The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-09-07
PHQUABBOCK PROGRESS.
Steady Advance in the
Great Newark Water
Project.
A NEW BED FOR THE STREAM.
Great Machinery at Work. Pipe
Lines Constructed to Last
Forever.
A NEW BED FOR THE STREAM.

last Tuexday the waters Of the Pc
quannoclI River found new channel for
ashort distance. The cutting through the
solid rock just east of where the dam for
the new reservoir of the East Jersey
Company will be built was completed
some time ago, and on Monday the ar
rargcmcnts for changing the channel of
the river were made. The water was
turned by q temporary dam and gradually
crept up the new channel devised. 1t was
some time before the river began TO make
its way through the cut, buG finally 1t APP
peared at the further end and may be
said to have then really begun its new
1ourneying. The cut is fifty feet deep at
It's deepest part and perhaps twenty feet
wide, and viewed from above the sight is
rather impressive one. The object of
turning the course of the river now is to
permit dry work on the big dam which is
now in course of construction. When the
reservoir is completed the cut will be the
wasteway of the dam In turning the
channel of the river into the new cut, care
was taken to avoid drought In the river
below, and so the diversion of the waters
was done slowly. 1t was watched with
great interest by all concerned in the
works.
THE PIPE LINE.
To furnish the conduit for the new
water suppiy called for the manufacture
of nearly thirty miles of wrought steel
pipes. four feet IN diameter. and of sufii-
cient thickness and tensile strength 60
stand a pressure Of fifty pounds 10 the
square inch. The contract for the manu-
faclure of this pipe was awarded to
Messrs Mckee g. Wilson, of Bethlehem,
Pa, and to avoid heavy freight on the
manufactured pipe, this company organ
10 inc nd
built an extensive plant on the suburbs of
Paterson, adjoining the Vreeland avenue
station on the Susqnehanna railroad.
A BIG PLANT.
Large buildings of frame, covered with
corrugated iron. were erected. with car
tracks running through them in every dl-
rection and travelling cranes overhead for
moving the sheets of steel and the heavy
pipes The main building, which 100 feet
wide and 240 feet long, is equipped with
all OF the machinery for making the pipe.
and an unusual feature of the equipment
is That every machine is duplicated, so
that a breakdown cannot interfere seri-
ously with the work
The sheets of steel from which the sec
tons of pipe are made are slightly over
Tx12 feet in dimensions and one-quarter
of an inch thick. The material ID mild
steel, with tensile strength of 10000
pounds to the square inch, and 1t is made
IN Carnegie's works in Pittsburg and
shipped to Paterson on fiat cars at the
rate of four carloads a week. The caDa-
city OF the pipe works is 300 feet every ten
hours, and great deal of finished pipe is
on hand ready for delivery. The machin-
cry for the work is chiefly from the shops
of Hilles q Jones. of Wilmington, Del
GREAT MACHINES.
The pair of machines which first at
tract attention are ponderous punches.
One clips out eight tree-quarter-inch
holes at a stroke and the other makes six.
This Is one Of the first operations. The
sheets of metal are scored for the punch
ing and laid on travelling bed or car
riage,- which runs under the
punched along all four edges
OF the sheet, and then it is passed to a
planer, where it is firmly clamped down
and the edges are beveled with two
strokes of the cutters. Passing the sheet
between three rollers converts it into q
cylinder with as much ease as boy
makes paper tube of a card. The meet
ing edges beyeled on opposite sides are
temporarily bolted together and
the cylinder is raised in the
air and dropped over the heavy
vertical anvil-stake of a hydraulic rivet-
ing machine which sets The hot rivets
with q beautifully finished head as fast
as they can be put in place and brought
under the hammer. -Four cylinders are
riveted together, making a section of
pipe twenty-eight feet in length. The
seams are ali caulked by portable by
draulfc device which does the work of
closing the seams inside aud out.
THE COVERING OF THE PIPES.
The next operation is coating the pipes
to protect them from rust. This is done
by dipping them in longitudinal kettles
of hot asphalt of a peculiar temper, which
will not permit it to run in hot weather
or chip off in cold. The asphalt comes
from near Los Angeles, Cal, and is
different from Trinidad asphalt In
many respects, being odorless, taste
less and plastic. When the twenty-eight-
foot lengths Of pipe are delivered on the
ground where they are to De ialo, four
lengths will be riyeted together and
rolled into the trench IN lengths OF about
los feet, except in situations where curves
have to be made or where the conforma-
ton of the ground renders it necessary TO
rivet each twenty-foot length separately
in the trench
THEY SHOULD LAST FOREVER.
When asked how long the pipes would
last. the superintendent of thepipe works
said that there was no reason why they
should not last forever. lie said that
quarter-inch steel would be used on the
upper levels, but in the low dlstricts'
where the pressure would be increased,
the metal would be three-eighths OF an
inch thick, and that throughout the
whole line the workmanship would De Oh
the best. de said that an inspector EN-
ployed by the company was constantly on
hand, and that not a drift pin was TO
be found In the shop. A drift pin
is tapered steel mandrel which IS some
times driven into the holes in the plates
to draw them together when they 20 not
exactly concur. This is not permitted In
good boiler shops, and if holes do not
meet they must be corrected by hand
roaming.
When asked what would be done with
the plant when the contract was COM
pleted, the SUPERINTENDENT said that more
pine work was expected, and that II 1t
did not come the plant was available for
making the best of steam boilers as
cheaply as any in the land.
CRANRERRTES PLENTY