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By A. L. Ph. B. Holley

(Read at the Philadelphia Meeting, February, 1878.) THIS paper is an abstract and a discussion of results obtained by the United States Test Board in experiments upon 14 brands of wrought iron, most of which are well known and of high repute.* The iron was all intended for chain-cables; it was tested in the form of bars, usually of nine sizes, from 1 inch to 2 inches round, and also in the forms of single links and short chains. Not less-than 2000 tensile tests were made, each showing elastic limit, elongation, and reduction of area. This work was done with conspicuous intelligence and fidelity, at the Washington Navy Yard, by Commander L. A. Beardslee. Some important practical results and principles which he has developed, and others which he has confirmed, will be referred to. The chemical part of this work consists of 42 complete analyses (including slag), by Mr. Blair, chemist to the Board. EFFECTS OF COMPOSITION ON STRENGTH. Variations in the physical qualities of iron may he due to different composition, or to different treatment in manufacture, or to both these complex causes. In order to determine the specific causes of variation, one class of altering conditions should be made to vary largely, while the other classes should be kept uniform. Then another class should be varied, and so on, until the value of each is ascertained. As all the irons under consideration were intended to have that purity and refinement which was deemed indispensable in chain-cables, their chemical analyses are perhaps more important in proving that physical variations result chiefly from treatment, than in pointing out the specific effects of certain ingredients. While the subject of treatment-especially the increase of strength by greater reduction in rolling-may be the more important one, it can be best appreciated after we have familiarized ourselves with the gen¬eral chemical and physical characters of the irons. The typical facts are given in the following tables. * As the present object of the Board is not to compare the products of different makers, but to discover the physical effects of various composition and treatment, the irons are designated by letters rather than by their trade names.

Jan 1, 1878

By Maurice Cook

NORMALLY the grain size of cold-rolled and annealed copper sheet is of the order of 0.02 to 0.06 mm., and 0.1 min., for example, would, for many purposes, he regarded as undesirably large. The occurrence of very large grain sizes in a few isolated cases of copper sheet led the authors to inquire into the causes giving rise to such unusual results. During the course of this work a very large number of experiments have been carried out to determine the effect of varying the conditions of the final and penultimate rolling and annealing operations, as well as of earlier rolling and annealing treatments. A correspondingly large number of observations have been made, but within the space of one paper it is possible only to outline relatively briefly what appear to be the more important of these experiments and observations. The presentation of the results does not follow chronologically the order in which the experiments were carried out and they have been rearranged for the sake of simplicity. In recent years a considerable amount of work has been done in connection with the recrystallization and grain growth in metals and alloys that take place on annealing, and a number of generalizations have been reached. It is known that the crystal size in wrought material in the annealed condition depends on a number of factors, including the time and temperature of the annealing operations and the nature and amount of cold-work to which the material has been subjected. Results, however, that are not covered by these generalizations can be obtained, which, in some instances, may even appear to he contradictory to them. According to these generalizations gradual changes in grain size are effected by progressive variation of the factors involved in annealing or cold-working. The work recorded in the present paper, however, relates to the development of grain sizes which are far beyond those normally encountered in ordinary annealing operations and far in excess of grain sizes which, according to ordinary standards, would be classified as coarse or large.

Jan 1, 1938

By R. R. Sayers

VENTILATION may be defined as the process by which vitiated air of an inclosed or partly inclosed space is continuously replaced by fresh air. Fresh air has been defined as invigorating pure air. Pure dry air at sea level contains the following gases:1 Analysis of Air at Sea Level PER CENT. Oxygen 20.94 Nitrogen 78.09 Carbon dioxide 0.03 Argon 0.94 Helium, krypton, neon, xenon, hydrogen, hydrogen peroxid, ammonia, ozone traces CARBON DIOXIDE LIMIT For many years carbon dioxide was used as an index of the purity of the air vitiated by the metabolism of people. It was, however, well known that the untoward effects produced on those exposed to such air was not due to the concentration of the carbon dioxide. It has been found that the untoward effects on the comfort and efficiency of those so exposed are due to the increased temperature and humidity. It has been found that men can breathe air containing many times the amount of carbon dioxide found in our worst ventilated theaters and assembly halls, which, according to Rosenau, do not contain above 0.5 per cent. carbon dioxide.

Jan 7, 1926

Between two and three years ago, in response to an unmistakable and insistent demand, the four Founder Societies appointed Committees on "Aims and Organization," or on "Development," charged with reporting on the internal organization and the external (non-professional) ac-tivities of the engineers societies and to advise as to coöperations and coordination. Each of these committees formulated a report, recognizing that effi-ciency in external activities could only be attained by intimate coopera-tion between the four Societies. As a consequence, each of the Founder Societies was requested to appoint members of a Joint Conference Committee, charged with discussing the situation and evolving if possible a plan of cooperation in external activities which would coordinate not only the efforts of the four Founder Societies but also other national technical and scientific societies, as well as local engineering and profes-sional associations, groups or clubs. The Joint Conference Committee entered on its task with enthusiasm, and after great labor evolved the outline and many of the details of plan for engineering cooperation in public and inter-society activities. This report has now been submitted to the Boards of the Four Founder Societies, and has been ordered printed by our Board for the information of our members.

Jan 12, 1919

By W. P. Sykes

TUNGSTEN serves mankind in two major roles. The first of these is represented by the tungsten filament of the incandescent electric lamp, a common article of commerce. In the field of hard alloys it plays its second substantial part. A fortunate combination of physical properties in this metal ac- counts for its efficient service as a source of illumination. Tungsten melts at about 3400°C, has a relatively low vapor pressure and at the same time sufficient strength, both hot and cold, to serve satisfactorily as filaments, which may range in diameter from 0.060 to 0.0005 in. In the early days of the incandescent lamp, the pioneers realized the importance of using a substance of high melting point for the source of light. The metals osmium (mp approx. 2700°C) and tantalum (mp approx. 2850°C) were both employed to some extent. Tantalum actually attained some commercial importance in this field because it could be drawn into small wires of appreciable length. DUCTILE TUNGSTEN WIRE Before the year 1908, tungsten was considered a nonductile metal, since no one had succeeded in overcoming the brittleness so typical of the unworked metal at room temperature. The methods employed today in producing ductile tungsten wire were developed over a period of years. The process was largely determined by the exceedingly high temperature required to melt this metal. Even today the difficulties involved in producing an appreciable quantity of pure

Jan 1, 1953

By Donald H. McLauqhlin

ITEM expressed in billions of dollars have become so commonplace these day- that a mere statement of the latest figures for the country s gold reserve scarcely conveys m adequate sense of the immensity of the commitment the nation has made in building up its huge stock, two-thirds of which is now stored at Fort Knox. Kentucky. Only by measuring it against quantities that mean something tangible to a particular group can an adequate comprehension of its magnitude he rained; consequently, to mining engineers, a comparison with the value of output from well-known mining districts might best serve to give some degree of reality to the astronomical figure at which the country gold is now valued.

Jan 1, 1941

By W. L. Grose, J. E. Nealy

A device developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines for the detection and quenching of coal mine explosions suffers from the inability to discriminate between the light emitted from hydrocarbon combustion and that emitted by electrical sparks and miner's cap lamps1. Since the quenchant device is activated by an internal explosive charge, the possibility of serious injury to nearby personnel demands a detector which can reject false signals. Described herein is a detector which can provide a rapid response signal upon the emission of radiation from hydrocarbon combustion and concurrently reject spurious signals from such sources as sparks and cap lamps. It was suggested that a detector might be developed to operate on the principle of monitoring the radiation intensity emitted from two separate spectral regions and ratioing the intensities2. A series of experiments was conducted for combustion of methane-air mixtures which demonstrate the ability of such a detector to discriminate between combustion and spurious signals. Experimental Apparatus A cylindrical (3.8 in. diam by 12 in.) stainless-steel shock tube test section was used as a combustion chamber. The test section was equipped with quartz windows (2 in. diam) on either side, a piezoelectric pressure transducer, and two steel electrodes. A 10-kv capacitor discharged across the electrodes provided a submicrosecond duration spark to ignite the gas mixture within. The desired partial pressures of methane and air were obtained by using a Wallace and Tiernan 0-800 mm Hg pressure gauge with which pressures could be determined to an accuracy of % mm Hg. All tests were conducted with a total pressure of 1 atm in the chamber. To

Jan 1, 1972

By G. L. Fisher, R. H. Geils

The effect of small amounts of columbium (<0.01 to 0.10 pct) on the ?-a transformation occurring during the continuous cooling of a low carbon Ni-Cu steel was investigated. Dilatometer specimens were aus-tenitized at 950" and 1068?C and cooled at 17? and 375 C° per min. Columbium caused a marked depression in the ?-a transformation temperature except when cooling at the slower rate from 950°C. The effec of columbium on the transformation temperature was greater the higher the austenitizing temperature and rate of cooling. A maximum depression of 92 C" was observed. Metallographic examination of specimens of <0.01 and 0.07pct Cb steels heated at 1200°C for 1 hr and cooled at various rates showed that columbium had a major effect on the ferrite morphology. The fer rite in the columbium -free steel remained equiaxed at cooling rates as high as 440 C? per min while the columbium-bearing steel exhibited mixed structures o equiaxed and bainitic ferrite at cooling rates as low as 130 C° per min. The ? grain boundaries in the columbium -free steel provided the ferrite nucleation sites in rapidly cooled specimens. There was a complete absence of nucleation at these sites in the colum bium-bearing steel. It is concluded that columbium depresses the transformation temperature by suppressing ferrite nucleation at the austenite grain bound-aries. In this respect the effects of columbium are analogous to those of boron in low C-Mo steels. It is well known that small columbium additions can substantially strengthen plain carbon steels. As little as 0.02 pct Cb can increase the yield strength of mild steels by 10,000 psi.1 A fine precipitate of CbC has been observed in columbium-bearing steels2 and is generally thought to be responsible for the strengthening. Little attention has been devoted to the effect of columbium on the ?-a transformation. Webster and woodhead3 have studied the effect of columbium on the isothermal proeutectoid ferrite reaction in mild steels. They found similar transformation behavior in steels both with and without columbium additions. However, as the austenitizing temperature increased, the incubation time for the start of the ferrite transformation became longer in the columbium-containing steel. Morrison1 found that the addition of 0.03 pct Cb to a C-Mn steel lowered the transformation temperature by 50 C° during cooling from 1200°C at a rate of 80 C" per min. The strengthening effect of columbium has recently been utilized in an age-hardenable, low-alloy steel containing copper and nickel.4 A small amount of columbium has a substantial effect on the as-rolled strength of this steel. By increasing the columbium level from <0.01 to 0.13 pct the as-rolled yield strength is increased by 15,000 psi. Columbium also significantly lowers the ?-to-a transformation temperature of this steel during continuous cooling from the austenitizing temperature. Because of the low carbon level in this steel (0.05 pct max), it is almost entirely ferritic. Thus, it offers the opportunity of studying the effect of small columbium additions on the proeutectoid ferrite reaction. Of particular interest in this study was the reason for the marked lowering of the transformation temperature by columbium during continuous cooling. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Materials. The compositions of the steels used in this investigation are shown in Table I. The steels were 30-lb air induction melts. They were forged to 4 by 8 by 1 in. plate at 1230°C, air cooled, and then reheated to 1230°C and cross-rolled in two passes to in. plates. Dilatometry. A Leitz Bollenrath dilatometer was used to record the transformation during continuous cooling from two different austenitizing temperatures. The dilatometer specimens were + in. in diam and 2 in. long. Oxidation and decarburization of the specimens was prevented by maintaining a small positive pressure of dry argon in the dilatometer furnace and by plating the specimens with 1 mil of Cu. For the lowest cooling rate, 17 C" per min, the temperature of the specimen was measured with a Pt-Pt 10 pct Rh thermocouple placed in a & in. diam well in the center of the specimen. During air cooling, 375 C° per min, this method of measuring the temperature interfered with the operation of the dilatometer. However, it was found that the temperature of the specimen could be measured accurately by placing a thermocouple in an identical specimen in a holder adjacent to the one being used to operate the dilatometer mechanism. The dilation-temperature curves were recorded on photographic film and then converted to volume percent ferrite-vs-temper-ature curves. The cooling rates obtained with the dilatometer are shown in Table 11. Cooling rates of

Jan 1, 1970

By N. S. Keith

(Read at the Wilkes-Barre Meeting, May, 1877.) THIS question is suggested by a statement made by Dr. Siemens, widely printed in the journals of the day, that a continuous rod of copper, thirty miles in length and three inches in diameter, is capable of conveying that distance, electrically, energy equal to 1000 horse-power. It is not attempted to advance the statement that the source of power shall be zinc, nor even coal, but waterfalls, which from their situation are not practically available for manufacturing establishments in their immediate vicinity. In order to fully consider this subject., we must understand the doctrine, I may say the science, of the correlation of the forces, so called. We must understand that all matter is endowed with an amount of force, and that each atom and molecule, simple and compound, has its specific portion of the whole. This force, at rest, is called latent heat, intrinsic energy, or potential. In motion it is called heat, light, electricity, chemical affinity, attraction, magnetism, power, etc., according to its sensible manifestations. These are the effects of the one force active in different substances, or in different assemblages of matter. Force put in motion comes to rest by reason of the resistance to motion which it encounters; in overcoming

Jan 1, 1878

LIMA, PERU Established May, 1952 (Official year begins in June) Luncheon meetings third Wednesday monthly Ernesto A Baertl, Chairman Arthur C Hall, Chairman-Elect Raymond R Beard, First Vice-Chairman Edgardo Portaro, Second Vice-Chairman Walter E King, Secretary-Treasurer Av Santa Cruz 331 San Isidro, Lima, Peru Alberto E Brazzini, Asst Treasurer Daniel M Rodriguez, Asst Secretary, &apos;58, Section Delegate &apos;58, Alternate Section Delegate

Jan 1, 1956

By R. E. Wagner

MISSOURI&apos;s famous lead area, in what is known as Southeast Missouri, is locally termed the "Lead Belt." These deposits are in the Bonne Terre dolomite of late Cambrian age which has a thickness of nearly 400 ft. Underlying this is the La Motte sandstone which varies in thickness from 0 to 400 ft. The La Motte beds are deposited directly on the ancient erosion surface of Pre-Cambrian porphyries and granites of probably Algonkian age. The buried igneous peaks extend up into the Bonne Terre in several areas within the Lead Belt. Overlying the Bonne Terre are shales and siliceous dolomites of late Cambrian and early Ordovician age. Within the Lead Belt these have a thickness of from 0 to 500 ft. The district is bounded in general on the southwest by the Sims Mountain fault, on the northwest and north by the Big River fault, and on the

Jan 1, 1947

By Richard W. Markley

The predominant methods for mining coal in the USA are room and pillar and longwall. Approximately 95 percent of the coal is mined by room and pillar and 5 percent by longwall. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has an ongoing program to improve the rate, quality, and cost effectiveness of stabilizing the roof for both of these mining systems. In room and pillar mining, the installation of permanent roof support is often the task which paces the system operation, and it thus controls the level of production achieved during any mining shift. Two automatic roof bolt insertion equipment developments are discussed, as well as a flexible drill for operation in thinner seams. Progress will be reported on under- ground trials of a particular flexible drill which has been combined with a bolt inserter to form a compact, reliable module for retrofitting to continuous mining machines. In longwall mining, the use of hydraulic supports on the working face provides roof stability. The DOE has several trials ongoing with shield- type supports in difficult strata conditions which are described, as well as a co-funded project with the Bureau of Mines on a resin injection remedial method for consolidating a shear zone at one site. A project to improve the match of strata conditions to shield design is also described, which involves the use of a 1360 tonne vertical load mine roof simulator.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. F. Myers, F. M. Lewis

The paper reports the development of a large, slow speed ball mill closed circuited with a hydroscillator. This increased grinding efficiency 28 pct over conventional units.

Jan 1, 1950

By Merrill Horine

IT has been stated and accepted for many years that the automotive industry was the instigator, the principal sponsor for and the largest user of alloy steel and nonferrous alloys. The only universally recognized standard specifications and heat-treatments for these materials are those adopted by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It is this same auto-motive industry that has been the chief inspiration for and consumer of modern production machine tools. The production curve of steel ingots is more sensitive to fluctuations in automotive production than any other influence or group of influences. In every other important steel-con-suming industry, automotive materials and automotive processes are the outstanding features of modern progress. In this connection I need only mention the prefabrication of buildings, following the automotive system of straight-line, interchangeable mass production; the motorization of ships and railroads, employing automotive types of prime movers; the production of pressed-steel stoves, plumbing and furniture by methods originated in the automobile-body industry and the extensive use of rubber for the cushioning of all manner of machinery as pioneered by the automotive and tire industries. Dr. Jeffries has brought out this point in his address (p. 21), assuring us that the transportation industry is the largest user of these materials. In the transportation industry, or as we might more accurately express it, the transportation group of industries, the. automotive industry pre-dominates as a user of light alloys. One out of every four tons of aluminum produced is consumed by the automotive industry. Similarly, the automotive industry ranks first in the consumption of the following metallurgical materials: steel, 24.04 per cent; malleable iron, .57; alloy steels, 72.2; nickel, 30; lead, 39 per cent.

Jan 1, 1936

By V 7. 0 / 300 dpi

DRILLING in the Oligocene potash basin of Alsace prior to 1927 had shown important differences of level in the salt beds thus encountered. To explain this a somewhat unsatisfactory hypothesis of faulting had been advanced. During the latter part of 1926 and the beginning of 1927- our firm was engaged by two organizations for the purpose of trying to supplement, by an electrical survey, the geological data thus far collected. As a re-sult of this exploration it was possible to affirm that salt dome structures were present in the Oligocene basin of the Upper Rhine, something heretofore absolutely unknown in that region. Two salt domes were actually outlined, one, near Meyenheim, was made the subject of a communication to the Academy of Sciences, by G. Friedel2; the other, near Hettenschlag, was briefly dis-cussed by C. and M. Schlumberger3 before the same academy. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the strati-graphic and structural conditions of the area where these salt domes were found; to discuss the results of the electrical survey which led to the location of the domes, and indicate the new geological outlook which such a discovery suggests.

Jan 9, 1928

By J. S. Vanick

An extremely hard, tough, and strong, white or chilled cast iron has been applied for the past several years to industrial and mining services in which its unusual properties have been confirmed by its ability to deliver in many instances much better performance than plain chilled iron, or other wear-resistant materials. It is being produced regularly by alloying a good base composition of chilled or white cast iron with essentially 4 to 6 per cent of nickel and 1 to 2.5 per cent of chromium. Such a material can attain a hardness exceeding 600 to 750 Brinell as against 380 to 530 for corresponding grades of plain chilled iron. The strength is approximately doubled and the toughness significantly increased. These properties make it especially useful for many applications requiring a high hardness for resistance to wear, abrasion, attrition, deformation; to some extent to high compressive loading and to a lesser but important degree to corrosive action. A wide variety of commercial castings is being successfully produced from this iron, ranging in size from the small grain-grinding plates or burrs through medium-sized castings such as sand pumps up to large, heavy castings such as rolls for metal rolling or cement grinding. The composition of this white cast iron may be roughly bracketed within the range shown in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1933

By C. S. Smith, L. H. Beck

KNOWLEDGE of the Cu-Zn constitution diagram was critically examined in 1944 by G. V. Ray-nor,1 who suggested the diagram reproduced in Fig. 1 as the best evaluation of available data. No pertinent work on the constitution has been published since that time, although a number of authors have discussed transformation kinetics and theory. Despite the large amount of work that has been done on the constitution of these industrially important and scientifically interesting alloys, minor uncertainties still exist. For example, it is still not possible to say definitely whether a two-phase region exists between the ordered and disordered forms of the 8 phase. A careful re-examination of the phase boundaries in this part of the diagram was therefore undertaken. Two methods were selected for the new investigation—quantitative metallography for the higher temperatures and precision lattice parameter measurement for lower temperatures. Because of the relatively narrow two-phase regions flanking the ß phase in these alloys, quantitative metallography is particularly suited for their examination, since the relative amounts of the two phases are very sensitive to their compositions. The method, however, is useless below about 350°C because of the inadequate resolution of the two constituents. Below 400°, however, the X-ray diffraction method is applicable, although it is of somewhat lower sensitivity in this system. The changes of composition that occur during quenching from above about 500°C entirely vitiate X-ray measurements at room temperature though they do not affect metallographic area measurements. The two methods overlap and supplement each other admirably. Both methods depend on the attainment of equilibrium composition of the two phases in a more or less intimate mixture and thus avoid the difficult problems of nucleation and long range diffusion involved in the conventional metallographic bracketing method. The alloys were melted from a master alloy made from re-electrolyzed cathode copper and Horsehead 99.99 pct Zn. Melting was done under a cover of either borax or charcoal and the alloys cast into a 7/8 in. sq graphite mold for the a-ß alloys or a 3/8 in. diam cylindrical graphite mold for the ß-? alloys. The a-ß alloys were rolled at 750°C to 5/8 in. sq; annealed for 24 hr at 800°C and quenched; then rolled and swaged at 200°C to 3/8 in. diam rods, annealed 24 hr at 200°C, quenched and cold rolled 2 pct reduction. This treatment was intended to obtain a small grain size and to produce many nuclei of the minor phase for growth on subsequent heat treatment. The unworkable ß-? alloys were given preliminary treatment by sealing in Vycor tubes in vacuum and annealing for 4 hr at 800°C followed by cooling in air. Samples of homogenized alloys were checked spectrographically for impurities, but the principal components were determined on samples subsequent to heat treatment. The impurities analyzed averaged approximately as follows: Ag, 0.0002 pct; Fe, 0.004; Si, 0.0008; Cd, 0.005; Mg, 0.0002; and Pb, 0.002. For metallography, samples of appropriate composition were cut into rods 5/8 in. long, sealed in pyrex tubes in vacuum and annealed for eight weeks at temperatures of 470°C and below, two weeks at 480°, 500°, and 600°C, and 4 hr at 700°C, followed by quenching in cold water. Temperatures were accurate to ±2°C. The cylinders were then machined to 8.7 mm diam and a slice weighing 1.5 g cut with a thin saw transversely from the center of each. This

Jan 1, 1953

Albert SaUveur, Cambridge, Mass. (communication to the Secretary*):—On close examination I think it will be found that the evidence by which Mr. Corson claims to have shown the inaccuracy of a statement I made a few years ago, is far from convincing. This statement is: "Hot work as such has no influence upon the structure of the metal. Indirectly, however, by retarding crystallization until a lower temperature is reached, it may influence its structure most decidedly ; but the same results could be accomplished by heat treatment alone, i.e., by re-heating the unworked metal to the temperature from which the worked piece was allowed to cool undisturbedly." The Melallographist, vol. ii., p. 267 (under the head of "Changes of Structure Brought About by Work"). Of the two pieces of steel tested by Mr. Corson, one was worked and finished at a a cherry-red" and the other reheated to a cherry-red, and the assumption was made that in both cases the temperature was about 715&apos; C., although no pyrometric device was used to record it. The possibility of considerable difference in temperature alone is so great as to invalidate Mr. Corson&apos;s inferences. The apparent temperature,

Jan 1, 1907

By Frank V. Hicks

THE following paper-in no sense a technical paper-is a summary of a safety campaign instituted by a coal-mining company to improve an unfortunate safety record. The experience should be suggestive equally to coal and metal-mining companies. With few precedents to follow in the beginning, the course was charted by trial and error. The endeavor, often disheartening, finally resulted in the capture of the most coveted safety trophy in the mining industry, "The Sentinels of Safety," awarded by the Hercules Powder Co. of Wilmington, Del., through the U. S. Bureau of Mines. The period described covers the 10-year interval, 1924 to 1933, the year 1933 being that for which the award was made. The coal company considered has produced annually for a number of years an average of 2,750,000 tons of coal, employing at various times from 1.800 to 3000 men. Prior to 1924, the

Jan 1, 1935

By Leo F. Reinartz

Part II of a four-part series on the history of steelmaking in the US, points out the inadequate safety and living conditions that existed in steel mills at the turn of the Century. Also defined are furnace and process developments. OPERATIONS in steel plants today are highly mechanized. Men work in light, clean, orderly melting shops, making it difficult for old timers to convince young men that primitive, hazardous conditions existed in steel plants at the turn of the century. Working conditions then were very poor as compared to present day standards. In small plants especially, sanitary, locker, and washroom facilities, first-aid practices and stations were un- known Accidents were frequent and severe. Workers had a fatalistic attitude toward getting hurt. He who had an accident was looked upon as a hero. A dirty bandanna often served as a bandage. Infections were frequent. Electric cranes were in their infancy and broke down often Cables had not as yet replaced chains. Pig iron and scrap iron were loaded by hand in the stockyard, and stockyard locomotives were un- known; mules served as the usual motive power. It was not unusual to see recorded a delay of ½ hr in charging a furnace because of a balky mule. Furnace operations A few plants had primitive charging machines, but most furnaces were charged by placing scrap or pig iron on the paddle of a long peel, which rested on a bar across the furnace door opening. Laborers at the handle end of the peel, using the bar as a fulcrum, would heave the material into the furnace by a down and sideward motion of the peel handle. In time they became expert in placing these materials in the furnace, but it was hard, hot work, and a long time was required for charging. Cold charges of 25 tons required more than 12 hr for melting and re- fining the steel. Ports, doors, and frames were not water cooled. The charging and working area in front of the furnace was covered with steel plates. They were hot and often warped by the intense heat of the un- insulated checker chambers directly below. In the summer, working conditions on the charging floor were almost unbearable. Silica refractories were of poor quality. Because of this, and the inadequate training of furnace men in fuel control and furnace operations, roofs, front and back walls, and ends burned out rapidly. Dolomite machines were unknown; consequently, furnace banks and hearths were fettled with dolomite by the use of hand shovels. The round system required six or more men. Each man took a shovelful of dolomite and, in his turn, deposited it on the back wall and bank by a dexterous forward swing and twist of the shovel. The upward swing of the shovel partially protected his face from the searing heat of the furnace coming out through the wide-open door. Considerable skill and stamina were required to do this job properly. Reverse valves, usually of the cast-iron butterfly type, were located below the charging floor. They were operated by long levers on the charging floor level men they became warped, because of heat and abuse, great strength and skill were required to reverse them. Furnace operations were difficult. The quality and quantity of producer gas coming from irregularly stoked, hand-operated gas producers was uncertain and unreliable. Furnace Linings and ports were quickly burned out. Poor bottom and side-wall refractories, indifferent and inexperienced crews, as well as irregular re-

Jan 1, 1961