Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-11-16
A NEW DEPARTURE.
Nails and Spikes to Be Manufac-
tursd from Steel.
A Company Formed at Pittsburgh With
Capital of Three Quarters Of Mil
lion to Inaugurate This
Latest Innovation.
A DECISION ON PRESIDENT JARRETT.

| OF agreement were signed IN this city las
sevening, representing S75o,0O8 in cash, to b,
invested in a nail and spike works to bt
located on lands now the property Of Mr.. J
C. Bissell (present owner of the Bissel
block on tha YoughiogheDy river, two
miles above McKeesport. Mr.. Bissell, John
II. Dalzell, Uri HOskins and q number o
prominent iron men are interested in the
new enterprise. Talk about this project
has been plentiful for some time, but the
final arrangements were only completed
yesterday noon. They were ratified by q
private banquet last night at one of the
hotels. The ideas of
The New Company
have never been fully tested on a large
scale, but the men interested have plenty
Of money and intend erecting first class
machinery for making nails and spikes out
Of steel. This has never been attempted in
this country before. The company will
erect Bessemer steel plant aud number
ofSiemeDs' open-hearthf furnaces for making
a low grade Of carbon and soft steels. Plans
for the plant and for the mill have already
been prepared in S. r. Smyth's private
office and approved by the company. The
railroad spikes to be made willbe of a new
design, similar TO the five.eishths spike
now in use, except that the four corners
will be scooped out so that a sectional view
of the spike would resemble a modified
Maltese cross. The design saves
Nearly One-half the Material
in steel, and instead of four corners to
bind in the tie, the new spike will have
eight corners Besides this it will have a
peculiarly shaped head, which, when made,
of toughened steel, the company will war
rant not TO break; neither will they be
susceptible of being knocked Off A new
patent set of continuous rolls, designed by
Mr.. Uri Hoskins, who for 90 years was
Master Mechanic in DilwoIth. Porter &
Co.'S spike mills, on the Southside. The
rolls are arranged alternately in perpen-
dicular and horizontal. There are no loose
rolls, as is the case with the continuous
trains now in use; no turning of the bar
10 kill the seams, and there will be no ne
cesSity for an expensive fOur.cvlindsr re-
versing engine TO run them. The perpen-
dicular rolls are driven from below by a
beveled gearing connected with the shaft
which gives power to the horizontal rolls.
BY Peculiar Design
in the housings which carry the rolls, the
simple unlocking of ball which holds
them in place allows the housings to swing
back by hydraulic pressure, each carrying
its roll with it. This is TO meet the emer-
gency which would arise in case bar stuck
in its passage. No reversion of the rolls is
necessary, they are simply thrown open as
indicated above, and the chilled bar lifted
out This mill has been patented in this
and Mr.. Hoskins has applied,
through mis- attorney, for patents in every
country which isues patents. The new
rolls will be set by combination screw and
ioned rolls, when the rollers want to go 70
a circus, they simply threw pair OF Congs
or other piece OF cold iron into the rolls,
of course, which
Ensured stop of Several Days.
The new continuous train does away with
that and with real accidents OF similar
nature. In each housing, back OF the box
ing in which the rolls run, is cast-iron
breaker, supported by two lugs on the
housing. This breaker supports the boxing,
is brittle, and the moment any cold iron
goes into the rolls, the breaker snaps ana
Saves the machinery from damage. All
that is necessary to repair the damage is to
put new breaker in place.
The design of the mill itself is entirely
new. 1t is calculated for
2o Men to do the Work ora5O.
The huge steel ingots, as soon as they are
cast in the pit and the cases Withdrawn,
will be placed in q car lined with non con-
ducting material, which will be hermeti-
cally sealed and hauled to the blooming
mill. This is intended to do away with a
heating furnace for ingots the action ot
the sealed car taking its place in heating
the crust formed on the bloom by the
mould by drawing the heat from the
molten centre of the ingot. When the in
cots pass through the blooming mill the
blooms are caught up by conveyors and
passed automatically beneath shear,
which cuts the bar into billets four feet
long. These billets drop into a groove In
the cast iron floor, the bottom OF which IS
a conveyor, and are shot right into the back
end of heating furnace.
some Rapid Work.
They are pulled ont in front, started into
the continuous train above described, ana
come out five-eighth spike bar, which is
cut in the middle and the halves started
each way into spike mills conveniently
situated. They drop out finished spikes
without having had time to cool from the
time they left the converter.
One of the members of the firm said last
night that Mr.. Dilworth had been reported
10 them as saying that he would sell spikes
for cent pound rather than allow the
new mill a choice in the market. This
gentleman remarked that the old fashioned
spikes with four corners and made OF iron
would have to sell for about cent pound
when the new spikes in the new shape and
with steel bodies were put upon the mar
ket.