Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-29
CLEVELAND MAN0FAOTORIESE
IRON R
CLEVELAND IRON AND NAIL COM
PANY-

William Bingham, Vice President,
Major Collins, Manager.
H,G. Cleveland was appointed Secretary
and Treasurer.
The officers at present are the same, ex-
eept on the let of January last W. L. Carter
was added to the Board Of Directors and
Paul P. Condit succeeded to the post of Sec
rotary and Treasurer.
The Company as soon as organized set
about the erection of their mandatory,
choosing as a location some twsnty-three
asres of ground on the Flats, in the triangle
formed by the Cuyahoga river and the Gin
e~innati, Cleveland & Columbus and Mahon-
ing Roads, which at that time was a pond Of
water, or at least very low and msrshy, but
admirably situated for convenience of ship
ping by both river and railroad. 1t was
filed up eleven feet, with dirt from a hill in
the vicinity, and the river front graded for
a dock the length ofthe works. The works
were erected and operations commenced in
the fall of '62, although additions to a great
extent have been made since.
We had no correct idea of the extent Of
this mandatory until shown through it,
the other day, by the Manager. The works
consist of a Rolling mill, Nail factory, Spike
factory, and Blacksmith and Carpenter
shops near which is q cluster of comfort
able dwelling houses occupied in part By
employees of the establishment; and on the
opposite side Of the river from the works il
the C~empany's warehouse, containing store
rooms and the business office. Goods are
transferred from the works to the warehouse
by a ferry boat belonging to the Company.
The warehouse fronts on Leonard street,
west side of the river. 1t is three stories
high, 81 by 30 feet built of brick, and has
storage capacity for one hundred tons OF
manufactured iron. The first floor includes
the office and a store room for all kinds OF
manufactured iron, and the upper floors are
used for storing nails, spikes, hoop and sheet
iron.
The Rolling mill is a brick structure
100 by 200 feet with two wings, one 20 by
80 the other IS by 95, the height of the
building varying from l6 to 80 feet. On
the west side of the mill is a storehouse for
iron 80 by 90, and on the south side a shed
for fire brick and other material used in re-
pairing furnaces. The Nail factory is 80 by
100 with two wings, each 26 by 80 feet. The
Spike factory is so by 40 feet and frame.
These factories are close together, more
properly forming one than separate build
ings. The blacksmith shop for repairing
the tools, and the carpenter shop for repair
ing and making the patterns, wheel-bar-
rows, etc, of the works, are several hundred
feet distant.
Those who know anything about the
manufacture of iron, will, from the descrip-
ton of the size and extent of these works,
know at once what q vast amount of ma
chinery is required to do the work. There
are five engines-one of 800, one of 200, two
of 90, and one of 20 horse power-to furnish
the propelling force of the ponderous and
light, numerous and varied machines; and
two large steam pumps, one to elevate water
from the river to the reservoirs, the other to
force the water into the boilers. There are
twelve boilers over the furnaces, supplying
all the engines with steam besides a man,
moth boiler in reserve, which makes steam
when the supply from the others is INSULT
cient, as is sometimes the case.
Each engine run a special class of ma
chimes. The largest, or 300 horsepower,
drives a heavy bar-train, a machine for re-
ducing malleable iron into plates from
a half inch to six inches wide and'of all
thicknesses into bars, round and square,
from a half inch to four inches in
diameter; channel iron for bridges
also plates to be cut up into nails; and an
s-inch guide train, which manufactures
iron from S-16 of an inch to ! inch, round
and square, and light band and hoop iron.
The 20O-horse power engine drives a
s-inch guide train, which manufactures bars
and rods from ] to II inch, round and
square; fats from ] inch to 2 inches wide
and all MISUNDERSTANDING a complete
merchant stock of band and bar iron. The
same engine runs a puddle-mill train and
squeezer. Pudding is the process of con-
Verting cast iron into wrought or malleable
iron by subjectilg it to the continuous action
of intense heat in a furnace until it becomes
so thick and tenacious as to stick together
and form into Jumps. The puddle-mill
train and squeezer are used for the purpose
of reducing these Jumps, or puddle-balls as
they are technically termed, into rough
bars for the heating furnaces, to be subse-
quehtly pressed and stretched into bar and
rod iron by the guide trains already men
toned.
One of the 9O-hOrse power engines drives
the machinery in the spike factory, and the
fan-blowers hat furnish the blast to the
furnaces. The blast is forced into the fur
naees through 400 feet of II and 30-inch
tubing.
The smallest engine works a pair of
enormous shears for cutting iron, and a set
of saws for saving heavy iron shsfting. We
may remark here that the works manufac-
ture roll shafting on an extensive scale.
The other 9O-horse power engine drives
the machinery in the nail factory and
machine shop. The machine shop repairs
and manufactures machinery only for the
works. The nail factory, to an outsider,
presents a curious scene, showing the intel
ligenee, almost, with which automatic
machinery performs the work of man. Here
there are twenty nail-eutting machines, fed
by boys, one man experimenting four. They
manufacture over 100 kegs of nails, of all
sizes, a day. One machine will turn out one
key Of the smallest nails a day, and from
that up to thirty kegs, increasing the guam
tity as the nails increase in size. A minute
account, in this connection, of the
of making nails would not be without a GER
tain interest, but our space will not allow
it. After the plate of iron is cut into strips
as wide as the nail is intended to be long, it
is heated to a dull cherry red. This is what
gives the blush color noticeable in new nails.
One of these strips is then placed in a pair
of nippers attached to a feeding rod, which
introduces it between the cutting jaws of the
machine, where the width of a nail is cut
off. It is then carried down into what is
called the bed-die, where it is turned half
over, shaped into proper proportions, and the
head upset; then the die opens and the nail
drops into a box beneath, finished. T0o
hundred perfect mails are na8 made svery
minnte.
The Cleveland Iron and Nail Company,
in building their works, relied upon home