Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-07-15

f.40O dec. F. by tbs combustion OF
the metal. The cut Is as smooth as
a sheared out and requires little or
no finishing. The chemical compo-
sition and physical properties of the
material are not affected beyond
distance of 100 inch from the cut.
The precision of the cut varies from
1-25 inch in plates less than two
inches thick to 1-6 inch in the thick.
est objects, and the width of the cut
varies from u to 1-5 of the thickness.
Armor plates can be cut in one-twen-
tieth of the time required for mechani-
cal cutting, and the sharply local.
lied heating probably causes less
strain than punching and shearing
develop. If oxygen costs 2 cents and
hydrogen two-thirds of a cent per
cubic foot, the cost of cutting an iron
plate As inch thick is about ia
cents per running foot-about hall
the cost of mechanical cutting.
The advantages of the process are
we'll illustrated by the following ex-
amples, taken from actual practice.
In the dust catcher of blast furnace,
made of 1s-inch plates, seven open
ings for branch pipes, each 8 feet
in diameter, and four holes over
feet in diameter, were cut by two
men In six hours at total cost, for
labor, gas. etc., of $l5.50. 1t would
have taken two men at least two
days to cut one of the large holes
with hammer and chisel.
A brace plate for locomotive base
was cut out of steel plate 3-5 inch
thick in one hour. The aggregate
length of cutting was % feet.
A sinikhead inches thick and 16
inches long was removed from a steel
casting in 4 minutes with 40 cents
worth of gas. A sinkhead ~ inches
thick and 10 inches long was cut from
the fange of a valve case in three
minutes. Three runners about
inches thick and with an aggregate
length of 80 inches, were cut neatly
from the fanges of another valve case
in eleven minutes, at a cost OF 81
cents. The removal of runners and
sinkheads with planning and shaping
machines is a very difficult, tedious
and expensive operation; and after
1t is completed 1t is necessary to
send the castings back from the ma
chine shop to the foundry to be an
nealed. The oxhydric process is ap-
piled in the foundry to castings from
the mould, which are annealed before
they go to the machine shop for fin
ishing.
The dome OF a blast furnace was re-
moved by cutting it into four parts
with the oxhydric apparatus. The
actual cutting was done In seventy
minutes, and the furnace, with It's
new dome, resumed operations two
days sooner than would have been
possible with the methods usually
employed. An old cruiser, containing
14-inch armor and guns 8 feet in ex-
ternal diameter, was reduced to scrap
ready for the furnace in two and a
half months. The old method would
have required eighteen months.
In cutting up scrap precision IS
not required, and consequently very
rapid progress can be made. Four
tons of scrap can be cut up in day
by apparatus controlled by one man.
With the oxhydric process the work
can be done at any place, thus saw
ing transportation charges, and far
more cheaply than by the old meth
DDS. The process has already been
adopted, for cutting scrap, by nearly
800 railroad machine shops, shipyards
and other Establishments
American.