The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-19

air machine with the supply pipes is q
rubber hose, and when the air has
done its work IL can be turned loose
with advantage. There is no danger
If tube bursts, as from steam, or IL
the covering be worn off, as with cleo
tricity. In some shops each lathe or
other tool has it's air engine, and the
operator has but to turn a cock to
control its movements. In others. each
big tool has it's crane. worked by air,
by which the work is placed in the
tool or taken out or carried from place
to place. In some shops these lifts are
plain cylinders and pistons, hung from
overhead railroads, and when the work
has been lifted by letting air i'm under
the piston a cock is turned, the hose
disconnected, and the whole lift and
its load wheeled along, and the load
deposited as gently as one likes by
simply letting the air escape again out
of the cock.
Air lifts are of the greatest use in
the foundry, where they take the place
of men to lift the copes or upper parts
of the moulding TASKS, to take the
patterns out of the moulds, or to place
cores in position. The air power for
these purposes works SO delicately that
to pattern the most intricate forms
with a success which could not be OBJ
tanned in any other way. When it
comes to the pouring of the metal air
handles the great pots of glowing iron
with the same delicacy. When the
castings have been made, air lifts them
from their bed, and blast of it laden
with sharp sand cleans them more
quickly than they have ever been
cleaned by other means.
RANGE OF ITS USE.
The range of it's use is enormous. The
little tool with which the dentist COM
pacts the films of gold leaf in tooth
may be driven by it, and it is the
medium which controls the action of
the biggest cannon when these are
mounted on disappearing gun car
riages. This country'S monitor, the
Terror. has all her most important
parts controlled by air. She is steered
by compressed air. her guns are loaded
and trained by it, and her turrets.
Weighing hundreds of tons are moved
by it, The principle upon which the
automatic hammer of the dentist is
made is the same as that used in the
rock drill, and it is the basis of the
application of compressed air to many
interesting tools. The post which holds
the actual tool in these machines is
not moved directly by the air, but just
above it lies a plunger which is vi
brated back and forth by the air, and
this strikes blows on the head of the
working tool when the tool is pressed
back against it.
Among the tools made in this form
are riveters for setting up the rivets
which hold together steam boilers, the
framework Of iron bridges, and of the
bird-cage framed skyscrapers: more
| over, such tools are used to the entire
exclusion of hand riVeting in many Of
the largest machine shops, boiler works,
and in shipyards where steel ships are
built. Another tool of the same sort
is for upsetting and calking the seams
in boilers and ships, and modification
of this is used to knock the scale off
old boiler plates
For the marble and stone worker
| tools of this sort are made which far
excel any hand tool One of these is
an automatic facing tool. which pre-
pares the slabs of stone for the hand
worker, and the other takes the place
of the mallet and chisel for fine work.
.
presses the tool to the face Of the stone.
In exact response to his pressure, the
air is admitted to work the plunger in
side. and every one of the 10000 blows
| a minute which the plunger strikes is
! graded absolutely by the hand of
| the operator. The oscillations of a
! plunger working crosswise are used in
! other tools to drive a cutter and a
horse clipping knife is made for use
| in this country and the same sort of
| tool is used in Australia for sheep
| shearing. One man with this knife can
! do as much as two or three men with
| the cid shears. and the clip is better
| and more valuable, because nearer be-
| ing even.
PORTABLE TOOLS.
Another class of portable tools has
proved of great value in the shops. In
| it the air drives a rotary motor, and
| this operates drills, reamers and screw
cutting taps. Two men with one of
| these machines will tap the holes and
| put in 700 stay bolts in a boiler in a
| day. Many useful machines are oper-
ated by applying to them a simple
| cylinder and piston worked by air at
| fifty to eighty pounds pressure to the
| square inch. There are great shears
| worked in this way which will bite off
| the end of the big steel beams that are
! seen going into bridges or buildings,
and little shears which one man can
use to cut out the old stay bolts on
boilers. There are punches worked in
| this way and jacks for lifting car bod
les and similar things, and presses
| which do all sorts Of things, from form
! ing the top of tin can to putting car
| wheels on their aNles. 1t is a simple
| cOntrivance of the same sort which
| operates the air brakes on railroad
cars, and this is probably the greatest
| of modern improvements in railroad
ing.
| Compressed air serves many more
| purposes in operating railroads. The
| conductor signals to the engineer by
| its means, the fireman may ring the
| engine bell in the same way and the
| signals and switches along the line may
be operated by it. There is at least one
car which has seat cushions and mat
tresses made so that they can be in
fiated with air from the brake supply
by merely opening a cock in the car
and the seats thereby transformed at
| will into beds.
Compressed air is one of the most i'm
portant factors in keeping cars clean.
After the sWeepers and scrubbers have
done their work, the duster comes
along. There are crevices where a
feather duster would not reach, but a
jet of air one-tenth of an inch in diam
eter will reach every place and, pro-
jected with force, will carry out every
~