The daily gazette., 1877-10-08
Edge Moor Iron Works
THE OLD FORGE SUPERSEDED,

CudrIereu company, tno principal owners
and officers of which are William Sellers,
John Sellers and George Il. SELLERS, Of
Philadelphia and Eli Garrett, of this city.
The manufacture under way at this
time is mainly bridge trusses, and chiefly
for the long bridge already mentioned.
which required 5000 tons to be got out
in less than three months. This is all
OF wrought iron plates, bars and rods, of
which an average of some forty or fifty
tons go into the "Works" daily at one
set of gateways, and make their exit at
another set in the shape of forty to fifty
tons of finished bridge structure, requir-
ing no further manipulation than to be
carried toths bridge site and there set
up. " - q -
HOW THE woRK rs DONE.
All this is done with surprising smooth
ness, ease, rapidity and accuracy, and
what is more surprising. without the US
ual smoke, racket and clangor of the
foundry, although large proportion of
the work is forging and riviting boiler
iron-everybody who resides in the vic
Unity of forges and boiler shops knows
the deafening din they make. Here at
Edgemoor there Is no hammering for Ell
ther the forging and riveting, their opera
tions being performed noiselessly, but
perfectly, by the tremendous pressure of
hydraulic machines, operated by dexter
GUS workmen under the skilled and vigi--
lent supervision of accomplished chiefs.
The work is done at smallness of cost
which is also as surprising as everything
else about the place. The minimum Of
coat 10 eacnrad hu opnlianooo ond orn,p;
cation which prevent, 1st, waste of labor;
I'd, waste of fuel; Sd, waste of material;
4th, waste of time, and these same appli-
ances and organization, while they all
tend towards the minimum of cost, also
operate towards securing high grade of
superiority in the finished product.
II one were to follow set of bars or
plates ofiron from the time when they
enter one gateway of the "Works" until
they go out at another as completed parts
of a bridge or any other structure, he
would see that they are never required
to be moved through one foot OF space
beyond what is strictly necessary.
The railway truck deposits them at the
precise spot where the first manipulation
begins; and from that point they are
moved in progression only so far as is ne
cessary to the next stage, and the next,
and the next, until they have passed the
last handling, when they are again on a
railway truck in the completed state.
They have never gone offthe direct path
of progression, land heavy as they are. they
have always been moved with smooth
ness and ease through the Intervention Of
apparatus, devised for that special pur-
pose, and guided by the intelligence of
skilled men. Thus no time Is lost and
no power wasted by unnecessary move
ments back and forth and sideways, or
by the different manipulations crossing
each other and getting in each others
| way.
A SCIENTIFIC BLACKSAIITH'S SHOP.
Ifln following set of bars or plates
through the several stages of manufacture
he stops at the heating furnace, where
forging is done, the observer does not find
the old-fashioned smith shop fire, with its
wheezy bellows and binding and sitting
smoke-but sees, instead, an oven heated
by an intehsly bright white flame, daz-
zling as the sun and without smoke.
This is a far better fire for heating
wrought iron for welding and forging-it
can be kept at high and uniform tempera-
ture more steadily-it is altogether more
manageable-it neither burns nor wastes
the iron-and while it has all these ad-
vantages, it saves nearly half the fuel
that would be consumed if the same
thing were done in 'the good old way"
Instead of burning the Goals ON an open
hearth in the usual way and sending
clouds of smoke and combU stible gas
out into the shop and up the chimney to
be wasted, the Goals are heated in a
closed furnace, common air is blown
through the hot Goals, carbonic oxide
which is highly combustlble, is generat-
ed, and this gas is used to heat the iron
to be worked white hot for welding, forg-
ing and shaping. Thus fuel is saved,
time is saved, the iron material is protec-
ted from waste, money is saved and bet
ter work is done by applying science to
the building and operating of black
smiths forge on large scale,
If, in following up the same set of bars,
plates or rods, he goes to where the weld
ing, forging and shaping is done, the
observer sees the weld made in single
heat, and the forging, shaping and punch
ing of eye holes done in another single
heat, and all accomplished without the
ilSo VI q udhlhCl1 Wy ouDoUibublOu Vi
the steady, uniform, powerful, silent and
perfect operation of a hydraulic press, in
few moments of time for each bar plate
or rod. And these shapes are accurate
as to all dimensions, the tools being
spaced like instruments of precision
Further on where holes are to be drilled
in the plates for riveted work, he finds
similar machines, facile, powerful and
precise in their ways of working, by
which rivet holes can be punched at re-
gular or irregular distances, one at time
or many at one stroke, in single lines or
in several lines, or in any prescribed man.
ner by throwing different parts of the
machine into gear or out of gear. A
"dividing engine" placed upon the long
bed of one of these punching machines,
when set by the skilled hand of the work
man, so guides the operation of the
machine that the holes must be punched
in the right places, and no other, not the
thousandth part of an inch to the right
or left This is effected by the use of q
punching card given by the designer to
the workman, upon which the holes to
be punched in the plate are marked by
dots upon lines like those on a sheet of
music, and drawn precisely to scale. By
this he sets his "dividing engine" every
piece OF toothed gearing on which is
made with the greatest nicely to scale Of
feet, inches and fractions, according to
the United States standard measures, land
when the dividing engine is set and the