Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-06-21

One of the most important industries
in Central Pennsylvania, both as re-
CARDS excellence Of product and num-
Der of persons employed is tie Will
liamspaIt (Pa.) Iron and Mil Works,
on the South Side. The MAJ Ike, for the
output Is the wa-!d. Tho visitor to the
WilliamEport nail works IS tons
upon tons Oi stSsl ord pig iron piled
about outside the buildings. The first
stage of the process IN the manufac-
ture of iron nails is the taking of
some OF these pieces Of pig iron and
throwing them into several pudding
furnaces, in which great fires burn.
The fires are produced by gas and they
are always burning excepting when
q furnace needs repairing. Above the
furnaces Is an arrang ment which
converts the gas that goes up through
the pipe into power for running the
machinery CT the works. in one OF
these furnaces the pig ron is melted
to liquid, when the impurities run
off, leaving only the pure iron, which
is supposed to be without fleck or flaw.
The puddler who tends furnace has
a job Which requires great skill and
endurance With a long iron bar
which he insei Is through the doorway
OF the furnace he separates pieces OF
metal as they become lumpy. aud COM
poses them Tito Jumps Of the size re-
quired for the next process Tais man.
Just as the others who manipulate the
heated metal. is lightly clothed, but
the sweat pours from his body In
streams, and the great muscles In his
arms and chest swell and recede with
the laboriousness of his task. Yet
these men are all excellent specimens
of strength and health. The most re-
markable thing about the work is that
1t does not destroy or even impair the
eyesight of the employees. The process
of melting iron in a furnace corre-
spends closely to the boiling OF ta1y
on a kitchen stove, and when 1t gets
lumpy the taf;y process is carried out
still farther. and only the pulling is
done while the iron is red hot One
of the Jumps, weighing about 200
pounds, is dumped out, into truck
and taken quickly to the "squeezer."
corrugated cylinder revolving within
a drum, which shapes the metal into
cylindrical form about three feet long
and one foot in diameter. Then the
piece of iron, still red hot is grasped
by pair Of tongs suspended from the
ceiling and shifted over to the "muck
rolls" a series of rolls of different dis
tances apart, which gradually roll the
iron as 1t is passed through them into
a long, slender stick of wrought iron,
called a muck bar. The muck bars are
passed on and are cut by great pair
of shears, propelled by machinery, into
pro,er lengths for piling. The lengths.
now cold, are tied into piles In the
form of cubes, which In turn are
thrown into the great heating furnace
to be heated to welding heat and pre-
pared for the plate rolls" The muck
rolls transformed the crude iron into
a bar; now the plate rolls will trans
form the pile made up of pieces OF the
bar into long, thin plates. The proc
ess is the same as making the muck
bar, except that the rolls here are
broader. With a pair Of tongs sus-
pended from the ceiling and manipu-
lated by a skillful pair of hands one
of the piles is taken from the furnace
when it has been heated to the proper
consistency and run through the vari-
GUS rolls, until 1t energies at the other
side, squirming and undulating like a
flaming serpent. 1t is now the thick
ness of the nail for which 1t is intend
ed, about IA inches wide and IL or Is
feet long. The plate hardens quickly
and Is passed on Immediately to an
automatic plate shears, where 1t is cut
into proper widths, corresponding with
the various lengths of nails. After be-
ing weighed the pieces are taken in
wheelbarrows out to the nail factory
proper, where they are cut into nails
from three-fourths of an inch up to
nine inches in length and proportion
ate thicknesses. Before being put
through the nail cutting machines the
pieces are heated In another furnace
which makes them yield more easily
to the strong steel knives which cut
them up into nails at the rate of any
where from so to 160 minute, according
to the size of the nail. These machines
are operated by men and boys, but
they require little tending, as, except
ing for the very large nails, they are
self feeding and almost entirely auto
matte. After being cut the nails are
placed in a revolving metal drum,
called "bluer." which is heated red,
and by this simple means they are
given fresh blue color.-Pennsylva-