The record-union., 1896-08-02

The fire in the box is urged by the
blast produced from the exhaust by the
engines cylinders, which is conducted
TO the firebox by pipes, and the heat is
thus rendered intense, the blast answer
ing the purpose of a bellows, and the
chug, chug of the locomotive is really
caused by the escape blast from the cyl
inder which finds an exit through the
smokestack of the locomotive.
Such is the work the boilermakers are
called on to perform day after day and
year after year in the boiler shop of the
Southern Pacific Company's plant in
this city. And while the boiler has be-
come larger, stronger, more service
able, and by experiments, better adapt
ed for locomotive purposes, the mthods
and tools of the workman have like
wise advanced until, with other nine
teenth century innovations, the me-
chanics are enabled to turn off more
and better work in day than could be
done in two thirty years ago.
Foremost among the tools of the shop
are four ten-ton cranes which receive
their motor power from a single-action
hydraulic pump that is capable of Civ
ing pressure of 200 pounds to the
square inch. BY means of these cranes,
which are handled with the great
ease, the majority of the heavy work is
lifted and swung into place, thus OBJ
waiting the enormous muscular strength
which would necessarily be expended
without them
Then there are three pairs of shears
used for cutting boiler plates, or sheets,
into any shape desired with startling
rapidity thus relegating the old chisel
and hammer process to a back seat.
The jaws Of the shears are so set that
boiler plates of any thickness up to
three-quarter inch are shipped off, and
If the jaws become old and worn out,
a draft is made upon the machine shop,
another pair easily inserted, and the
same old shipping process proceeds, the
plates being carried out and on to the
next machine, where the holes for the
rivets are punched in the proper places.
The punches are four in number, and
are designed especially for making the
holes for rivets in boiler plate. Each
of them are capable of punching a
smooth, even hole one and one-sixteenth
inches in diameter through three-quart-
er inch cold iron or steel plate, and with
no perceptible effort whatever
Ready to hand for use at any of these
machines is a crane of two tons ca
pacity with which heavy plates and
other work may be shifted without ex-
traordinary labor.
But the iron and steel which is manu-
factured into boilers does not come from
the mines in sheets ready for the shears;
and as nature has not provided for such
an exigency. art has been resorted to,
and three pairs of rolls have been put
in the shop, the largest of which IS
twelve feet in length, with rolls fourteen
inches in diameter, and each pair Of rolls
is capable of turning out sheets Of iron
and steel into any desired thickness up
TO three-quarters of an inch.
While in complicated pieces the old
style of riveting is still of necessity re-
sorted to, there is a machine in the shop
which may be justly termed one of the
greatest labor savers of the century.
and it is used in doing the riveting
work on large boilers or plates. 1t is
a hydraulic riveting machine, having
a six-foot post, and receives its power
from double action hydraulic pump
whi.h provides a pressure of 1,O0O
pounds to the square inch. In connec-
tion with this machine is a crane which
has a lifting capacity Of ten tons, and
by its means the heaviest boiler is shift
"a into any desired position with the
greatest dispatch. The pressure post
laay also be manipulated in a radius
and at an angle, its @sefulness thereby
being greatly enhanced. BY the hand
process a man will drive from thirty
u thirty-hve rivets in an hour, but the
machine steps in and does the work of
three men with practically no expendi-
tlire of energy, driving 100 rivets an
hour. and driving them well.
But me machine does not do all of the
r.yeting work in the shop by any means,
md the riveter with his button-set and
Gushing hammers still makes the air
7.-re with the vigOr of his lusty blows,
s.hie the "holder-on" or ''man-upon-
tae-inside" still holds his sledge or dolly
bar upon the head Of the r1vet while it
.. being so unulercifully beaten and
rounded off on the exterior Of the boiler,
the whsle ne causas a cotton famine and
a rise IN prices all along the line by stuff
ing his ears full OF that article and hear
ing through his teeth.
As has before been said. all of the
welded. and here the ingenuity of the
mechanic has again been brought into
4lav. with the result that in the shop
are a number OF tube welding machines
which does the work quickly, and no
doubt remains as to the thoroughness
after the test Of the hydraulic pressure
aegregaAing 200 pounds TO the square
inch to which each tube is subjected be-
fore being placed in position in the
boiler.
The machines are adapted for weld
;,,,, tnhes from one and one-half TO three
inches in diameter, and have capacity
for welding fifty two-inch tubes day
not bad work, this, when compared to
the Old. tedious process of hand weld
ing.
Compressed air forms no small part of
the power used in the boiler shop. and
an air machine is called into requisiti0n
for putting in and tapping staybolts.
Then there is another machine used for
cutting off these same staybolts, and 1t
will easily perform the work of ten men.
It's motor power is also compressed air
supplied from double-action pumps.
One OF the particular branches of
labor that falls TO the lot Of the boiler
maker is the building and repairs of the
locomotive firebox. which, as it Is sub
jected 10 a very high degree of heat,
sooner or later burns out. AS a conse-
Quence. vast numbers are needed each
year, and the average number of new
ones turned out of the shop annually
IS about fifty, and the total number
repaired foots up great many more.
While the majority OF the work done
in the boiler shop and it's auxiliaries is