Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1857-04-09
From tie ResdSJurga Herald
The Printer and the Press.
From "Household Words
The Modern Vulcan, or Sight at Forge

From Household Words
The Modern Vulcan, or Sight at Forge
When / looked down, down, down. into the
! crater of her Majesty's screw steamship Volcano
(eight hundred horse-Power,) and ponderer
breaihlessly on the distracting mass of shafts
beams, erauks, wheels, and cylinders when ]
was told that ehild's finger pressing down on
| a certain small lever can set the whole mass in
ruthless motion; driving the Volcano herselt
through the water at the rate of fourteen miles
an hour,-l wondered where the present race Of
| Nplcans and Cyc,ops (b0rn with more ewes than
one) were bred, and under what Aemnonian
root the bewildering engine was brought into
| existence. Surely, reflected, the blacksmitlis
OF Etna and Lemnos must have been pigmies
compared with the giants of these latter days
| and their FORCES mere village smithies Else
how could these shafts, each single nass OF
wrought iron, some sixteen tons in weight, be
formed and polished, and adjusted to hair :
| BREADTH how could the two-bladed brass fan
(called the screw propel!er,) weighing eleven
IONS or So, be cast and fitted, carried from the
tactoryto the ship. and put into its place under
water, with all the accuracy and some of the
ease with which the handspring is fixed to Ia
dy's watch
This tremendous work is done, / afterwards
learnt, by modern, but not wholly by human
| giants.
| Growing still more dizzy, yet still more curl
| Gus in contemplating the complex abyss of the
! Volcanoes machinery, / conceived the wild wish
| oi seeing Titanic engine IKE hers in the home
! of their birth where they are made, and kent
Wholesale, retail, arl fur exportation-in
rows, perhaps, like time-pieceS i'll French
| lock-shop. In satisfaction ofthis desire, | was
directed to the great factory of Mcssrs, Mands-
/ lay and Field
This establishments spreads Itself over about
five acres OF Lambeth Mash (now densely
! pe0pied district OF South London, and only a
marsh by tra4i,ior;) bat being built IN floors,
would, II all were on the ground, cover some
dozen acres. Ii gives employment 10 fifteen
hundred Mu,ciJegs, who are chiefly employed
IN ieedlng and attending upon The iron giants
thai execute most 81 .hc work
Oh, the grim. rigid, relentless power, with
which they shaved, and shearcd aud cut and
uu'yd blocAa an pillars otiroH, gone ia weight I,
They cut out a}a !;ut together "a huge steam
| boiler with much less fuss (aal with an incvita-
be directness vi pJrposc that IS simply awfu!)
than seamstress makes TO ca.nplete a Calico
bolster. \ broad plank OF iron, nearly an inch
thick and a. large rs long dining-table, is laid
on an automatous fiat lap, and is cut by Il scis-
sor like ehsel moving up and down at its edge,
into any shape the experimenting Mulciber
wills. 1t can be sown to other IRON sheets by an
palping and cutting sistcrs,-lhat punches rows
OF round holes with mathematical regularity, all
round tHe edges of the plate, with less effort
than could bore cardboard Her coadiutor. n
/ thlc%-sct, determined steam workman, then fas-
tens the edges Of the plates together bv crush
ing nVet-oolts into the holes at each edge aud
instantly rivetiu% Them to one another with
co.d-booded, silent force that is terrifying
Compare these operations with the tinkering of
the Nulcans OF old; who had to bore holes with
rigging cen,crbits, and 10 rivet them torethcr
with noisy hammers and who took a longer
time to turn ont the tip OF an arrow or a kitchen
boiler, than their powerful progv require to
twist score OF s n.barrel-, OF 10 complete To-
connective engine.
Take care the forge hammer is not quite
Obsolete should have known this to my cost
ifa stalwart arm had not dragged me ont of the
swim, OF doUhlc.handed hammer then being
welded by flesh and blood blacksmith, TO
form rods tur rivct- bolts. Ii watching the mo-
( tions of this man, the impression that the me-
chanical arts do not promote the picturesque or
help to inspire the artist was forcibly revived.
The graceful. elasticity OF his mutions was de-
/ HgLtiul contrast to the hard. undertaking ron
the oi his automatOn shopmateS. he highest
models OF Grec.an arr were nos more graceful
than the unconscious attitudes of this smith,
while swinging his hammer over his head to
bring it tremendously down upon the glowing
while stopping to raise the hammer, and draw
ing them together when swinging it to deliver
the blow, every limb fell, in its turn, into harmO-
ny with the rest ut the figure and expressed mus
cular strength and elasticity to perfection. 1
once saW even greater elegance of motion dis
/ played in connection with boiler plates. 1t was
I in Lancashire, where they made them in an enor-
nous smitly surrounded by furnaces, with all
overpowering steam-hammer standing in the
/ midst. They met, having drawn out a big,
shapcleSs lump Of metal white hot from the fire,
! and having dragged it along the sheet-iron floor
! to the 1hammer, then escaped the myriads OF
sparks which few out during the pounding pro-
cess, by holding their leather aprons at one
corner. up 20 their faces, and turning elegant
/ pirouettes. to present their backs as targets for
( the showers OF shooting sparks. Nothing at the
opera could be more graceful. Ihen-when
I they dragged the still red mass to the rolling
4 mill, through which it was to be passed, from
wider to narrower, until pressed into such plates
as / had Just seen sewn together by the iron
/ stitchers-cyery attitude OF the men swayiug
their bodies back TO receive the red hot sheet
from one roller aud to return il through another
was an admirable picture OF power and grace.
! The gTofesVue, the diablcne, of iron-working
is prac,iscd in the Lambeth Marsh casting-Shol
on The iifst-i0ur an enormous apartment
rooted chiefly with skyHghts, and fooTed with
saud and mould. very like the carpet trod by
the horses at the Royal Equestrian Amphithea
tie close by. Underneath a part Of it. are the
loan and masonry ot winch the foriu OF the arti
Gle to he east is made; and. into which, The mol
ten metal IS Euw being poured lrOm predigi
ui,s liUped basis. The io,:u, besides earth, sand
+ AID brick, is composed Vi hay. dung, and Other
combusubles which, when the molten meta. /.
ran into it, gene rates 4 gas that would ineylta
bly, blown the mould and the men through the
roof il il had no vent. Tubes, therefore, con
81 IA, 80 l. o. ed
ia- in strong, blue, uuearJhly Jets shat dim thC
other lights. and cast dIabUcal hue upon tn,
faces o1 the Macibers, upon the tie %: travelling
cranes winch support the cau.dlun by which i
IS passed from the cylindrical melting furnaces
and. II needed, from one end Of the shop to tht
other. Bright and lively sparks fly oil from tn
mouth OF the mould as il drinks in the Whit
Gqu;d fire, with toice aad proiusion that IA
display Vi fire works could suIpass. The who
scene Is 50 gram aud hot, auu pandemoucal
b. that a stranger, suddenly couiI il from lht
1 outer world, could help iuqulrIug, like Macbeth
/ ofiutel.ige grim, perspiriug artisans eaerget
: icalv pudding down the molten metal at vari
Gus openings OF the mould
Ye black and midnight hays what is't We do
The answer TO that question would cer;aiBl.
be, Casting ten-ton steam cylinder for one &
her Maiestys marine engines;' or, if the ia
ming cauldfon gave forth ghasily illumination
? OF green, and yellow, and purple, with gaseou
J. eXha4at4ons hotter, drier, aud more sufoeating
d The answer would be, "RUnuing eleven ton
= OF brass into the form Of q screw pope.leT,'
IL The bin Of q man and his wife
who STAYED at Washing ton hotel on
day and two nights, and had a parlo
I. and bedroom. during inauguration weel
e was just $40. The reason there wer