The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-03-31

most of the time at the Coast overlooking
the construction of new steamers, found
the break in the cylinder in the regular
course of inspection. The flaw was more a
natural wear than anything else. The
piece had been in use fifteen years. The
contract for casting a new cylinder was
given without delay to the Iron Works
Company from figures made by Manager
Hedeman and head Accountant Kennedy.
Since the order was accepted the Iron
Works Company has kept a number Of its
most skillful men on the job night and
day. The men take the keenest interest
in an affair of this sort. The critical
climax comes on the day of casting. If
single mold is placed wrong, if the stream
from the cupalo is too hot or too cold, If
there is a sudden turn of the weather,
if there is the most trif1ing carelessness
anywhere, the entire work, involving sew
eral thousand dollars, may be total
failure This big casting looked all right
yesterday and the men who had made it
a part of their lives for four weeks were
confident that it would prove successful.
Besides the manager and his immediate
lieutenants, the heads of three depart
ments at the Iron Works are important
men, with great responsibility, in a mat
ter of this character First the patterns
are made. In this room, II. c. Reid is
the veteran foreman. His establishment
is fine art carpenter shop and wood
working mill. He and his men make,
from blueprints, the castings for the
molds. California redwood is the favored
material. Thos. Smith is the chief Of
the lnolders. Everyone knows that the
Iron Works Company imports a lot of
sand for molding. The large majority of
people are under the impression that when
a pattern is ready, this sand, perhaps
slightly moistered, is packed around the
form, that then the form is withdrawn
and the molten metal poured in. Well.
the sand is only portion of the mold
composition. Every year the Iron Works
Company uses tons of flour and thousands
of gallons of molasses to mix with the
imported sands for molding. Once made
the molds are baked in huge oven and
then faced with plumbago. They are
then almost like iron. Mr.. Smith looks
after all this, and much more. This
new high pressure cylinder will weigh
out in the neighborhood of four tons. To
be certain of enough metal, with several
technical allowances, the head molder had
ffvz4 tons of iron melted up for the run.
1t was picked scrap, too. Old castings
are smashed up down there in rather
primitive way. They are laid out under
a tripod derrick and a massive weight
is hauled up by steam and dropped on
them. A casting like the high pressure
cylinder is quite open and cools rapidly in
comparison to the setting of a roller,
for instance. After the casting is released
by the chief molder it goes to the head
man of the machine shops, Mr.. Cushing
ham, in this instance. He must see that
the trimming and finishing are properly
done. On a large piece like the cylinder
twenty-five or thirty men are employed
under the direction of the master mechan-
ic for couple of days. When a job like
this is completed, it is a handsome thing
to look upon-new and shining, a tribute
to the skill of a whole lot of trained and
careful men who take the greatest pride
in their work. When the cylinder is de-
livered to the Wilder Company, Engineer
Johnson places it in the Kinau. This part
will be done in quite a rush, for the pre-
sent is the busy season with the company
in the transportation line and the vacation
of the Kinau means a lot of idle money-a
considerable loss.
There are buster times at the Iron
Works here these days than even on any
of the big plantations with grinding in
full blast Twenty-Five new men came to
the Works by the Moana yesterday, but
there will be no stoppage of overtime
operations. Men come from the Coast
readIIy, leaving certain positions up there,
because the wages are better and the
hours shorter here.
a steamship man who was at the Works
yesterday while the Advertiser reporter
was making a visit said that it was be-
coming palmer every day that it would
be necessary for the Works to complete
its marine repair department. This
place is station in ocean business said
he, land must be equipped to do the
work Here they have work for the
Klondike steamer. That ship would have
drifted about on the Pacific for month
or six weeks unless it was able to get it's
work done here. The Honolulu Iron
Works has saved those people from max
ing failure of the voyage. The same
thing has happened dozen times in
few years"
One of the gentlemen heavily interested
in the Works hinted that the marine re-
pair department was to be enlarged.
Work is piled everywhere about the
Foundry. In the boiler making annex
men are using from a recently arrived
shipment or order of 1900 tons of steel
plate. Nearly all of this is going into
water pipe for various plantations. Five
teams have been at work for some time
hauling this material from the wharves.
The steel was shipped from New York to
Panama, thence to San Francisco, then
down here in the sugar and other packets.
Besides the rush or emergency work on
the Klondike steamer, the Iron Works
people are making some pieces of engine
for the local Electric Light Works.
Probably half a hundred men are labor
ing in various ways on rollers for Oahu