The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-05-24

country-and there is ine same COM
plant in Canada-and it may be be-
cause they are not properly made, or
it may be because tue traffic is too
heavy, or it may Nbe that these two
possible causes are working in combi-
nation, heavy traffic revealing the de-
fects of. construction sooner than the
lighter traffic used 10, Recently pub
Iished statistics show that there were
first three monts of 1907 or four times
as many as in 1906. The same thing is
going on elsewhere. Nj Hartman an
nounces that 449 rails broke on his
rails laid within six months. Those
figures seem to sustain the contention
Of the railroads that there is careless
ness in the manufacture of steel rails;
for the life of a well made steel rail
ought to be more than six months.
Defects readily creep into the man
u~facture of steel rails. They should
be rolled until the exact point in the
cooling process where they have the
greatest degree Of tenacity has been
reached, but as, owing TO their shape,
they cool unevenly, the thinest parts
cooling first, the possibility of defec-
tive manufacture is said to be consid-
cradle. Impurities in the metal cause
what is known as piping which pro-
duces cavities and consequence weak
ness. These impurities exist in what
is called the pipe" Of a steel ingot,
which might be cut off before the rail
was made; but hat would greatly in
crease the cost.
Other defects, such as blow holes,
may exist in a rail, and be due, of
course, to defects in construction.
Railroad managers. too, assert, that
they cannot get rails made according
to their own specifications, but have
to take them as the manufacturers
choose to make them. The steel max
ers appear to deny this, but the mills
have been crowded with business in
the last few years, and it is not unlike
y that orders according to specifica-
ton are slow TO be filled. It is always
more easier, and quicker and more
profitable to turn out a standard arti-
Gle than to vary it slightly according
to specifications suiting a purchaser.
In the present rushed condition of the
steel business it may we'll be difficult
for railroads to obtain anything but
the standard rails turned out by the
mills according to their own formula
and plans.
On the other hand it is by no means
clear why the manufacture of steel
rails should become so suddenly demon
allied as to account for the fact, that
are proving excessively defective. The
great rush Of work in the mills might
cause carelessness, but it is hard to
see how such carelessuess should be
permitted to persist in the fact of
the discrimination Ct railroads to
abandon Bessemer process rails for op-
en- hearth rails, this means a loss of
business to flost mills and the cost
Of installing open hearth plants, which
most mills have not. The great in
crease in the weight Of rolling stock,
especially freight locomotives and cars
is a recent development, and undoubt-
eddy increases 1.-THE strain ON rails.
Perhaps the heavier traffic requires
heavier but better made rails than for
merly served. 1t is an Interesting
question. The conclusions of the
committee investigating the subject for
the United States Steel Corporation
will be important.
Breaking rails are a serious matter.
They may cause bad wrecks. The loss
from the breaking alore is a big item,
for a ninety pound rail cost almost
S14.-New York Tribune.
MY Rest Friend.