Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-07-03

first stacked in piles ON floor made of
grating near the watts and clean water
is turned on them until all the acid
clinging to the outside of the rods has
been washed off.
1t is still necessary, however, to
further remove all traces of the acid
which the rods may have absorbed, and
this is a difficult matter.
The rods are first lowered into vat
filled with lime and water, which is
kept hot by steam coils and allowed to
remain there until coating of lime
adheres TO them. This requires but a
few minutes, and then the coils are
piled on trucks of iron and run into
what are called the baking ovens.
These are mado of brick, being about
twenty five feet long. eight feet wide
and six feet high and having doors at
both ends. Two parallel tracks ex-
tend through the length of the ovens,
and both of these tracks are filled
with trucks full of rods. The doors of
the oven are closed and the rods are
allowed to bake for about two hours
at a low temperature-about 200 or
$50 degrees. This baking or heating,
together with the action of the lime
already put ON the rods, drives the
acid out of them and returns to the
rod it's original ductility. The trucks
are drawn out of the oven at the op-
posite end from which they were put
in and are taken Immediately to the
scales and weighed, after which they
are turned over to the wire drawers.
The rods now have the appearance of
having been whitewashed, owing to
the lime which has been put ON them.
AS the rods are weighed a truckful
| is delivered to each wire-drawer, a
record being made of the weight and
the man to whom it is given. who is
paid from $1.10 to $1.15 a ton for
drawing the wire on the basis of these
weights. The average man will draw
two and one half tons day, and an
exceptionally quick worker draw three
tons.
The wire. drawers are arranged in
lines of twenty or thirty men to each
line, depending on the length of the
room. Before each man, on bench or
table about three feet from the floor,
is cast-iron reel, having twelve or
eighteen inch face and a flange two
and one-half or three inches wide at
the bottom. By means of cog wheels
connected with shaft which runs the
whole length of the room this reel is
made to revolve with considerable
force. requiring pull of from twelve
to fifteen horse power to stop it. To
one side of this reel, and directly in
front of the workman, is the wire
plate through which the wire is
drawn. This is an oblong piece of
steel about one and one-fourth inches
thick, eight or ten inches long. and
perhaps four inches wide. with a
handle ON one end. Through the
middle of this plate are two rows of
holes. six in each row, through which
the wire is passed. The holes on the
front or side toward the workman are
about half an inch in diameter, but
taper gradually to the opposite side Of
the plate, where they are just the size
of the wire to be drawn. The reason
of having SO many holes in each plate
is to make it last longer. as after the
wire has been drawn through one hole
for a time it soon wears too large, SO
the wire is made overgauge. By fire.
quently gauging the wire the work
man notices when this occurs and then
runs the wire through another hole and
so on until all the holes are worn too
large, when the plate is sent to what
is called the battering room. There it
is heated in a furnace and then put
under small steam hammer and
pounded or battered on the one side
where the holes are the smallest until
they are nearly closed up. After the
plates have cooled the holes are
punched out with punches, which are
accurately kept to the different gauges.
This makes it possible to use the plate
over and over again until it cracks
through the center, when it is con-
signed to the scrap heap. It is a
peculiar fact that no one in the United
States has yet succeeded in making
plates which give good satisfaction. it
being necessary to import them from
Europe, where they are made of high
grade STEEL
The plate is held in perpendicular
position on it's edge in front of the
workman by means of small rack and
clamps. The workman takes coil of
rods from the trucks and throws it
over wooden reel on the floor,
although some wire-drawers prefer to
stand the coil of rods on edge and
allow it to lean against post OF some
other convenient support. The end
of the rod is then put in the pointing
machine, which in reality is small
steam hammer. and the end for a dis
lance of three or four inches is pounded
down to a small size. The WIRE
drawer then pushes this end through
one of the holes in the wire plate and
with pair of pincers, attached to
lever operated by steam-power, pulls
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