Milford chronicle., 1885-01-23

[From the Detroit Free Press.l
Chow many boys have been in here
this week to post themselves p / asked
of the manager of the lead-pipe works
the other day.
mot a one, he replied:
Chow many in the last month ?"
81 do not remember Of a boy coming
in here to see the process since the
works were started, eight years ago.
Aud yet it is one Of the most interest
ing things in the whole range Of me-
chanics and manufacturing. "NoW, nv
boy, how is lead pipe made ?"
''Don't know"
"Give a guess.
"Well, it's cast. Yes, Of course, it's
cast, the same as gas-pipe."
Is it? Ask your father, and see what
he says. He'll probably agree with
you. 1 asked twenty different men, the
other day, and such of them as "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 a building with water,
must stand the pressure of the water
works. Every throb of the big engine
at the pumping works exercises q 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." It 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 a 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 %, 900 |
pounds. In the center of this press is a !
cylinder which will hold all the lead in 1
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 a baking powder
ean, with one end open, as the cylinder.
This is full of the melted lead. but in
.he center of it is a steel core. You can
llustratePayain by holding a round stick
n the ce1asr Of the can. There are
trades of pipe>, from one-eighth of an
nch to two or thfes, inches of core, and
he press has cores of every SIZE
ieeded.
When all is ready the macRiDe starts,
nd you are dumfounded to see the bot
ON of the cylinder slowly rising up.
his forces the lead up and around the
ore, just the way you pull on a stock
lg. The core makes the hollow, and
be distance from the core to the sides
the cylinder determine the thickness
I the pipe The lead pipe comes up
Dot by foot, slowly, but continuously,
nd as it rises above the press it is run
yer a large wooden wheel. You never ,
ee the pipe except in coils, and it is ]
lis wheel which coils it. l
As the pipe comes from the cylinder it :
as bright and shiny as silver, and every |
lch of it has been subjected to a pres '
Ire of $4,000 pounds. This pressure '
Ould fatten six bars of the lead You +
ny for bullets into the thickness of one. 3
he 180 pounds of melted lead has made
80 feet of half-inch pipe. L
The process looks simple enough after h
Q have seen it done, but men spent r
sars and years before they perfected Q
at press, and they were smart men too.
ears ago pipe was cast, but it was of u
, use when there was any considerable n
essure to force the water through. i
len they rolled it solid and bored it out. II
1t the expense and waste were too "
eat. n
Every boy has handled the bar-lead f
md in hardware stores and at the gun "
lith's. These bars are made in this
me press. The cylinder is filled Just v
e same, but in place of a solid steel b
re they use one with hole in it Just m
g shape Of bar. The upward pres II
re forces the lead up through this aper- II
re, and it keeps going over the wheel II
til we have 300 feet of it. It is then to
by machine to proper lengths, and II
9se lengths are run through a second
chine to have the name stamped upon T,
I'm, and the edges dressed up to look nc
,it more fancy. Iit
i you live in a city having water al
rks, and the plumbing in your house is
Ii done, the floors under every lava m
y are lined with sheet-lead to catch any co
p from the basin above. The making Of If
5 is, of course, an entirely different ba
lir. The lead is cast into blocks, say Tn
r feet square. These blocks are iis
ced on large iron tables, and powerful iai
ers roll back and forth until the -
cks are hattened to thin sheets. FOR
n an hours time you can see the lin
Die process of making lead pipe. bar or
and sheet lead, and it will be a well
Mt hour. 1t won't be worth a cent to
financially, but it will have added
your knowledge and intelligence.
, mind is a great store-house. What ap
I you learn is laid up on a shelf, as it luI
e, and though you may not take that col
licular item down for years, the day mU
lly comes when you want to make Of
Of it. ma
nd don't you know that the world TO
SO rapidly in science and
hanics, and genius stands so near Il n
head OF the procession that men will up
i've almost anything in a fellow-man \
Ter than ignorance. Thirty years his
when we said of a man: "He is
educated and thoroughly posted" toa
meant that he was head and shoul- and
above ordinary men. Nowadays, wal
n you find a man who is anything YOU
but well-educated and thoroughly cofI
ed, the world feels that he deserves cur
oism for neglecting his everyday I
)rtunities. plas
A Senator's Monkey Story. Iett Ilg'
u
'nator Ransom tells this story: An tbot