The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1899-08-15
ECONOMY OF AIR POWER.
Used in a Number of Ways in R4ilway
Shops.

doubt in the minds Of engineers about
the immediate displacement of horses
by air-driven automobile trucks, there
is no dispute as to the value and ham
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 excsyating operations. One
of the most interesting of recent de-
scriptions OF such uses is contained
in paper read before the Western
Railway club by Mr.. B. Haskell, SUI
Iperintendent of motive power of the
Chicago & Western Michigan rail
way.
Mr.. Haskell says he took an old To-
connective boiler for an air reservoir
and attached to this a six-inch and an
eight-inch air pump and kept up
pressure Of air of 50 pounds to the
inch. With this he did variey of
work.
eve began" he says, t"using air for
The purpose Of testing our locomotive
boilers to maximum pressure, for
blowing out steampipes, steam ports
and cylinders, previous to putting in
pistons, and for the purpose of run
ming locomotives from the machine
shop to the roundhouse, and vice
versa. To load car with wheels on
skids required the time of six men fol
II hours, the equivalent of nine hours
for ona man at cost of $102. With
the usA Of an air hoist four men can
do the Sork in 20 minutes at cost of
Is cents, saving Of 81 cents per car
load. All heavy castings are quickly
loaded or unloaded, 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 fire kinder; this
also required 20 pounds of air to force
the fuel oil to the burners; by the use
of air and the fire kinder we reduced
the cost of kindling a fire in loco
motive from 9.54 cents for wood to
1877 cents in favor of the kinder
operated by air, saving of 8.27 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 we're able to frost
a deck glass for II cents per glass, la
Dor and material, saving of 60 cents.
Our attention was next attracted to
the use of air for busting coach seats,
seat backs, carpets and the interior
of passenger cars. One man can re-
move the cushions and seat backs and
thoroughly dust them and also blow
all the dust out of the interior of the
coach and have the car ready for serv-
ice in three hours, and do a much bet
ter job than is possible by the old
way, which required ten hours. In
this operation we save 81 cents per
each cleaned.
"By the use of pneumatic hammers
we have reduced the cost of beading
a set of fues from $3.50, by hand, to
70 cents, by the air device. By the
use of air motors we have reduced
the cost of tapping staybolt holes and
screwing in staybolts from $4590, by
hand, to $3.50, per new frebox. 1t
would also cost $17.78 per frebox to
drill the ends of staybolts; with the
air motors it costs $4.62, saving of
$13.16. Another advantage gained
is the difference in time now required
before using compressed air; We can
now give an engine general over
hauling, including a new frebox, in
less than 80 days. A few years ago it
required 60 to 70 days to do the same
work. We use compressed air with
portable FORCES for heating the rivets,
also for strengthening locomotive
frames, when bent by accident, with
out taking them off of the engine.
We also use air and gas for removing
and applying driving wheel tires. We
can remove a set of tires for 80 cents
and apply set for S74 cents. Thu
does not include labor, but ON az
count of the convenience of the al
rangement the cost of labor is reducet
materially.
"Since the introduction of the
paint spraying machines we have re-
duced the cost Of labor for painting
cars approximately 90 per cent. We
use the same spraying machine for
withdrawing at a cost, for labor and
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