Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-05-04
CITY AND COUNTY,

M AnuIacturlng Enterpr1se In worcester.
Among the heaviest of the many manufacturing
establishments for which Worcester is distinguished
is that carried on by Nathan Washburn, near Wash
ington square, for the manufacture of railway iron
locomotive tires, and car wheels. There is but one
other establishment of this kind in New England
rich she is in manufactures of almost every de-
scription That other is at South Boston. Mr..
Washburn is the inventor of the patent wheel
which bears his name, and which is now taking pre-
cedence Of all others, as a safer and enduring
wheel than any other made in the world, In con-
Quoting this business, Mr.. Washburn employs cap
ital of half million of dollars He has been and is
now furnishing employment, in the whole establish
ment, for 220 to $40 men, whose pay amounts to
$1,000 per month. His works are in full operation
both night and day. He has just about completed
addition of fifty feet to his rolling mill, making
it now four hundred feet long by one hundred and
twenty wide. He has also just put in another of
Nasmiths immense trip hammers, weighing forty
tons, of the same size as that he has been using
These additions have led to the erection of new
heating furnaces, steam boilers, and other facilities
for increased work. When the Improvements
shall all be completed, they will provide labor for
increased number of hands
Mr. Washburn's establishment covers in all four
acres of ground and being the Western Rail-
road depot, is connected with that road by branch
tracks The foundry building is hundred and
seventy-fve long by sixty wide. Here forty car
wheels and eight tons of machinery cast per day.
averaging about twenty tons of castings daily The
wheels are cast upon sand in the CENTRE and chilled
upon iron at the rim to the depth of half inch in
consequence of which the iron softer at the centre
and as hard steel upon the surface This makes
the wheel more durable and causes it to overcome
| accidents Inv tho of iron in
cold weather The wheels are made of the best Sal
sbury pig iron. When taken, red hot, from the
moulds, they covered with sand, and allowed to
remain forty-eight hours to cool.
In the rolling mill, two hundred and fifty rails,
weighing about forty tons in all, are daily rolled
out, and also about four tons of tire for driving
| wheels. When the improvements are in full
operation at least sixty tons OF rails per day will be
manufactured. The process of making the new rail
is follows The old rail is first cut into pieces OF
about three feet in length; these are packed in a
bundle, mixed with pudded bars of new or pig iron,
heated red in furnace and then brought under a
| ponderous steam hammer, capable of striking a
blow of forty tons weight by which the whole mass
is thoroughly welded together 1t is then at proper
temperature, drawn through series ofrollers, which
from rectangular of iron, four feet long, turn
out finished rail- The ends are then sawed off, to
make it of the right length and the rail is straight
| ened, by hammer adapted to the purpose. 1t il
| Mr.. Washburn's great aim to restore and improve
the quality of the iron in old rails, and make it
good it was before it had become deeriorated b,
use, and this new method of Incorporation b,
heavy hammering, attains this desideratum, per
fectly
His rolling machines of his own invention
and manufactured by himself, at the machine
shop attached to his foundry They consist of dou
BILE rollers of opposite action, and are used in nj
other establishment. He has seven pudding fur
ma ces, which make twenty tons of bar puddet
iron per day. There ten heating furnaces
to prepare the iron for hammering, Welding, anC
rolling
Nasmith's trip hammer of direct action, worked
by steam, of which Mr., Washburn now has two, 70
working over and welding together old and worI
out rails, are truly immense and ponderous piece
of machinery. Each weighs forty tons, the hamme
head alone weighing six tons, and the anvil fourteen
tons. They manufactured by Wood, Light S
Co.. at the Junction machine shop, and cost, afte
being set up, $1,000 each They have also made on,
for similar establishment OF Mr. Washburn, il
Toronto, Canada, and they making one fol
another establishment of the same kind near De
trot, Michigan.
Mr.. Washburn's machine for rolling locomotive
tires is new, and the best for the purpose in the
country. These, also he invented, and they are
used only by himself They are so constructed thai
the tires for locomotive wheels are rolled out BY
them, as smooth and exact as if turned by a lathe
His tires may be found in in all parts of the
country, and orders have been received for then
from England.