The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-08-03

& tunte, al as the trade i knows them,
that would have seemed out Of the.
question . few years ago, are now done
readily BY especially devised ma hinery
and the impromptu ingenious devices
.of competent foremen. The steel frame
OF even the highest sky-scraper ID now
put an ordinary: piece Of work, the sole
trick being to reduce the time record.
On the Cleveland and Ohio bridge,
girders Weighing flfty-five tons each
were swung aloft, and one reliable old
lron man tells of how he has seen q:
weight of sixty-three> tons in mid-air.
The new Quebec bridge, the iron
work of which will be commenced this
summer, is said to have the longest
ana heaviest span in the world. It's
channel span will be 1900 feet long and
$4,000 tons Of iron will. be used in the
entire Job. =. At Dayton, Pa, there
stretches a viaduct between mountains
l,150 feet apart. 157 feet high. It was
built by a cable of an inch and half
diameter between the mountains. each
end held by two Skis timbers eighteen
feet long, buried twelve feet in the
ground. On trolley running upon this
s~~S AAOAA " d0 u1ONcu " L1S pICClSc SpOk
needed, Photographed" as the iron men
say. - -~I
The building Of a. "bridge" OF struc-
tural iron along the James river at
Richmond, Va, three and half miles
long and fifty feet high, is another Of
the interesting tasks the iron men have
been upon recently. The "traveler,"
which, moving upon each span as soon
as it was finished, and then carrying
the beams and girders in it's long iron
arms, placed them in their proper posi-
ton and held up the entire span until
it's weight of 24o tons was complete and
it was all fastened together firmly, from
fifty feet overhead, is credited with be-
ing the finest traveller ever built. 1t
was 246 feet long and weighed $40 TONS
To hold it in position when it was bear
ing the weight of each nearly complet-
ed new span, it had on it's back end
four carloads of iron and rails, weigh
ing 120 tons in all.
With workers themselves it is the
sudden, the unexpected, that always
happens. On the East River Bridge,
one day in February of this year, a
young. fellow stepped backwards off
his platform while passing on a rivet.
He shot down, feet foremost, with a
wild look Of terror on his face, his
mouth opened for one single scream.
The men of his gang caught one
glimpse of his face as it went over the
edge; and when the man was picked
up, his eyes were staring wide open,
looking upwards.
Among the things that iron men have
to fear are the flying off of red-hot
burrs from iron while riveting, the
breaking. Of planks, the giving way of
rigging, which, in an instant, may
bring down q derrick, a traveller, into
heap of collapsed iron.
But hear. the iron men and their own
stories. A group of them sat one night
in my presence and spun yarns. "Out
on the Louisville BRIDGE" said John,
as he took a fresh puff Of his cigar,
''the false work suddenly gave way.
The false work, you know" Ito me), us
the temporary wood bracing we work
upon while building. The men below
could see it buclkling: the fellers on top
knew when they started to work on it
in the morning that 1t wasn't saft. All
at once, as say, it went. One Of the
fellers made jump for the river. 1t
was 200 feet down, but he tried it, AS
he jumped he interlocked his legs Che
had on big heavy boots)., Those boots
weight carried him down straight. He
struck the water on his feet and wasn't
hurt at all. A few days later he was
out walking, slipped, fell three feet and
broke a leg. That's true; I knew the
man."
"A Teller fell twenty-five feet once in
Pittsburgh" put in another man, "in
sand, too, and broke his neck"
THAT shows you how it's goes" said
Billy. "You can never tell. remember
a man who was standing on traveller
up eighty mine feet. The light of line
that; was picking Dip a stick of timber
swung over and took him off his feet
knocking them right from under him.
But he came down square on those feet
of his, let me tell you, after falling the
whole eighty-nine and the only harm il
did him was to. drive his hip up four
inches. That was ALL 49,,
II had the strangest experience once, y
said one of the youngest of the crowd
! "All Of US know how the burrs fly while
| riveting is going on. A piece Of red
hot metal, small as it is, If it hits in thu
right spot, will put mans eye out
That wasn't the way with me. I've two
good eyes left. But I happened to have
my mouth open and the red-hot burr
flew right in my throat. It burned the
4 roof Of my mouth badly, and then dug
into my right cheek, somehow. But the
doctor at the hospital could never find
the bit. They thought it must have
worked out in some way and that
must have swallowed it,.
do you remember the. span over the
South Channel at Cornwall, Ontario
| in 1898? lean tell you exactly the time
1T was almost noon, on the sixth >o1
September, on Tuesday-when thu
pier gave way. There were sixteen mer
killed in that. The bridge was almos
finished, and was. ready to turn ovel
to the railroad people in week or two
It had three camel back spans, and it,
piers were supposed to be on blue hare
pan. A. coffer5 dam had been built owe,
one Of these and filled up with, con
srete and cement. Big, solid block.
1 of stone had been put upon that. A.
1--WE had been given the foundation.
! for it all right, and we'd put our iro1
work on that. There was big trav,
eler up, and when the pier gave ane