both a lengthways and crossways movement for the metal carrier over the pouring floor. About 800 Ib. of metal is poured into the ladle, although it has 1600 lb. capacity. Pouring is done direct from the ladle and only two men are required for pouring, one in the carrier cab and another for skimming the metal. The metal conveyor has an elec- trically operated lifting device, permitting the ladle, which is at its low position when being filled, to be raised 3 ft. 4 in. when pouring the molds. A dupli- cate metal conveyor that operates only on its own monorail track serves the remainder of the iron foun- dry. The metal for the small work is poured from the large conveyor ladle into hand or small bull ladles. About 85 cylinder molds are made in the morning before pouring begins, pouring starting at about 10.30 a.m. This gives the molders a good start. It is ex- o~ Is Stored in Concrete Bins Having a Capacity of 10,000 Tons, April 9, 1925 pected that an output slightly in excess of 300 cylinder castings per day can be attained in this unit. Cylinder molds are shaken out over grates at the end of the pouring bay and the flasks go to the ad- joining knock-out bay, partly partitioned from the molding floors, where they are knocked out over a grating onto a belt conveyor beneath. A magnetic pul- ley collects the nails and other metal, while the refuse —burnt sand and cores—is carried underground to the outer side of the raw material storage yard and ele- vated into an 80-ton hopper, from which it is dumped into a car on the track that serves the storage yard. A space 40 x 65 ft., at the east end of the north aisle, is used for small miscellaneous work. The foun- dry, outside of parts occupied by the cylinder and job- bing units, is divided into four foundry floors. The center aisle is divided at the center into two molding floors with two parallel rows of molding machines, one row belonging to each floor and with one sand dis- tributing system serving both floors. The two other floors are located in the outer aisles. Between the center and outside aisles are two main gangways and along each side aisle at the side of the gangway is a shake-out grating with a belt conveyor beneath. In these four molding units roller conveyors extend across the floors from the machines to the shake-out grating. The copes and drags are assembled on the conveyor. The molds are pushed along the conveyor toward the gangway, are poured on the conveyor and then the molds are pushed from the end of the conveyor onto the shake-out grating. These foundry floors are served by hand-operated hoists. Hand roll-over types of In- ternational and Pridmore molding machines are largely used. Cylinder head molds are made on stripping plate machines, while pistons, which are made in green sand, are molded on Arcade machines. QUUHHENONNOnETEDTsLeMMCONEEDHEETY YF cEN OU OLOTNRLDORTDOSEOONRL CDEOOEC LERED SeEAEENADDEDRO NEN DONNEEDOCETOOCEIDUREEDEATRROOSELEDENE DORMER CHTOHNDE HONROOHERERTONEN OFT NON oreRee tunanE TEN OTN® (To be concluded) Merger of Jobbing Houses Abandoned The merger of steel jobbing houses in New Eng- land and New York has been abandoned. The com- panies interested in the plan were the National Bridge Works, Long Island City; Froment & Co. and Ogden & Wallace, New York; the Brown Wales Co. and the Arthur C, Harvey Co., Boston; Charles C. Lewis Co., Springfield, Mass.; George F. Blake, Jr., & Co. and Pratt & Inman, Worcester; Congdon & Carpenter, Providence, and the New England Drawn Steel Co., Mansfield, Mass. The chief obstacle in establishing the combination appears to have been the difficulty of making acceptable payments to the estates having ownership in some of the participating companies. Decision as to the location of its new seamless tube mill, recently authorized by directors of the Youngs- town Sheet & Tube Co., is still being withheld. The choice is between East Youngstown and Indiana Har- bor, Ind. A number of civic bodies at Youngstown have requested that, other considerations being equal, the new unit be placed in the Youngstown district. The company is proceeding with installation of a new con- tinuous skelp and bar mill at the Indiana Harbor works. or a Six Months’ Supply. . . : . : From th _ entering right end of sand storage building, in center of photograph, sand is delivered to the bins by grab vent ine aa crane. One end of foundry appears beyond sand storage, while a manufacturing building is in backgr g ound, behind the tank cars German Industries at Higher Speed Recent Observations of an American Engineer—Manu- facturers Want Long-Time Loans—The Dawes Plan and Germany’s Expanding Exports BY STERLING in order and operations begun under the Dawes plan marked changes have taken place in the in- dustrial outlook there. Factories which a year ago were working only two or three days per week are now on full time. There is no great degree of unemploy- ment, in which respect Germany is very much better off than Great Britain. Wages and living costs are not intolerably different as compared with pre-war condi- tions. Conversations with men of affairs reflect a feeling of hopefulness, entirely lacking a year ago. German factory products are being offered in world markets at reasonable prices, no longer distorted fan- tastically by ever decreasing wages and increasing cost of material. The question of successful competi- tion by German manufacturers in export trade is ac- cordingly coming up in many forms. Low Bids on British Ships One striking instance is the placing of an order about a month ago by a British firm of ship owners with a German shipyard for the building of five motor ships. The German price wds about $285,000 per ves- sel below the lowest British quotation. The shipping company offered a premium of $50,000 above the German price to any British shipyard that would take the order; but none could afford the loss which the work would have entailed. In this case the successful German bidder quoted much under the prices of other German yards, but any of these would have done the work for much less than the lowest British tender. The difference in prices in this instance is unusual, and does not mean that a proportionate difference exists throughout between all English and German prices. What is indicated is that German industry is favored with reasonable wages and working hours and use of labor-saving equipment. The loss of coal mines to other nations and the increased cost of getting coal from the German mines exhausted during the war have been met by the development of lignite areas, the general use of lignite and lignite briquettes, increasing use of gas in industry, and construction of large central stations near lignite mines, so that power may be cheaply generated for distribution. In shipping ser- vice, Germany has a large proportion of the 110 per cent of motor ships reported to be building as com- pared with steamships. The ships lost to the Allies have been replaced by new ones with the latest econo- mies and facilities, built at small labor cost during the period of depreciating money. The belief in automatic German supremacy seems to have been replaced by general willingness to do what is necessary and to spare no effort to overcome the handicaps resulting from the conditions which followed the war. I: the short time since German finance was put Financial Handicaps Removed It is only to be expected that relief from intoler- able conditions may release energies which will tend to rapid recovery of lost ground. The German indus- trial workers have lived through a terrific ordeal. The financial chaos brought about by the collapse of the mark, through the entire range from gold par down to the point where a trillion paper marks had only 24c. gold value, seems now like a nightmare, some- thing to be forgotten as soon as possible. The peried of chaos ended in October, 1923, with the issue of *Consulting engineer, 347 Madison Avenue, New York Mr. Bunnell returned recently from a trip to Germany in which he had contacts with representatives of the metal working and other industries. H. BUNNELL* the rentenmark, a fiat note with an arbitrary face value of 4.2 to the American dollar. Although at no time was there any certainty that it would hold its purchasing power, the rentenmark continued to cir- culate at par and prices held steady. Along with the rentenmark currency circulated the old trillion-mark notes with a value arbitrarily fixed at one rentenmark and as the small-change minimum, the fifty-billion mark notes, equal to 5 pfennings gold value or 1.2 cents. But the financial outlook was too uncertain to encourage accumulation of rentenmark bank balances, so ordinary commercial credits disappeared. Accord- ingly, the working time of a factory was limited by the amount of currency which the local bank could supply each week to pay wages. Some plants, there- fore, although with output sold for many months in advance, could operate only two or three days per week, pay their men for one or two days’ work, and after the money had been spent and returned by the local shops to the bank, make up the balance of the payroll. Credits for the purchase of materials could not be had from local banks, because there were not enough funds on deposit on which to base them. Such funds as were unavoidably required were borrowed from abroad at tremendous interest rates, often 3 per cent per month. The effect of these conditions was restriction of output and excessive increase of pro duction cost. Rapid Industrial Revival The stabilization of finances by the adoption of the Dawes plan permitted the making of loans to Ger- man industries with an acceptable degree of safety. The revival of industry has been rapid. With currency enough to make up the full week’s payroll, the shops went to full time production. Money came into the channels of trade from foreign credits and from Government purchases and payrolls. The effect has been a marked reduction in interest rates, and an in- crease in the price of bonds and mortgages bearing a fixed rate of interest. At present there is plenty of short-time money offering, with naturally great relief to the money market. Most of this relief comes, however, from the offer- ing of commercial paper which must be liquidated in a short period, and therefore cannot be used to carry the cost of plant or of operating improvements, In fact, the very ease of the money market may prove a danger to the sound development of German indus try, by encouraging too rapid expansion rather than the building for future success by reduction of cost of product. There is a total lack of the former steady stream of savings from the people for permanent in- vestment. Having experienced the melting away of all their reserves, accumulated by years of self-denial, the German people may be a long time in giving up the present habit of instant conversion of earnings into the desires of the moment. For the time being the habit of saving has been lost. Industry Wants Long Time Loans There is accordingly an urgent demand in Ger- many for long-term loans which can be used for im- proved equipment and methods. Everywhere engi- neers and managers inquire for information of the latest labor-saving devices. If it is suggested that labor is cheap in Germany and therefore improved equipment is unnecessary, the reply is that every possible saving is required if Germany is to compete successfully with the world. The largest concerns have 1041 OA PSST eh iy SORE Merete ae al carta alee aa i i Raa a Shi i ah ode us - vt x ee 1042 THE IRON AGE been able to obtain credits for improvements from for- eign sources, particularly from the United States, but the smaller firms, needing less than the usual Wall Street minimum of “a million,” are unable to partici- pate in the credits offering and must postpone im- provements and operate at a disadvantage. As fer the short-term credits that are available, these ought to be utilized to bring in raw and partly- finished material to be manufactured and exported, but the actual imports from Germany have increased much more in the classes of food and luxuries than materials for manufacture. This may be only a temporary change, due to the excessive cost and difficulty of im- porting during several years past. Interest rates are still very high, and it is curious to observe that plenty of American money is available to German banks at 6 per cent, which the banks in turn lend their cus- tomers at 8, 10 or 12 per cent—very profitable for the German bankers. Several American accounting firms, established and well known in New York, have opened branches in Berlin, so that financial reports from accepted authorities are now available to guide the direct loaning of American funds to German firms, and thus the lender can obtain the full benefit of the high interest rate instead of giving half to the inter- mediary bank. Employee Relations Favorable The relations between employers and workers in Germany «seem to be excellent. During the period of financial chaos it was impossible for the employer to shut down his plant and so relieve himself of the responsibility of finding the ever-increasing sums needed for the payroll. Unless money could be kept in circulation through the hands of the workmen, starvation would bring revolution and universal ruin. So the employers continued to run in the squirrel-cage, soliciting orders, collecting, paying out, and always following the needs of their workers and doing the utmost to make their condition tolerable. The workers seem to have appreciated the situation and to have evinced marvelous patience throughout the years of SHOENBERGER PLANT PASSES American Steel & Wire Co., Pittsburgh Unit Over a Century Old Work has been begun of dismantling the old Shoen- berger Works, American Steel & Wire Co., Pittsburgh, the news of the abondonment of which was published in THE IRON Ace, Feb. 5, 1925. The horseshoe depart- ment of this plant, which was the only one of the works that had been operated in the past year, shut down on March 28, and the Phoenix Horseshoe Co., Chicago, which, as announced early in February, had purchased the horseshoe business of the American Steel & Wire Co., now is moving the equipment to its plants at Cleves, Ohio; Joliet, Ill., and Schenectady, N. Y. Usable equipment in the other departments of the plant will be moved to other plants of the American Steel & Wire Co. in the Pittsburgh district and in Cleveland. The remainder will be scrapped. There is no official word on the matter, but the common belief in Pittsburgh is that the site of the plant has been sold to the Penn- sylvania Railroad, the Pittsburgh terminal of which is badly cramped and as badly in need of enlargement. Although the plant was more than 100 years old, it had been kept reasonably well up to date and on the score of producing costs its continuance might have been justified if there had been enough land to permit expansion. There was not only that obstacle, but the land now is too valuable for a steel plant site and be- ing located within the corporate limits of the city of Pittsburgh the property is subject to a very high rate of taxation in comparison with points outside the city. It was this last consideration that weighed most heavily im the decision of the company to abandon the plant. a April 9, 1925 stress. Today they are receiving daily wages about 20 per cent higher than before the war, and are work- ing nine hours instead of ten. Living costs are about 35 per cent higher, and rents nearly the same as for- merly. The employers admit that wages will have to be raised to some extent, and the workers seem to be willing to wait a reasonable time until improved con- ditions permit the change to be made. Absorbing Germany’s Exports The outstanding feature of the whole situation is that in order to pay reparations to the Allies, Germany must export goods and services. The Dawes plan recognized that internal taxation in marks is one thing, and the payment of reparations in pounds, francs, lire and lei is quite another. The money raised for the purpose is, therefore, to be deposited in a bank to the credit of the accounts of the several Allies, but can be paid out only as the condition of the mark exchange may permit. That is to say, the Allies must take Ger- man goods, or must take goods from other countries, which in turn will accept German goods as imports. Services such as transportation by ships can, of course, be substituted for goods. The British Government has recognized the necessity of facilitating reparations payments by arranging to take the German credits and place these at the disposal of British importers of German goods, to be used directly in payment. The interest of Germany is in exporting as much of her product as may be possible. The interest of each of the Allies is on the contrary divided and double; on the one hand to prevent competition from Germany in export trade, and on the other to facilitate German export trade so as to produce a favorable trade balance for Germany with which to pay reparations. All the difficulties of the German manufacturers were not by any means removed by the Dawes plan. It did put them in position to resume operations and give them incentives to increase output and reduce cost. These incentives will perhaps cause the remodel- ing of German factory methods so as to resemble more closely those generally known throughout the world as “American.” _ Two blast furnaces are lost to the Pittsburgh dis- trict by the dismantling of this plant. These furnaces had a rated capacity of 164,000 tons annually. The steel works, capable of producing 414,000 tons of ingots annually, comprised two 7-ton Bessemer converters; three 35-ton basic open-hearth furnaces; two 150-ton mixers; three cupolas; three 5-hole and one 4-hole soak- ing pits, with eight gas producers. Rolling equipment comprised 36-in. and a 32-in. 2-high 1-stand blooming mills; a 16-in., 2-high, 6-stand continuous billet mill; a 16-in. 2-high, 2-stand; a 9-in. 3-high, 1-stand; a 9-in. 2-high, 3-stand; an 8-in. 3-high, 2-stand and an 8-in, 2-high, 2-stand bar mills and a 34-in. x 127-in. 3-high sheared plate mill. The latter, after being idle for many years, was put into operation during the World War. It was rated as capable of producing 72,000 tons a year. In recent years the plant has been used chiefly in the production of bars for horseshoes and toe calks. Steel over and above these requirements has been shipped in semi-finished form to other units of the American Steel & Wire Co. or other Steel Corporation subsidiaries. The Chicago branch of the National Metal Trades Association held its annual meeting Tuesday evening, March 31, at the Midday Club, Chicago. Officers for the coming year were elected as follows: President, Charles H. Strawbridge, Goodman Mfg. Co.; vice-president, Charles E. Finkl, A. Finkl & Sons Co.; treasurer, Ar- thur E. Blackwood, Sullivan Machinery Co.: secretary, Charles L. Blatchford. The meeting se addressed by O. E. Bradfute, president of the American Farm Bu- reau Federation, Chicago, and C. F. Anderson, president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and gen- eral counsel Norton Co., Worcester, Mass. Combustibility of Blast Furnace Coke’ Further Experiments Based on the Composition of Gases —Size of Coke and Rate of Air Supply—Beehive Coke and Charcoal BY RALPH A. SHERMANT ANY articles have appeared in the technical journals of the United States, England and Europe during the past two years on the subject of coke combustibility, discussing the methods for the determination of combustibility, the relation of the properties of coke to combustibility and the relation of combustibility to blast furnace operation. The Bu- reau of Mines has taken an active interest in this problem and has attacked it along several different lines. Perrott and Kinney’ have studied the combustibility of coke under actual blast furnace conditions by sam- pling the gases across the hearth in a number of fur- naces and thus determining the rate of progress of combustion at the tuyeres. They found that the rate of disappearance of O. and CO, was essentially the same in 11 furnaces studied, the furnaces operating on widely different varieties of coke. Similar work in which samples of the gases and stock are being taken across several planes above the hearth has been in progress for some time and the results will be pub- lished in the near future. Sherman and Blizard’ studied the combustibilities of various cokes by determining the rate of progress of combustion of these cokes in pieces of from 1 to 1% in. in size when burned in an experimental furnace of 1 sq. ft. grate area in fuel beds 12 in. deep. The detailed description of the apparatus and methods used in these experiments, together with a discussion of the advantages of this method over certain other methods, thas been given in their report and reports of subsequent investigations along the same line. Résumé of Previous Work The investigations reported to the present time have shown: 1. That the rate of combustion had very little effect on the final products of combustion 2. That the relative combustibilities differed in different parts of the fuel bed. 3. That the calculated mean combustibilities of *Published by permission of the Director, Bureau of Mines Department of the Interior. It is intended to supplement the data published in Tue Iron Acer, June 28, 1923, “Com- bustibility of Blast Furnace Coke.” f a +Assistant Physicist, Pittsburgh Experiment Station, U. § Bureau of Mines, : 1 Perrott, G. St. J.. and Kinney, 8S. P., “Combustion of Coke in the Blast Furnace Hearth,” Trans. Amer. Inst. Min and Met. Eng., vol. 69, 1923, p. 526. 2Sherman, R. A., and Blizard, John, “Combustion of Blast Furnace Cokes in Fuel Beds,” Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. and Met. Eng., vol. 69, 1923, pp. 526-542, 585-86. ; ’Sherman, R. A., and Kinney, 8S. P., “Combustibility of Blast Furnace Coke,” THe Iron AGp, June 28, 1923, pp 1839-1844. ‘Perrott, G. St. J., and Sherman, R. A., “Reactivity of Coke in Relation to Blast Furnace Operation,” Proc. Eng Soc. of W. Pa., vol. 39, 1923, p. 351. the four by-product cokes studied ranged from 78 to 77 per cent of the maximum attainable combustibility The method of calculation of the combustibility of the coke is based on the fact that a gas containing particu lar volumes of COy, Og and CO, will contain on com plete reduction an additional volume of CO equal to twice the CO, and O, content of the original gas. Therefore the expression CO,+CO 2(COs+ 0.) +CO represents the ratio of the carbon actually present in the sample of gas to the maximum that could be ob- tained and CO,+CO — x 100 2(COg+O0,) + CO gives values, in per cent, for the mean combustibility between the point of air admission and the point of sampling. 4. That of the various physical or chemical proper ties of the by-product or petroleum cokes, that of size alone had any apparent relation to combuatibility A coke which gave a mean combustibility of 73 per eent for a 12-in. fuel bed, when the pieces were of a size from 1 in. to 1% in., gave a mean combuetibility of 85 per cent when crushed to a size of from \% to % in.* 5. That pitch coke did show a material difference n the shape of the curves showing the change in gas composition in the fuel bed, and the mean combuati- bility over the entire fuel bed was 59 per cent. * Scope of Present Investigation Inasmuch as the investigation to the present time had covered only four blast furnace cokes, all of which were by-product cokes, it was considered advisable to extend the investigation to include other fuels, par- ticularly beehive cokes and wood charcoal. Therefore this paper presents the results of tests on the follow- ing fuels: 1. Jones & Laughlin coke, Koppers oven, 80 per cent Pittsburgh coal, 20 per cent Pocahontas This coke was from the oven walls. 2. Continental No. 1, beehive coke. Frick Coal & Coke Co, 3. Leisenring No. 1, beehive coke. Frick Coal & Coke Co. 4. Wilkenson beehive coke. Wilkenson Coal & Coke Co., Wilkenson, Wash. 5. Wood charcoal. Bon Air Coal & Iron Corpora- tion, Nashville, Tenn. The experiments on these cokes were conducted under the same conditions as those previously reported, that is, the size of the pieces of coke was from 1 to 1% in., the same furnace was used with a fuel bed 12 in. deep, and the rate of air supply was maintained at 150 lb. per hr., giving a rate of combustion of from emoemusnreecasevernentsensesveennenenyTnnNne reueneeee yy (9/01) \AUEBMRMNREB LEE PAD FTE 611s snaNnowBeTEREL PPC ctor . etn rrvenaeenass Table 1—Analyses and Physical Properties of Coke __—___—Coke Analyst Per Cent Volatile Matter, Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Hydrogen, Per Cent ge ge 90 Fixed NOV 2. Carbon, Seore Moisture, Ash, > 1 Jones & Laughiin.. Continental No. 1.. Leisenring No. 1.. Wilkenson Wood charcoal eo bobo to! wnwio” oe od HSH Oh sao Oe see 3a? Sooo “12 OOo woooe oe to ILS LTS NRL EIT A ET EN tT TC A } i nt by Volume of Cel! Space Carbon Per Cent ' Nitrogen, *senrnwo™ Per Cent Gen ent Sulphur, Per Cent B.t.u. per Lb Porosity. Per Ce Oxy Per ~}-1@ DO Sens “~weeowwo Dee eee Sosofoo Kos on®™ eeecoS,. -Oeewo Sssee eco arene ee eorr co & dee” — pene am mae gers See Seth Yo 2- Ta pase UN aaa + OP Oe aaa Macatee peeremoiene eter “ % > . s ee Rr aera a ae a ary Paes Sauer at ae 1044 THE IRON AGE 20 to 25 Ib. of fuel per hour, this rate of combustion resulting in temperatures of from 2500 to 2700 deg. Fahr. and avoiding the mechanical difficulties of clinker- ing which would take place with higher rates of com- bustion. A water-cooled hood was placed on top of the furnace in order to secure a representative sample of the gases leaving the fuel bed. ++ ceneheenneeennenTne: PORE HENEEAENOSE OD DIMNDE: //0840D0N/TUE/EUTENERERECIEREGIRET STENT PEGOOUNG | /NN1 HOURARDAUEDT YON NED: VONTS On HEY IHoKTH) HLCM GNL Yt aa PA " oa tag 4 ~ NT eae he Se B2eCeE' —T lo & Le v te , E | | Bea ieeae - Wilkenson coke < | ee 72 per cen ml PN ee Bs ST Pee St ay | Ct ee Ct IM) eee DISTANCE F Therefore, to obtain an exact average of the gas com- position in any plane, it would theoretically be neces- sary to determine the composition of an infinite num- ber of samples. Furthermore, the introduction of the gas samplers causes a certain amount of channelling and, since the samplers were but 1% in. apart in the vertical direction and some of the pieces of coke were Pe hey DON DRD EON, PONNNNMRARRRU NN LEE HK HN aaron Stet Pee tt |]. Perr i: | oN DCO EEE : rat tte tat ToC et ETE ala ea tad bd eh Rd Bia el aaa <2, Terri 0 ROM GRATE, INCHES Combustibility Curves for the Various Fuels (OOaeUENEENDEHUFEDRSRNRSRENEERDOGCTHERE «NE LEREDHDERY CHEE DUNNEDOENTEEDERED CHTROEERDUOEFOOEEOODNL I OULITOEN/LIUCERONEDEDOCCETUNTRONEOOLOCHROOORRERF OD EONOMRBOREBROE SHUN HCG) The analyses of the fuels, together with their physical properties, are given in Table I. Presentation of Results The composition of the gases and the temperatures in the fuel bed for the various fuels are shown graphic- ally in the illustration. The points indicate the aver- ages of from three to six analyses at each position. The points for CO. are indicated by circles, for O: by crosses, and for CO by triangles. The smooth curves drawn through the points are only approximate curves, that is, they were not determined mathematically. Since the resistance to the flow of gases is not uni- form across the fuel bed, the gases will have varying composition at various points in any horizontal plane. COL LU EIUT THENCE 0) (Aen enone nen URE CREE ® F t > S17 > 2 “4 ~~ So} of this size, the successive samplers were by no means in the same stream of gas. Therefore it would not be surprising if the variation in the composition of the samples from point to point were more erratic than shown. It is of interest to note that for some reason, as yet undetermined, but probably mechanical, the CO content of the gases was in several instances very high : gine’ 6 ay the grate. This is an example of e mechanical difficulties i i i an ae ae oo encountered in an investiga- ad ce A of the illustration shows the curves for a airton by