Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-09-27
THE MODERN MACHINE SHOP.

"As compared with the old-time
shop. with its incessant clatter and
din" said shop superintendent, the
modern machine shop might almost
be described as noiseless. you USED
to hear in such places constant rat
Ting of wheels and more or less con-
tinuous pounding. Now you might go
through big shop from top to bot
tom and never hear hammer stroKe'
and instead of general jangle OF
sounds. you would only hear smooth,
uniform hum, a noise to be sure, out
not half so much involume as that
heard in the old-time shop, and actu-
ally musical as compared with 1t. All
this is due to vastly improved modern
methods of work and enormously I'M
proved modern machines. In OLD
times they used to chip and file all
fiat services. You can imagine what
sort of racket such work as that must
have made. Then we got the metal
planer. which did the work better, ana
of course, at far less cost, and whlch
gradually did away with most OF the
chipping and filing. The planer can
screech some now, but that doesn't
begin to make the noise it used to, ana
the noise it does make is not to De
compared with that Of the chippers
and filers. The old time gear wneels
were far more ratty and noisy than
those of today. Extensively USED IN
machine shops in one way and an
other, such wheels were formerly all
cast. Nowadays gear wheels LOT use
where such accuracy is desirable, are
made by automatic gear-cutting ma
chimes. which cut the teeth on them
with mathematical accuracy. Such
wheels as these are themselves BEAU
tiful productions of machine tool
work: and when they come to be
brought to use they make, of course,
with their perfect form and their nice
adjustment one to another, far less
noise than the old-time ordinary
cogged wheels. Another common
source OF noise in the old-time shop
was found in the pounding OF work OF
any sort that was to be turned on
arbors in the lathes. There is moth
ing of that sort, or next to nothing.
done in machine shops nowadays, that
is. in the shops with modern equip
ment. Such work is pressed on the
arbor, noiselessly, with a compound
screw. or by hydraulic power; or by
steam power, the work being pressed
off the arbor when finished, In like
manner. In old times when they
wanted to cut off bar of steel they
used to send for the blacksmith and
his helper, who would come In with
sledges and chisel and pound away at
IT, Now they would send such a bar
TO the eutting-off machine and have 1t
sawed off with no noise at all. Hack
saws. of course, are old, but nowadays
there are used for saving metals In
machine shops, lots of power mack
saws; these saving great deal or
time. aud incidentally sparing the
shop a whole lot of cold chiselirg and
hammering. In short, the work In
machine shops is nowadays more and
more of it being done by wonderful Ia
Dor and time-saving automatic ma
chine tools that are comparatively
noiseless in operation; and, in hand
ling the work, power is brought more
and more into use, and used more and
moro noiselessly. and So with these
improved methods and appliances, the
modern machine shop is far less noisy
than its old-time predecessor. New
York Sun.