The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-05-07

Great Changes I'm the Metal Trade Pro-
duoed by Low Prices.

Few people not actually engaged in
the metal trade are aware of the
wonderful strides made by steel in re-
cent years. In fact. steel is wholly TAX
ing the place of wrought iron. Steel
is simply a mixture of iron and carbon,
the quantity of carbon ranging from 20
to .0l per cent. of the mass. 1t is not
only stronger and for almost every pur-
pose better than wrought iron, but it is
cheaper.
was obtained in England, where steel
rails for railroads were found to be
much better than iron in several ways.
They did not wear away SO rapidly un-
der the wheels, and they were able to
stand greater strain. The first Bes-
semer steel plant in this country was
started in 1867. It's product was used
for making rails, and the total amount
that year was 5000 tons. For a num-
Der of years the Bessemer steel was al
most wholly devoted to that purpose,
the high price at which it was sold max
ing it Improbable for other uses to
which wrought iron was put. Steel
rails brought S160 ton in 1867. But
after the panic of 1873 prices came
down, and in 1876 the rails brought
the price, In spite of combinations
among owners, and in 1883 steel rails
sold at $40 ton. Since that time the
price has fallen steadily, and recent
price list puts the price of rails at $40
and of steel slabs. ready to be rolled or
forged into any shape, at $2S per ton.
The result OF these low prices is that
bridges are no longer made of iron.
Steel beams have taken she place of
iron in the fre-proof buildings. Steel
ships are built instead of iron ships.
Steel boilers replace iron boilers. Steel
rifles replace the old cast-iron cannon.
Wherever tensile strength is required
steel is used.
The use of steel in beams and grid
ers for bouses and bridges was a natur-
al sequence of Its use in railroad tracks.
But the use of this steel has not been
confined to railroads and steamships.
The big tin-plats factories in Wales be-
gan to experiment with steel instead of
iron about two years ago. The plate
contains about 81 per cent. of iron and
z of pure tin. The steel plate was found
to be cheaper, and the articles made of
steel tin plate were superior. For
making tin dishes without seams or sol
dered joints, the Siemens process steel
plate is not only superior, but it IS
about the only kind that can stand the
spinning process. This country now
imports 100000 tons of tin plate annu-
ally, and it is all made of steel plate
with tin coating.
One field in which steel has not yet
wholly displaced iron is in the manu-
facture of nails. The plates from which
nails are cut can be rolled from steel
ingots as easily as from puddled iron,
but the steel plate is harder to cut, and
the cutters charge little more for the
work. The plants engaged in making
steel nails are limited in number, and
the price of steel nails is higher than
that of iron. The steel nail is smoother.
stronger, and handsomer, and has made
its way in spite of the higher price, but
the difference in price is rapidly dwind-
ling, and will, no doubt, soon disappear
altogether. In November, 1884. the
Wheeling manufacturers charged 30
cents and the Troy men % cents keg
more for the steel nails. Quotations
during the last.of February this year
were -. 10 per keg for steel nails and
81 for iron. The profit TO the maniac
turer of the steel nails is much greater,
on account of the smaller cost of the
plates, and the only thing that prevents
iron-nail makers from using steel plates
entirely is that it takes money to change
the plant, and after the great depres-
sion of the last two years money is not
overabundant among iron manufactur-
ers in any branch of the trade.
A curious outgrowth OF this improve
ment in the manufacture of nails is the
action taken 10y the trades unions in the
West at the instigation of the psddlers
BY the old pudding process of making
iron plates for nails pig-iron was melt
cd in a great furnace, and small army
of men stirred up the melted mass with
long rods until the impurities were
burned out and the iron became pasty
instead of liquid. By the new process
the melted pig-iron in a big pear-shaped
kettle is subjected to q powerful blast
of air, which is forced up through it
from the bottom, until the impurities
are burned out. Then another small
amount of melted pig-iron is poured
in, and the mixture is ready to be
cast into ingots. BY the old process,
twenty skilled men could turn out
fifteen tons of nail-plate in day, while
by the new process four common labor
ers and one skilled mechanic can turn
out from $50 to eco tons in day.
There is one thing that has not yet
been successfully made of steel, and
that is a propeller shaft for steam
ship. Experiments were made in En-
gland, and after considerable money
had been lost the attempt was aban-
doned. Then the wise men who were
going to rebuild the American navy
took up the abandoned idea and or
dered steel to be used in the shafts for
the new cruisers. John Roach object
ed, but the Advisory Board insisted,
and Roach gave the contract to other
parties. The Dolphin got her shaft,
and started on her trial trip up the
sound, and after short trip the shaft
broke. Then the plans of the other
cruisers were altered, and it is said the
change has involved fatal weakening
81 Al