CHAPTER XXV

Engine for the Cambria Iron and Steel Company.

The uniform success of my rolling-mill engines encouraged the Cambria Iron and Steel Company, of Johnstown, Penn., again on the advice of Mr. Holley, to order from me an engine to drive their rail-train. For this purpose I made the largest engine I had yet made, 40-inch cylinder by 48-inch stroke. It was altogether too large to be built in the Hewes & Phillips Iron Works, so I had the parts, except the valve-gear, constructed in three different establishments in Philadelphia. The bed, which weighed 40,000 pounds, was cast and finished at the I. P. Morris & Company’s works, the cylinder was cast and finished by Mr. James Moore, who also turned the shaft, and the crank-disk was turned and bored by William Sellers & Co. The several parts were not brought together until they met at Johnstown. The Cambria Company made their own fly-wheel. I spent considerable time while the work was in progress in traveling between Newark and Philadelphia, carrying measuring-rods, templets and gauges. I put the engine together myself, and everything came together without a hitch, which confirmed me in the belief that putting engines together and taking them down again in the shop was a great waste of time and space, and the manufacturing system which I was planning in my mind I intended should be wholly a manufacture of pieces to be kept in stock, and orders filled by shipment of the separate parts direct from the storehouse.

The boilers at Johnstown were located over the heating furnaces, utilizing their waste heat, and were scattered all over the works. The largest steam-pipes were 8 inches in diameter. I gave theman order to make a steam-receiver 5 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, to be set close to the cylinder of the engine. They made it 18 feet high, the width of the sheets favoring this greater height. I took the steam by an 8-inch pipe entering at the top of this receiver and extending down 12 feet; from the top of the receiver I took the steam over to the engine by a 12-inch pipe. I drained the water from the bottom of this receiver by the largest Nason trap, from which a one-inch stream of water was delivered continually. I set in the side of this receiver four try-cocks, one above another four feet apart. From the lowest, six feet from the bottom, the steam blew as white as a sheet, from each one successively it blew with less color, and from the upper one it was quite invisible. I set a steam-gauge on this receiver, and it showed that when the greatest resistance was on the engine the pressure did not fall more than three pounds. This assurance of dry steam in the cylinder was vital to the success of the engine.

The engine was started at 80 revolutions per minute. This was the same speed at which their old engine was supposed to run, but practically its speed had always fallen to 60 revolutions whenever two passes were in the rolls together. I should say here that the new engine was set at the opposite end of the train from the old one, and the only change made was disconnecting the old engine and connecting the new one. The advantage was found in the fact that with the new engine four or even five passes could be in the rolls simultaneously and the speed of the engine never fell sensibly below 80 revolutions per minute. The result was that the first week the train turned out 2400 tons of rails instead of 1200 tons, which was the former limit. This latter was a product of which they had been quite proud and which they claimed exceeded that of any other mill. Mr. Daniel N. Jones, their chief engineer, increased the speed of the engine five revolutions per minute each week for four successive weeks by changing the governor pulley for a larger one. This he did every Sunday when the mill was idle, increasing the speed finally to 100 revolutions per minute and the production to 3000 tons per week. He prided himself on doing this without the men at the hooks finding it out, which if they had done might have made trouble. This seems a very small thing to say when for many years the output of a rail-train has been 3000 tons a day without the aid of human hands; but at that time it was considered an immense achievement. It was also a remarkable thing for the company financially, as directly after a greatly increased demand for steel rails appeared and the price rose to $60 per ton, at which it was maintained for some time.

Daniel N. Jones

This thoughtful act of Mr. Jones was an example of his magnificent co-operation with me in all my work.

Mr. Jones had insisted that the cylinder should have a support at the back end, as he felt sure that without it the running of the piston, weighing 3600 pounds, would produce a deflection; so a support was built under the end of the cylinder, which was cast with a corresponding projection underneath. These surfaces were planed parallel with each other, but I took pains to secure a space between them sufficient to admit a sheet of paper, and when the engine was running I was able to draw a sheet of paper through that space without its being seized, showing the support of the cylinder from the bed to be sufficient, as I had claimed it would be. Mr. Jones laughed.

Connection of Arms and Rim in Mr. Fritz’ Fly-wheel

The fly-wheel which the Cambria Company made for this engine interested me greatly. The hub and arms were cast in one piece as a spider and, of course, were free from internal strain.The rim was also cast in one piece. The manner in which the arms were united to the rim is shown in the accompanyingcut. The spaces at the sides and end were ⁵⁄₈ inch wide; these were filled with oak, into which long slender steel wedges were driven from each side, as many as they would contain. This wonderful fly-wheel, I learned, was the invention of Mr. John Fritz, made while he was superintendent of the Cambria Works.

The engine had many visitors, among whom I particularly remember Mr. Otis and Mr. Wellman, whom I happened to meet there. Their visit resulted in an order for an engine of the same size to drive the new plate-mill which Mr. Otis was about building. I received also three other orders for duplicates of this engine, one from the Pennsylvania Steel Company, one from the Bethlehem Steel Company, and a second order from the Cambria Company themselves. The order from the Bethlehem Steel Company was given me by Mr. John Fritz, then its superintendent and engineer, the inventor of the three-high train of rolls, and the designer of all their machinery for rolling both rails and armor-plates.

An incident connected with the order from the Cambria Company I will mention, as showing the contrast between the brutal and the considerate way of doing business. I received a telegram from the Cambria Company, reading: “You are wanted here at once about another engine.” I learned afterward that this telegram as written by Mr. Powell Stackhouse, the general manager, did not contain the last three words, but read: “You are wanted here at once.” Mr. Stackhouse had written this telegram and laid it on his table for a boy to take to the telegraph operator. At that moment Mr. Jones came into his office and read the telegram, when the following conversation took place:

Mr. Jones: “It will never do to send this in that shape.”

Mr. Stackhouse: “Why not?”

Mr. Jones: “It will break Porter all up.”

Mr. Stackhouse: “How so?”

Mr. Jones: “The only thing he can think of will be that some great disaster has happened to his engine.”

No answer. Mr. Jones thereupon added the words “about another engine,” which changed somewhat the impression which the telegram was calculated to produce.

John Fritz

These orders for four more engines of the largest size on my list were afterwards supplemented by a similar order from the Albany and Rensselaer Iron and Steel Company, making in all five, or with the one then running six from the same patterns.

The more rapid rolling was found to possess advantages beyond the merely increased output. It insured a uniform excellence in the product, which could not otherwise be attained even by the utmost care, and it effected several important economies. Mr. Jones had recently completed and put in operation a new blooming-train, then the largest in the world, for which the size of the ingots to be rolled was increased from 12 inches square to 17 inches square at the base, and the capacity of the Bessemer converters was increased in the same proportion. The output of this mill was much greater than the rail-train could dispose of, and a large pile of cold blooms had accumulated in the yard. A force of about thirty men was employed in chipping out all defects in these blooms which might cause rails to be classed as “seconds.”

After my engine had been started it was soon observed that, between the shorter time of exposure and the greater rapidity with which heat was imparted to the rails by the rolling, the original heat of the blooms was very nearly maintained to the end of the process, every defect was welded up, and a perfect rail was produced, so the chipping of the blooms was no longer necessary.

It was not a great while before the accumulation of the blooms in the yard was disposed of and the hot blooms were brought directly from the blooming-mill. These, of course, were more readily reheated, and moreover, to the surprise of the workmen, less power was required to roll them, and the rolls endured much longer without needing to be re-turned. The explanation was that the cold blooms had never been thoroughly heated in the middle. This was the beginning of maintaining the original heat of the ingot, which has since been turned to such great advantage.

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