The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-30
TO SAVE OUR SKY SCRAPERS.
EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY BY
An ITALIAN ENGINEER.

He Can stop Crystnliizatton-By an
Accident in a Barber shop He Dis
covered How to Cure n Tired" Ra-
zOr-SteeI and Iron in Time From
Overwork Become Likely to Crum-
BILE as Does Brittle GIass-Such "A
Phenomenon Caused the Terrible
Christmas Disaster at the Tay
Bridge In Scotland and May some
Day Result in bodybuilding
Horror.
New York Oct. 27.-Scientific engineers
have been much preoccupied by danger
that logically must exist In the sky-scrap-
er The whole strength and substance of
this class Of buildings are in the steel and
iron framework which forms the feat
ure of their construction. And steel and
wrought iron when put to certain uses
have an uncanny tendency to lose their
most valuable properties. Under particu-
lar conditions they are liable TO become
as worthless, as far as resistance is con-
cerned, as thin glass or paper-mache.
over and over again bridges built Of
steel have collapsed, thick piston-shafts
in transatlantic liners have snapped like
50 many wands. and driving rods on steam
engines have given way in the most I'M
accounta bic manner. The phenomenon to
which this is due is called by engineers
the disqualification of the steel and
wrought iron. They have not been able
TO explain il. They simply know that it
is there and they have given it a name.
The steel in a sky-scraper is exactly in
the conditions which are favorable to crys-
tanization. These buildings are of com
paratively recent invention. and in none
of them, fortunately, has a catastrophe yet
occurred TO act as a warning. But the
danger is there and worse than all, the
tests which can usually be applied where
capitalization is suspected, are here out
of the question.
On Brooklyn bridge and other structures
of the kind, in the engine rooms of steam
ers, in factories where big machinery is
used, engineers make periodical tours of
Inspection and test the hard metals. Out
-wardly the steel is as solid and resisting
as ever, but a blow of light hammer on
a shaft four inches in diameter will some
times smash it as If 1t had been a slender
rod of glass. This Is when the steel is
crystallized.
Testing Is Impossible.
In our lofty buildings there can be no
testing with a hammer as the steel is
coated with brick or stone. Herein is the
great danger to the "sky-scraper"
Many and many a mysterious accident
in the past was due to this strange pecu-
liarity of the hard metals All che world
learned with shudders of horror the dra-
matte details of that tragic catastrophe,
when on a stormy Christmas Eve the Tay
bridge opened in its center and a trainful
of holiday passengers was precipitated to
an awful doom. The storm had only a
trifling share in the disaster. 1t was the
specialization of the steel supports on
the bridge which caused the dreadful ca
lamity.
An Italian electrical engineer, Signor
Emilio Faelli, who made a fortune in this
country, and has now returned to his ma
tive land to enjoy it, has just made a
discovery which is of the utmost interest
in the present connection. Signor Faelli
has found out means of effectively pre-
venting erystallization, and one. he says.
which is just as applicable to sky-scrapers
as to bridges or ordinary machinery.
The subject had engaged his attention
while he was yet in this country, but ii
was only on his native soil that he was
able to devote that study to il which has
finally resulted in success.
"Tired" Bridges Collapse.
A bridge at Setro Ponente, about ten
miles TO the north of Genoa, collapsed on
three different occasions within a dozen
years. Another bridge near Pavia had only
just been constructed and was being test
ed, when it snapped in the middle, and
nearly two hundred persons ran the risk
of being drowned Both were metal
bridges, into the construction of which
steel supports largely entered. over the
former bridge a heavy railroad traffic
daily passed, and the latter was parallel
and quite close to stone bridge used
exclusively for goods trains
Sgnor Faellfs reasoning was that crys-
tallization Of the steel had begun in both
cases and that, at least in part, it must
have been due TO the shock or vibration
due 10 the great railroad traffic On this
hypothesis he started to study the exact
nature of crystallization and the remedy
that might be applied to it,
Steel" argued the engineer, lies OBJ
viously on the borderland of crystalliza-
ton. 1t is, however, the metal which from
its wonderful quality of tenacity, is most
applicable 10 the general run of metaflic
structures. That very tenacity is mainly
due 10 a slight admixture of carbon. And
The action of the carbon can only be "a
change The ordinary molecular structure
of the original iron. The effect of vibration
consequently can only be to disturb the
carbon The property Of tenacity is then
lost, and the result in the new disposition
OF the atoms is termed by us crystalliza-
ton"
How He Began to search.
The Italian engineer started his research
IS by endeavoring to find something which
by admixture with crucible iron would pre-
vent oxidation. On this he has had much
success. He hopes to take out patents or
his discoveries i'm the matter, and is con.
sequently not yet ready to make it pub.
JIG.
But the subject wherein he has achieved
a Veritable triumph, and which is now fol
the first time published in the present ar.
ticfe, namely the solution Of the mystery
of capitalization, was due at the outset
10 a mere accident.
Awaiting his turn in BARRIERS shop il
Pavia one day a few months ago he heare
the knight of the razor grow vehementl
abusive because his best blade would no
do its ordinary work. In America he hat
heard BARRIERS talk of tired razor" ans
here he was in the presence of a simila
phenomenon, and it set him thinking. I
is a long time since it was first observed
that a Iigh-gra6A raZOr eDp1etir,as -,;,..