News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-05

From the Detroit Free Press.l
Chow many boys have been in here
this week to post themselves ?" l asked
of the manager of the lead-pipe works
the other day.
'Not one," he replied.
"How many in the last month ?"
81 do not remember of boy coming
in here to see the process since the
works were started, eight years ago."
And yet it is one of the most interest
ing things in the whole range of me-
chanics and manufacturing. "Now, my
boy, how is lead pipe made?"
''Don't know"
s'Give guess"
'Well, it's cast. Yes, of course, it's
cast the same as gas-pipe."
Is it T? Ask your father, and see what
he says. He'll probably agree with
you. [ asked twenty different men, the
other day, and such of them as s'didn't
know" replied that it was cast.
Let me tell you why it isn't cast.
What is called inlet-pipe, or the pipe
which supplies building with water,
must stand the pressure of the water
works. Every throb of the big engine
at the pumping-works exercises a pres
sure of no little force on every inlet
pipe in the whole city. Lead has not
the density of iron, and this PRESSURE in
case of lead simply allowed to cool
around a core, would send the water
through thousand pin-holes. We will
now see how it is made.
! In the paint-factory article I told you
that the corroder received his lead in
pigs" 1t is the same at the pipe
works. A kettle, large enough to hold
$50 pounds of melted lead, is bricked in
as a furnace and is provided with a
strong draught to insure hot fire. Soft
coal Is used for fuel and it takes only a
short time for the lead to melt
Close by the furnace is the massive
machine which makes the pipe. It is
made of gun-metal and is very massive,
for it must exercise a pressure of 25.OOO
pounds. In the center of this press is
cylinder which will hold all the lead in
the furnace as it runs in through a spout
There is a water-well underneath the
press, and it is worked by hydraulic
pressure.
To illustrate so that you can plainly
understand: Imagine q baking powder
can, with one end open, as the cylinder.
u.
the center of it is steel core. You can
illustrate again by holding a round stick
in the center Of the can. There are
grades of pipe from one-eighth of an
inch to two or three inches of core, and
the press has cores of every size
needed.
When all is ready the machine starts,
and you are dumfounded to see the bot
n fhn -
This forces the lead up and around the
core, just the way you pull on stock
ing. The core makes the hollow. and
the distance from the core to the sides |
OF the cylinder determine the thickness
OF the pipe. The lead pipe comes up |
foot by foot, slowly, but continuously. |
and as 1t rises above the press it is run |
over q large wooden wheel. You never
see the pipe except in coils, and it is
this wheel which coils it.
As the pipe comes from the cylinder il
is as bright and shiny as silver, and every
inch OF 1t has been subjected to pres
sure of $4,000 pounds. This pressure
would fi4tten six bars of the lead you
buy for bullets into the thickness of one.
The $50 pounds of melted lead has made
$50 feet of half-inch pipe.
The process looks simple enough after
we have seen it done, but men spent
years and years before they perfected
that press, and they were smart men too.
Years ago pipe was cast, but it was of
no use when there was any considerable
pressure to force the water through.
Then they rolled it solid and bored it ont,
but the expense and waste were too
great.
Every boy has handled the bar-lead
found i'll hardware stores and at the gun
smiths. These bars are made in this
same press. The cylinder is filed Just
the same, but in place of a solid steel
core they use one with hole in it Just
The shape of bar. The upward pres
'ure forces the lead up through this aper-
ure, and it keeps going over the wheel
Until we have 300 feet of it. It is then
nut by machine to proper lengths, and
hese lengths are run through second
machine to have the name stamped upon
hem, and the edges dressed up to look
bit more fancy.
If you live in city having water
works, and the plumbing in your house is
veli done, the floors under every lava .
DRY are lined with sheet-Iead to catch any
rip from the basin above The making OF !;
his Is, of course, an entirely different }
fair. The lead is cast into blocks, say !
our feet square. These blocks are !;
laced on large iron tables, and powerful
oilers roll back aud forth until the J
locks are fiattened to thin sheets. .
In an hours time you can see the :
hole process of making lead pipe, bar r
lad and sheet lead, and it will be a well
pent hour. 1t won't be worth cent to
on financially, but it will have added
your knowledge and intelligence.
he mind is great store-house. What
yer you learn is laid up on shelf, as it =
ere. and though you may not take that :
item down for years, the day =
nally comes when you want to make .
Sc of it. Ii
And don't You know that the world 8
improving so rapidly in science and p
lechanics, and genius stands so near >
lie head of the procession that men will II
'rglve almost anything in a fellow-man "
'oner than ignorance. Thirty years o
go, when we said of man: "He is
ell educated and thoroughly posted" e.
Q meant that he was head and Shout v
srs above ordinary men,. Nowadays, h
hen you find a man who is anything IL
Sc but well-educated and thoroughly re
osted, the world feels that he deserves
iticism for neglecting his everyday d