Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-06-21
ECONOMY OF AIRP0WER
SURPRISING NUMBER OF USES TO
WHICH 1T is PUT.

SURPRISING NUMBER or uSeS ~
WHICH IT Is PUT.
a Spraying Machine That Has Vastly Re-
Guced the Cost of Labor for Painting
Cars - Dustlng Coach Seats by; Com
pressed Air-Other Novel Applications.
Although there is "a great deal OF
doubt in the minds of engineers about
the immediate displacement of horses
by air-d1iven automobile trucks, there
is no dispute as to the value and han
diness of compressed air for "a host of
other purposes, and particularly rs
means of distributing power about
shops, factories, mines and for idredg-
ing and excayating operations. One
of the most interesting of recent de-
scriptions of such uses is contained In
o paper read before the Western Rail-
way club by Mr.. B. Haskell, superin-
tendent of motive power of the Chi
cago & Western Michigan railway.
Mr.. Haskell says he took an old
locomotive boiler for an air reservoir
and attached to this a six-inch and an
( eight-inch sair pump and kept up a
pressure of air of eighty pounds tothe
inch. With this he did variety OF
work.
eve began, u he says, ''using air
for the purpose of testing our loco
motive boilers to maximum pressure,
for blowing ou' steam pipes, steam
ports and cylinders, previous to put
ting in pistons, and for the purpose of
running locomotives from the machine
shop to the roundhouse, and vice YER
sa. To load a car with wheels on
skids required the time of six men for
one hour and half, the equivalent OF
nine hours. for one man at 3 cost OF
S1.02. With the uso of an air hoist
four men can do the work in twenty
minutes, at cost of Is cents, saw
ing of 81 cents per carload. aAll heavy
castings are quickly loaded or un-
loaded, as the case may be, with the
air hoist, thus reducing the cost of
handling, material on. and off car fully
so per cent. f.ff n !ii}i
~ During the fall of 1896 we in
stalled the Leslie ire-kindler. This
also required twenty pounds of air to.
force the fuel oil to the burners; by
the use of air aud the fre-kindler we
reduced the cost of fire kindling in a
locomotive to 9. 81 cents for wood to
I.27 cents in favor OF the kindler op-
Grated by air., a saving of S.2f cents
per fire kindled. About this time we
began to frost-ourrown deck glass for
passenger equipment by the use OF
the sand blast. We are able to frost
deck glass. for 10 cents per glass,
labor and MATERIAL saving OF 60
cents. Our attention was next at
tracted to the useIof air for busting
coach seats, seat backs, carpets and
the interior of passenger cars. One
man can remove the cushions and seat
backs and thoroughly dust them, and
also blow all the dust out of the in,
terror OF the coach and have the car
ready for service in three hours and
do much better job than is possible
by the old way, which required ten
hours. In this operation we save 81
cents per coach cleaned.
"By the use of pneumatic hammers
we have reduced the cost of beading
set of hues from So so by haud to
72 cents by the air device. BY the use
of mir motors we have reduced the
cost of tapping staybolt holes and
screwilg in staybolts from $500 by
hand 10 $3.50 per new frebox. It
would also cost SIT. Is, per frebo1 to
drill the end of staybolts; with the
air motors it cost Sa:62, "a saving zof
S13.16. Another advantage gained is
the difference in time now required TO
apply a new SfreboS and the time re-
! quired before using compressed air,
we can now give an engine a general
overhauling, including new frebox,.
In less than thirty days. A few years.
ago it required sixty to- seventy days
to. do the same work. We;use, COM
pressed air with portable forges for
heating the rivets, also for straighten-
: ing locomotive frames, when bent by
accident, without taking them off the
engine. We also use air and gas for
removing and applying driving wheel
tires. We can remove q set of tires
for so cents and apply set for 81 IL
cents. This does not include labor,
but on account of the convenience of
the arrangement the cost of labor is
reduced materially.
''Since the introduction OF the paint
: spraying machines we, have reduced
the cost ofllabor for painting cars APP
A.proximately 92 per cent. We use the
same spraying machine for white
washing at cost, for labor and ma
terial on plain surfaces, of one cent
per square yard. We have our freight
yard, OF cripple tracks, equipped with
air. HereHwe use the spraying ma
chine on freight cars. and test air
brakes on freight and passenger >lnip-
ment. We also use on these tracks,
aud to great advantage, air motors for
boring holes necessary i'll the applica-
tion of air brakes and for other re-
pairs to cars. We have "a device for
pressing jaws Of botton1 connections
aud push rods of air brakes into i1-2
inch pipe and then crimping the pipe
to the malleable iron jaw; this also is
operated by air. We have number
of small r-breast drills which we use
for drilling the ends of staybolts, ETC.,
man receiving "A cents an hour
drills from twenty-eight to thirty. stay
bolts an hour. -