The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-04-25
RICHMOND MANUFACTURES.
Machinery-Wm. f. Tanner Il Co.

NuChihery-Nm. Il. Tanner IL Co.
When Cresus showed Scion his i'm
mense stores of gold, the wise man of
Greece is said to have answered, "If
another king cometh who hath more iron
than thou, he will be master Of all this
gold." This was said when the uses of
iron were few and the implements made
from it comparatively rude when Scythia,
and not Virginia, was the "mother
of iron" and when ores were melted in the
commonest open furnace by the use of
rude bellows, and beaten on an anvil, sop
arating its impurities in semi-fuid Gin
der. The huge blast furnaces of modern
times, in which the ores are reduced by
suitable huxes, and an intense heat secured
by currents Of hot air driven in by power
tul machinery, were entirely unknown
until comparatively recent period.
1t is due to modern civilization,
that this king of metals" has
been SO greatly stimulated in product, and
introduced into nearly all the industries of
human life; or, more properly speaking,
perhaps, the converse of this proposition is
true, and it is due to iron, in the innumera-
bly, diversified forms into which it is
worked, that we have our modern cviliza-
ton and the grand industries which dis
tinguish it. Iron, in fact, is the great Grill
'zer of our race. 1t is not only the skiing
of metals" but it coniers kingly preroga-
tives upon those who work in it. 1t made
Tubal Cain first an artificer himself, and
then an instructor of artiflcersu-the
highest if not the most royal vocation
named in the Bible. The man who tears
the ribs of iron mountains in sunder, and
brings out the grand possibilities of steam
engines, the iron rail, the iron horse, the
iron Ship, the iron edilice, the iron Menai
bridge-the iron everything, in fact, from
horseshoe nail to hundred horsepower
steam-engine--is the artifcer who instructs
the world, and lifts his race out of the con.
dition of the Hottentot and the wild Caffre
into the splendid civilization which, by the
use of iron, modern times has reached.
| In entering the Metropolitan Iron and
Brass Works of VIM. E. Tanner & Co.,
on Canal street, reaching from Seventh to
Sixth, one can hardly fail to have similar
impressions to these, if his mind is at all
imbued with the civilizing spirit and effect
of iron.' He will realize at a glance that
iron is as vital to our civilization as the all
we breathe; that it is equally serviceable
to man In the arts, sciences, medicine,
mechanism, agriculture, war. At these
works are manufactured machinery of all
kinds; engines, portable, strictly portable,
and stationary; saw mills, bark, grist,
sumac and plaster mills boilers, from
four to one hundred horsepower castings
of brass and iron bridge irons Wrought
and cast for Howe Truss, Fink's and Bali
mans patent; forgings of every descrip-
ton; gas and water pipes railroad equip
ments of all kinds; freight cars, and trucks
for same; frogs, switches, turntables,
steam pumps, station engines, pile drivers
to work by hand or steam, and almost
every other article manufactured at the
largest class machine shops in the country.
The engines made at this establishment
are of the highest order of workmanship
and all built of the best charcoal iron. All
the longitudinal seams in boilers above
twenty-five horsepower are double riveted,
securing an increase of strength of full
twenty per cent. over the single riveting
system. What is called the "crown Sheet"
or that portion of the boiler most exposed
to heat, is braced in the strongest possible
manner; the fire-box sides are stayed at
| the shortest intervals from center to center,
and three-inch tlues are used, which give a
quick and strong draft, so that not more
than twenty minutes are ordinarily requir-
ed to get up steam from cold water. To
these advantages, they add the novel fea-
ture of a super-heater, by which the steam
when generated is subjected to drying
process, lessening the liability to foam, as
well as economizing fuel. Several import
ant changes have been made in the shape of
their boilers, and in the location of the
dome in respect to the flre-box, so as to
diminish the agitation of the water occa-
stoned by the too violent generation of
steam, and prevent the surcharging of
steam with moisture, and thereby impair
its efficiency as generating force. By To-
eating the dome over the smoke chamber
and passing the smoke flue through it, the
upper surface of the chamber and the
whole surface of the chimney, is added to
the generating surface of the boiler, and a
large experimenting capacity thereby Sc
cured. Their engines are remarkably
compact, and have all their parts adjusted
with reference to accessibility, lessening
wear and tear, obviating strain, subjecting
friction, expanding power, economizing
fuel, and securing, in fine, all the advan-
tages seemingly possible of attainment in
the construction of one engine over anoth-
er. These engines took the first premium
at the great State Fair, held in Macon, Ca,
in 1856, and also in 1870; while at Attain
ia, Columbus, Wilmington, and Charlotte,
N. G., the same distinction was accorded
them. Ia the report of the special COM
mittee on machinery, at the Virginia State