New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-02-02
+. southsrn Enterprise,


ramble through the foundry Of Messrs. Leeds & Co.
This is an extensive establishment, covering the
greater part of the square bounded by St. Joseph,
Deord, Foucher and Tchoupitoulas streets the head
and front of it being at the corner of Delord and
Foucher. The foundry was started on small scale,
than thirty years ago, by the father of the pre-
sent proprietors; and having steadily increased its
business and expanded its dimensions since then, it is
of the largest establishments in the country,
and certainly the largest in the South. The chief
branch of its business has been plantation machinery
next to that, steamboat and cotton press machinery;
and after that, all kinds of machinery for draining
canals, mills, gins and the thousand and one oc-
casiona articles that needed in large and busy
city. We found quite novelty to ramity the differ
ent departments of the foundry and the grand idea
of machinery, in all its mutorm variety and differ
ent stages of development. + ...
First, we enter the drawng-room, where the artist
skilled in mathematics, and armed with compass,
rule, paper and pencil, either gives birth to the
chinal idea from his own brain, Or shape and dmen-
sion to the crude idea from the brain Of Others What
cabinet of hieroglyphcs is this So devoid Of mean
ing do the drawings, in mass appear to the visitor
that the knowledge of the artist cannot be envied,
even if he does read them through as we would a
primer We do not lnger long here, for it is almost
headache to think OF the brain labor that is expended
in this the birthplace of the idea In all the other
departments, the labor begins where previous labor
LETT off, and is purely mechanical though no little ge
MUS is at times requisite to follow the line chalked out
Leaving the birthplace Of the idea we pass through
door and behold it in its second stage This is the
pattern-shop. Here numbers of men-carpenters,
joiners and turners-busiy engaged in giving the idea
its first tangibity, in wood. The place is
, wilderness of wooden articles, in every shape
, known to geometry. The men actually seem to be
decyphering problems in wood. But they have got
the idea in ragmentary condition; the grand total
will not be till we reach the finishing shop. They
doubtless turn out many elaborate piece of work,
$ without knowing what it is any more than Go one
man works part of the idea, and another man
on another part. Each has his drawings and figures
before him. and that is all he cares about. 1t is for
Others to figure up the total The number Of wooden
fragments of ideas hanging about, piled about and
stored away, is prodigious-many of them having
been used more than once, and being destined
perhaps, never to be used again. But we must not
nger too long here. We now descend the stals-for
the two first stages of the lea being the lightes are
in the upper storyand behold the third stage, which
i is the foundry.
Q Here are another crowd of scientific mechanics,
I working amid labyrinth of dark and ponderous
objects. They are down on their knees, endery bury
ing the wooden patterns in damp sand, and resurrect
ing them. Then with their little trowels they work
0 daintily smoothing the beds for the molten iron.
Each has his fragment of the idea to bury, and
, has no need to know anything beyond burying and
2 resurrecting his wooden model decenty. Over a
large space Of ground this process is proceeding.
Fixing the cores is difficult and precarous work
that is laying the moulds for hollow castings In the
> middle of the foundry is wide deep pit, in which
he he iS built
II up of brick and mortar: the outer wall of the
" mould is built with corresponding rnness, and after
the moulding is over, and the article drawn from its
y burial by Of the gigantic cranes the pit looks
9 like the ruins of house. Finally the fragments of
the idea are left in airy shape beneath the ground.
Three large furnaces are grmly watching the work,
IL and waiting the evening hour, when they will roar
and bech forth their fiery torrents causing the
II to wheel about like things Of life, and the to
p resemble irisking demons in the rudy glare. Tie
III kettles of molten metal swung around sby the
~ cranes; they in turn open their maws, and hun
IT dred fiery serpents go kissing and suffering into the
ground After interval the fragments of the idea
are again seen born in iron. The crude consumma.
nation is reached.
N But some parts of the idea are wrought out not by
g melting, but by heat and hammer In another direc-
u ton we see this process. Eight ten FORCES are
them. Besides these, there is ponderous tripham-
mer propelled by steap, which shapes mass of red
It IRON as big barrel easily you would ball of
putty with your thumb and finger The FORCES derive
their breath and enabled to from pipes under
ground, filled, at a common source by steam fan,
which reyoyes rapidly that it could not be seen,
= were it uncovered. Here also are some machines
which punch and clip the hard, cold iron though it
: were putty. But the foundry and blacksmith shop
still have nothing to do with aggregatng adding
) up of the idea. There fragments which owe
:, their being to another source.
u This is the brass-shop. Here are made the finer
10 parts of the ideathe brass accessories,
without which no machine is handsome complete.
~ The moulding here is small scale, the brass or
;, copper being melted in crucibles which you may see
= at the bottom Of some redhot pits in the ground.
- Now we 60 and see the idea in its fourth stage.
This is the finishing shop. Here the fragments as
sembe from foundry, forge and brass-shop, all crude
:, and unpublished What course of sprouts they
= go through Some put into lathes and revov-
ing beneath sharp steel tooth, receive their first
> polish others chained racks, or secured in
: some terrible manner, and planed down, punched
- down, whitfield down, and rubbed down in every
" style imaginable. Much work we have seen in the
- other stages all of it together does not amount to
the. half we see here. As the fragments come
out of the various machines, in all the symetry and
and polish of the irgina idea, they begin to aggre-
H. gate Slowly and carefully they added together,
: and finally we are delighted to the scraps of
Greek translated into plain Eaglisl-thc idea is
plcte and impershable, and we understand and ad-
, mire it,
Here are great many ideas lying about US, com
=. pete and ready for transportation. Huge cast iron
retorts, for making rosin o-eisht feet in diameter,
and weighing five tons ponderous racks for the cot
:. ton press gigantic drums vacuum pans and sugar
mills steam engines Of all patterns and sizes, vert
" cal and horizontal steamboat shafts water-plugs
for the steam fre.engine pumps, CRATES, and hun
:, dreds Of things too numerous to mention.
We must not omit to mention one other branch of
, the establishment where the boilers made
This is simple business, consisting of clipping and
punching cold plate iron by machinery, and hammer
ing it together with hot riyets. 1t is terribly deafen
- ing, and only stop long enough to note the seem
"a ing callousuess of the workmen and to that there
are great many new boilers lying around awaiting
alb for rlan 4 m uCn In