The Portland daily press., 1898-06-25
ENGLISH BAYONETS.
An Interesting Account of How They
Are Made.

The Process From the Raw Material to
the Finished Product-Their hIanufao-
ture Is Almost as Fatal to Life as Their
Use In Times of War.
A writer in the London News, in an &C.
Bount of visit to the Enfield Small Arms
factory, gives the following interesting 40
count of how bayonets are made:
1t is big business, this bayonet max
ing, The raw material comes In the form
of bars of steel, which are out up into the
necessary lengths and rolled The strips
of steel are then borne off to tremendous
press, which stamps one end for the
ttang," and from there they go to the
grinding department. of the factory. Here,
in the first place, rather numbering look
ing "troughing" machine automatically
scours the edges with emery until the en-
bryo sword bayonet will just fit into a
gauge or trough" This insures that the
metal is exactly the proper size and shape.
Next comes the grinding by hand on
the big grindsSones, of which there are 80
in one long skylighted building, each
weighing, when new, couple of tons,
though of course they rapidly wear away,
as we'll as the grinders employed at them.
These men sit astride their seats as they
would on horseback, bending toward the
whetstones that whirl round at speed of
something like $500 times minute,
when they are full size-about two-thirds
of a mile minute.
Woe betide the unlucky grinder If there
should happen to be flaw in the stone.
Whirling round at such pace the centri-
fugal strain upon it is, of course, very
great, and if the stone were not pretty
sound it would fly to pieces as they are
known to do occasionally in such places
There has been at least one occurrence of
the kind at Enfield. Such burst up is as
destructive in the line of motion as can
non would be, and the stones in this build
ing are arranged SO as to minimize the
mischief of such mistake. Each is in
spected every morning before starting
work.
1t is not the bursting of the stones, how
ever, that constitutes the greatest peril to
the workmen here. Men cannot be bend
ing over sword blades that are being rub
bed away in brilliant trails Of sparks all
day long year after year without getting
Accommodations of steel dust into the lungs,
and If the truth could be known it might
be found that the making of the weapons
for European armies and navies is almost
as deadly as the use of them. 1t Is said,
however, to be partly the men S own fault
A good deal of the mischief might be OBJ
waited by the use of magnetized respira-
tors, but they won't wear them or goggles
Tor the eyes, either.
All the work here Is done by the piece
and the men are of opinion that these pro-
tectors seriously interfere with their earn
ings, SO that, like good many more of us
In different ways they kill themselves in
order that they may live. Probably by the
time that we have learned to do without
bayonets, we shall also have learned to be
content to give man fair living for the
best he can honestly do without choking
himself with steel dust.
If one takes in hand one of these modern
sword bayonets which have superseded the
old three correred skewers, he will see
that it is a fat blade each side of which
has central ridge between two hollows.
These hollows are ground out of the solid
steel by milestone ribbed all round spe-
cially for the purpose, these ribs or ridges
in the surface of the stone corresponding
to the hollows in the blade. When the
grinding has been carried up to a certain
point, the weapon or the piece of steel in
process OF becoming the weapon is carried
to another department to undergo some
change in it's composition. Thus far it
has been o piece of ordinary cast steel.
Now that the thing has been rolled and
stamped and ground into it's general form
it has to be hardened. For this purpose 1T
is put into sort of bakers oven-an
oven, that is to say, that is divided by a
fire brick wall into two parts-one for the
F-oo ia 0thar for tho Of %bo
steel to be heated
The weapons lie in here and get redhot
and then are plunged into bath Of oil
which has stream of cold water running
round it to keep down the temperature.
This hardens the steel, but leaves it brittle.
1t would snap off if any attempt were
made to bend it. 1t has. therefore, to be
tempered by plunging it into molten lead.
This gives it the necessary elasticity and
hexibility. and it comes out of its leaden
bath lovely blue color, a real sword blade,
but onlya blade and somewhat rough, too,
and without any edge. 1t goes back to the
grinding room now for the finishing touch,
to get something approximating to a cut
ting edge, not sufficient for purposes of
war, but such as may be safely intrusted
to soldiers in piping times of peace.
NAOA oAiO ginning AAiSuGu, IL Only re-
mains to polish the blades and to mount
them with "orosspieces'' and "pommels, %
"grips" and Springs" that will convert
the mere blade into veritabIe sword bay
onet and permit of its being attached to
the rife The polishing looks as though
1t must be mere detrimental to the health
OF the workman than the grinding, be-
cause 1t Is all dry work, whereas the grind
stones are run in a trough of water The
polishing is done by means of small wood
en- wheels, covered with bands of leather
with an emery surface, and every wheel
throws off trail of sparks that gives the
vast floor on which the work is carried on
an almost uncanny appearance. There is
great amount Of dust given off, too. Init
the greater part of it is sucked away from
the workmen's wheel by powerful re-
yolving fan operating through an air
channel, running along beneath the
benches, SO that the mischief is probably
reduced to a minimum. 1t is a most in
teresting place for a leisurely stroll. full of
queer machinery and curious processes