Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-07-20
ECONOMY OF AIR POWER.
SURPRiSrS NUMBER OF USES TO
WHICH 1T is PUT.

Spraying Machine That Has Vastly Re-
duced the Cost of Labor for Painting
Cars Dusting Coach Seats by Com
pressed Air-Oiher Novel Applications.
Although there is q great deal of
doubt in the minds of engineers about
the imm mediate displacement of horses
by air-driven automobile trucks, there
is no dispute as to the value and han
diness of compressed air for host of
other purposes, and particularly as a
means of distributing power about
shops, factories, mines and for dredg-
ing and excavating operations. One
of the most interesting of recent de-
scriptions of such uses is contained in
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 six-inch and an
eight-inch air pump and kept up a
pressure of air of eighty pounds to the
inch. With this he did q variety of
work.
eve began" he says, "using air
for the purpose of testing our loco
motive boilers to maximum pressure,
for blowing ont 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 ver-
81. To load a car with wheels on
| cly i,la r.,1,,:r01 4h.D g fo,y 60
one hour and half, the equivalent of
nine hours for one man at a cost of
$l.02. With the use 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. All heavy
castings are quickly loaded or uu
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.
During the fall of 1895 we in
stalled the Leslie fre-kindler. This
also required twenty pounds Of air to
force the fuel oil to the burners; by
the use of air and the fre.kindler we
reduced the cost of fire kindling in
locomotive to 9.54 cents for wood to
1.27 cents in favor OF the kinder OPP
Grated by air, saving of S.27 cents
per fire kindled. About this time we
began to frost our own deck glass for
passenger equipment by the use of
the sand blast. We are able to frost
a deck glass for II cents per glass,
labor and material-a saving of 60
1 -
tracted to the use of air for dusting
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
q set of tiues from 81. by hand to
72 cents by the air device. By the use
of air motors we have reduced the
cost of tapping staybolt holes and
screwing in stay ybolts from $45 90 by
hand to $3.50 per new frebox. 1t
would also cost SITS per firebox to
drill the end of staybolts; with the
air motors it cost $4.62, a saving of
$13.16. Another advantage gained is
the difference in time now required to
apply a new tirebox and the time re-
quired before using compressed air,
we can now give an engine a general
overhauling, including new firebox,
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 a set of tires
for so cents and apply a set for 81 10
cents. This does not include labor,
but on account of the convenience of
the arrangement the cost of labor is
reduced materially.
|
spraying machines we have reduced
the cost of labor for painting cars APP
proximately 80 per cent. We use the
same spraying machine for white
washing at a cost, for labor and ma
terial on plain surfaces, of one cent
per square yard. We have our freight
yard, or cripple tracks, equipped with
air. Here we use the spraying ma
chine on freight cars and test air
brakes on freight and passenger equip
ment We also use on these tracks,
and to great advantage, air motors for
boring holes necessary in the applica-
ton of air brakes and for other re-
pairs to cars. We have device for
pressing jaws of bottom connections
and push rods of air brakes into 12
inch pipe and then crimping the pipe
to the malleable iron jaw; this also is
operated by air. We have a number
of small air. breast drills which we use
for drilling the ends of staybolts, etc,
u man receiving IA cents an hour
drills from twenty eight to thirty stay