The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-01

soled, hob-nailed shoes, Tapping leather
aprons, and thick hand-leathers. This
had to be done to protect them from
| burning. A man might wear q starched
| shirt and tfin-soled patent-leather shoes
| in rod-mill of today. AS for injuries,
| they will be rare indeed, because care is
taken to protect the workmen, and there
are few Of them in proportion to those
| attending the old mills
In the modern mill referred to six up
right boilers, with a capacity Of 1900
horsepower. furnish the steam These
are operated by mechanical stokers. The
coal-bins are overhead, and the coal is
unloaded from the cars at a railroad sid
ing at the door, and the only men who
handle the coal from the time 1t is IN
loaded until it becomes ashes under the
boilers are one or two who ecrape it out
Of the corners Of the freight-car From
the same railroad siding a forty ton
crane swings over the cars and unloads
steel billets with one lift, the material
where it is needed. The heating fur
naces can be charged with billets thirty
feet long and from two to four inches
square. The size formerly used to be
about six feet long and four to six inches
thick. The furnaces are heated by pro-
Queer gas. Slack coal is run from a hop
per and is disintegrated by heat all the
smoke, volatile matter and gas going
into the heating furnace to be consumed.
This is a solution Of the smoke question.
The heat thrown of from the furnace is
collected by air draughts and forced
again into the gas-producer by a blower
to make gas, and the heat units are uti-
!ized over and over again, nothing going
to waste.
The furnaces are charged mechanically. |
No human hand touches the steel bill |
let. 1t is grasped in a clutch and car |
ried into the rear OF the furnace with q |
rush, one succeeding each other in rapid |
succession. Inside the furnace a revolv- |
Ing tray keeps showing the hot billets in
to position for the gripper at the other |
end to seize the billet when heated
door was opened by a lever with a steel
weight attached, to which would be ad-
ded a human weight The billets were
poked in with tongs and bars, turned
over by hand, and rooted around to keep
one end from burning while the other
was but cherry red. The opening Of this
huge door let much Of the heat out, and
Il kept the mill idle a long time waiting
until the billets were hot enough to make
a run. From morning until night a con-
slant string of cold steel goes in at one
end and comes out at the other, a small
door closing automatically behind each
bar as it leaves the furnace
The billet is fed into the rolls by the
same power that drags it from the fur
mace. After passing through the first
set . rolls the first human aid is used
to pass it farther: a man called a "pass-
ar" with a pair Of tongs carrying the
rod to the next set of rolls. circular
book OF iron which looks like an up
tight CaPstan aboard ship, protects hi b
egs, CT the hot piece might saw them
IF in an instant, as the bar travels at
he rate of $50 feet minute, increasing !
n sped as it passes through each succeed {
ng set of rolls. This must be done to 5
AXE up the slack, else. as the metal is J
.hinned down by rolling from inches to !
5 Of an inch,a long string of metal would I
accumulate at one roll waiting to be TAX
N up by the next. The steel would cool :
md tear before being finished. 1t takes ,
hree ''passers'' with the boss roller. who / :;
> lSSpOIlSlUlS LOT lIle SSlJlng OIL the rolls =
a task requiring years of experience,) an 9
assistant roller, and two heaters, to ope- 9
ate the new mill against 46 to so men In
he old mill, one turn.
AS the rod which was a billet emerges
rom the last roll, finished, a gripper :
aries it rapidly to a platform, where it
! Strengthened and then carried on a
raveling conveyor $50 feet to the end OF
he building, where a shear and cutting
able finish the mechanical equipment. A 4
hearman cuts the rod to lengths, passes |
back on a conveyor travelling to the l
torage-bins, where the rods are piled c
There 1t remains until a l
en-ton travelling overhead crane takes a
p a load big enough to fill oue-third of o
freight-car for shipment
The building in which all this is done il
! 80 feet long and 45O feet wide, but b
My 400 feet of this Is used for all the
Machinery, the remainder being used for Y
torage-room the largst in the world. Y