The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1881-11-04
PAPER CAR-wHEEIS.
Something New in the Rolling Stock of
Railroads.

| the Central Paclhc railroad, says the
Eureka Sentinel, man appears and
goes about the work of tapping the car
wheels with hammer. The man is
usually skilled machinist, and can tell
| in an instant by the sound whether a
wheel possesses flaw or not. This
prccaution is taken to prevent accidents
by wheel going to pieces while the
train is in motion. Coming up the
road the other day, we took in the tap
ping process with some interest. Final
ly car was reached where the tap of
the hammer echoed back a dull thud.
Being close at hand, we said to the tap
per, "those wheels have flaws" "Not
much" said the man of the hammer.
"Those wheels are manufactured out of
paper; Pullman is now putting them
under all of his palace sleepers they
don't have the clear ringing sound Of
the old iron wheels when you tackle
them with the hammer, but they are
better and more durable, aud ride
easier and make less noise" 1t was a
new wrinkle to us, and the conductor
shouting "all aboard p we skipped into
the car, bordering over the marvellous
improvements of this wonderful age of
progress. Since reaching home sclen-
tific journal has fallen under our OBJ
servation, giving the annexed account
OF how paper car-wheels are made. The
description may be as interesting to the
average reader as it was to us, and
hence we reproduce it as follows
NThe paper is strawboard of rather
rather fine texture. 1t is received in
the ordinary broad sheets, differing in
no particular from those used for
| strawboard boxes or ether similar work.
These sheets, as they come from the
mill, are square, and must first of all be
cut into circular pattern. This is
j rapidly done, on large table, with a
knife which is guided by radial arm
that swings freely over the surface of
/ the table from a pivot at the centre.
/ A small disc is also cut from the centre
of the sheets, to allow for the iron hub.
Being thus reduced to the required
shape and dimensions, the paper must
now be converted from a mass of loose
sheets into compact, dense body, capa-
| BILE of wthstanding the tremendous
crushing force to which it will be sub
jected in the wheels. This is accom-
plished in the following manner Ten
sheets are packed together, one upon
the other. making disc about one
eighth of an inch thick. Enough Of
these discs have been prepared to fill a
powerful hydraulic press. They are
subjected to pressure of $50 pounds
to the square inch. When removed
the discs are hung on poles in steam
heated loft, and left six days to dry.
| Thicker discs are then made, each
formed by FASTING together two or three
of those already finished. These are
pressed and dried as before, and the
process is repeated until block is
built four inches thick, and about the
specific gravity of lignum vitae. After
each FASTING and pressing, six days are
allowed for drying, and when block is
complete, it is left in a drying-room un-
til thoroughly seasoned. The next
operation is that of turning the paper
blocks to fit the steel tires and iron
hubs. This is done with as much ac-
curacy and in exactly the same manner
as if the material worked on were iron
or wood. The circumference is turned
to perfect circle of the precise dame
ter required, bed or recess is worked
out for the web of the tire to rest in,
and the edges sharply defined. The
block is then painted, and is ready for
it's place in the wheel.