The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-07-10
The Uses of Iron.

An important fact in approaching the
consideration of the future of the iron
interests in Virginia and the South,
is the multiplied new uses to which
iron products are being appropriated.
As giving reasonable conception of
the growing Importance of iron man
ufactures, we take from the RailaOdy
Register Record the following state
ment:
OF all the reports read before the Master Car
Builders Convention at Old Point Comfort, Va,
last week, there was probably none fuller OF
prophetic suggestion than that of the commit
tee steel plates and malleahle iron in car
construction.
In concluding its report the committee said;
I'VE believe that the extensive use of malleable
iron and steel in the details of wooden cars will
result in the gradual disappearance OF wood,
and we expect in a few years that iron or steel
under frames and plate steel trucks will be gen
orally introduced in the United States"
This belief, SO distinctly expressed, is well
founded upon the history of the past and the
experiences of the present 1t is interesting to
review the successive steps by which the rail-
way enterprise of this country has advanced
here.
When, more than half century ago. the first
railway cars were set In motion over primitive
tracks, those tracks were made of longitudinal
timbers, with only a thin iron strap to with
stand the wear. Wood was used everywhere
lavishly, and iron was employed as aparingly as
possible
Finally the wooden, iron-faced track gave
way to the iron rail- and the latter in turn to the
steel. This latter transition ia still In progress
for many miles Of American road are still laid
with iron rails. The superiority of steel is how
ever, generally conceded.
But the change from the iron strap to the 7
rail was not more remarkable than has been the
development of the latter. The growth of rail-
way traffic has compelled the doubling of the
weight of rails upon the important trunk lines
of the country. In the place of rails weighing
30 and 40 pounds per lineal yard, 80 and 80-pound
rails haye come into use. And in all quarters
to-day the movement is towards greater weight
This greater substantially of roadway has
grown out of larger and more powerful locomo-
tives. And in the construction of these ponder
GUS machines the demand for iron and steel has
Increased.
IN keeping with the general movement to-
ward superior road-bed, iron and steel bridges
have been substituted for the wooden structures
which were at an early day deemed suitable
Thus in the use of heavy rails, the construction
of mammoth locomotives and the building of
iron and steel viaducts have railway enterprises
augmented the demand for those METALS This
"a q consideration distinct from that OF the de
mand created by the growth of the railway sys-
tenn in this country.
The use of iron and steel for cross-ties and
car construction is still in tentative state, blu
it seems altogether likely that the near future
will witness the disuse of wood for these pur-
poses to very great extent. 80
The general distribution OF iron ore through
out the land is subject for congratulation. The
increase of our railway system and the transit
ton of methods will steadily increase the de-
mand for iron products