Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1890-07-12
MAKING COTTON TIES.
The Process Employed In the New Minis
IL Down South. -

1851. ..l Down SOUTH ...#
The new rolling mill at Rome is
turning out ten tons of cotton ties a
day.
At this rate it will make enough to
band one-twelfth of the cotton crop,
and by running night and day, it will
supply one-sixth of the whole demand.
This is one OF the results of the Rome
boom two years ago, and the active
work of the business men to bring new
industries there. Mr.. Nevegold. the
president of the rolling mill, is Penn
sylvanian, who was raised in the man
ufacture of hoop iron, and knows all
the details of management by which
the business is made profitable. SOON
As we stood looking at the rolls
through which theibillets were passing
the white hot iron came out of the
next to the last roll long, thin, in
candescent hoop, which might have
been compared TO q fiery serpent,
Instead OF pulling it straight out and
sending 1t back through the last roll
by the reverse motion, the boy who
stood there seized the end with pair
of tongs as soon as 1t appeared and
bent it round him to the last roll,
which seized it and carried it through
in a second. Meantime he was stand
ing inside the fiery circle that whipped
by his legs SO fast that he seemed in
imminent danger OF having his calves
burned off.
THAT was the secret of my fathers
Success said Mr.. Nevegold; "when 1
was boy started that method more
from laziness than any thing else, and
became so expert at it that it was
regularly adopted. We found that we
could run it through the rolls quicker
and get better results that way, so we
have used that plan ever since.
1T is not necessary, however, for
the boy to stand there and bend the
hot hoop about his legs. 1 have a
guide box which leads it round to the
last roll and dispenses with the boy al
together. l will put that on by-and-
by."
This mill first takes pig iron of the
various grades used to make the tough
composition for cotton ties and pud-
dies it. Then it is hammered into
blooms, which are reheated and rolled
down into small billas.
These billets are cut into short pieces
and heated again. Passing through a
number iof rolls they come out at last
one thirty-second of an inch thick and
forty-six feet long They are then run
through a smoothing machine and
trimmed at the ends to o length OF
forty-four feet. This is cut into four
pieces and the ties made. All that re.
mains is to put them up in bundles OF
thirty, with thirty buckles strung
on one of the ties. The
thirty ties are placed in q
long fat box, just wide enough for two
layers of fifteen to lie side by side.
The buckles are put on one of the in
side ties and the whole pile is doubled
over and bound with short pieces Of
hoop iron. The process of bundlin2
usually takes two minutes, and an OK.
pest can put up bundle in one min
ute. 1t takes four hundred bundles tc
make the days output of ten tons, and
one hand can about keep up with the
ties as they come out of the cutting
machine.
The pudding is done at night tC
avoid the heat. A singular fact il
this connection is that the puddler:
don't suffer from heat as much here as
they do in Pennsylvania.
81 don't know why it is" said Mr.
Nevegold, but they do not seem to
get overheated so easily. 1t is not
such an overpowering heat here as in
the North-not so suffocating."
Possibly this is due to a greater hui
midity in Pennsylvania. Whatever il
is, the men feel the difference very
greatly and are better able to stand VI
to their work in hot weather. -Atlant;
Constitution #r.H .I. .rs.