New-York tribune., 1900-10-28
LLOYD's AGENT IN STEEL NILS
HE TESTS THE PITTsBURG PRODUCT THAT
GOES INTO MERCHANT SHIPS

People who are not interested in business
way in the subject of shipping seldom know
what is meant by the description of a ship as OF
two thousand tons register or why tons
register is not the same as displacement" or
why any register should enter into the subject
at all, or, if it does, what register" on the
other hand good many people know that the
register of all shipping is Lloyds Register, and
it is vaguely understood that a merchant ship.
no matter what flag it carries, is all the better
for being rated a 1" at Lloyd's. There is a
further question which most people still
more willing to leave in the vague, and that is
How does Lloyd come to know much about
two-thirds of all the merchant ships a7oat that
his guarantee of their seaworthiness is accepted
everywhere without question?
Lloyd's Register of Merchant Ships is an in
stitution which grew up in the middle of the
last century in London coffee house, where
merchants congregated to hear and to give news
Of their several maritime ventures. In course
OF time it came to be accepted as safe intrust
ones cargo TO any ship that guaranteed on
the register kept at Lloyd's. But the degree Of
certainty in the knowledge. and with ii the
value of Loyd's certificate. has increased enoT-
mOusly since hulIs began to be built of steel,
and the strength of materials to be accurately
measured by means of scientifically made ap-
paratus
=,
famous Register has long since become the
property of a sOuless corporation-is Omniscient
on the subject of ships and this omniscence IS
maintained by the employment not only Of ex-
pert agents in all the great shipbuilding centres
but of equally expert agents at the great centres
of steel manufacture Besides its agents IN
New-York and other great ports, who have
various kinds of work TO do, LlOyd's keeps a
special expert agent at Pittsburg, who has moth
ing to dc but test the steel turned out there tor
use in the building of merchant ships With the
testing Of armor plates or of any material in
tended for use in the construction of war YES
sells this particular expert has no concern.
The Lloyd's agent at Pittsburg has to he con-
tnuaIly at the beck Of large number of mills
| mostly at Homestead. a suburb of Pittsburg on
the opposite bank OF the Monongahela River
When any mill has a sufficient number Of tons
I of shpbuidng steel ready the agent IS nouhed
to come and make the tests, without which the
| steel will not be accepted 10y the shipbuiders.
These tests are purely mechanical not chemical
! niece is nipped off any beam. plate or
! what not at any point and OF whatever size
the examiner NAV choose to indicate. and sub
| mitted to the double test for both tensile and
| bending strains. In common language the steel
is tested to see how much weight 1t VIII bear
without pulling out like hot candy, and again
with a view TO the pressure necessary to make II
| bulge like an overpacked bandboX- These tests
! are applied by means Of accurately graded ma
| chimes which the unintiated might easily mis-
take for weighing machines, and which are sup
Piled and kept in order by the mills. though al
ways subject to the insI ection and approval or
the LIoyd's man. Every separate piece tested
by these means and found satisfactory is marked
| by the examiner ana the mark entered 10y him
| in the invoice which is 10 be forwarded TO the
LIoyds agent at the port from which the mate
| rial Will be shipped.
| The LIoyd's agent al PiJtsburg is the only one
| at present engaged in this particular work n
the United states. though there are several such
scattered about among he great steel manufaet-
uring centres Of Great Britain and Continental
| Europe. Naturally the Pittsburg Lloyd : man
| has a particularly busy time. His work varies
! frcm month to month. the present month giving
him something like three thousand tons Of steel
to test and last month five thousand. A large
quantity of snipbuildins steel was tested al the
| various Carnegie mills in the tearfuny not
| weather of last summer. while in the spring
Iloyd's agent al Pittsburs had almost nothing 10
| do The work. however, demands a SpecliillN'' l.
and the pay taking ore month with another
must amount to something like the income If a
prosperous New-York lawyer OF physician.