Mr. Westinghouse on American methods in steel-making

              FEBRUARY 14, 1903. Scientific American 111
sixteenth of an inch possibly; but with such crude
workmanship metallic packing rings were not pos­sible,
so recourse was had to hempen gaskets, driven
in tightly between the piston and cylinder wall. It
is not so very long ago that this method was still in
use, for I have seen it put in in m y day. With mod­ern
machine tools cylinders can now be perfectly
bored, and as a result there is no occasion for jamming
rings tightly into cylinders, a snug fit being all that is
required; but it is necessary with this plan that the
piston flanges should fill the cylinder, with no allow­ance
for clearance, beyond that needed to let the
piston move freely in the cylinder without touching
it. Some very large cylinders and pistons have been
made in this way with the best results, especially in
the direction of revolutions per minute of the crank­shaft.
Friction being very much reduced, permits of
increased piston speed.
\ Now that higher steam pressures are employed, and
superheated steam is introduced, in many plants me­tallic
packing of whatever description is giving more
or less trouble, from the fact that hot metal bearing
upon hot metal with any pressure at all does not be­have
satisfactorily; and designers are casting about
for relief in this direction. Were it not for mineral
oils with a high flash point, superheated steam en­gines
would be impracticable, and even this makeshift,
so to call it, does not wholly overcome the cutting of
surfaces in contact. Gasoline and other explosive en­gines
which generate high temperatures in their cyl­inders,
experience the same trouble; and if it Is pos­sible
to devise a piston which shall be immune from'
all derangements by excessive beat, a great advance
will have been made. I a m of the opinion that it can,
and suggest, as one medium, plumbago rings of special
design to suit the work required. As this substance
is entirely neutral toward expansion and contraction,
and capable of being molded into permanent forms
suitable for packing rings, 1 do not now see any rea­son
which would render plumbago rings impracticable.
Confined as they would be in a cast-iron case, and not
subjected to shock or jar, they should last a long time,
with the possible exception of wear by attrition. This
last would certainly give trouble for a short time until
the cylinder became of mirror-like surface and pol­ish;
but when this is obtained, f believe that difficul­ties
experienced with all metal rings would disappear
for the work previously mentioned.
There is room for a great diversity of form' and de­tail
in the application of plumbago rings for packing,
and the best and cheapest cannot be predicated; trial
and error will show the fittest, and an experiment to
determine this would cost so little that, from m y point
of view, it is worth a trial. E. P. W.
ME. WESTINGHOUSE ON AMEEICAN METHODS IN
STEEL-MAKING.
At a banquet given in London recently to a large
company of British railway men, financiers, and scien­tists
Mr. George Westinghouse made a noteworthy
speech, in which he graphically compares European
and American methods of steel-making.
Lord Kelvin had previously spoken of American
methods. Mr. "Westinghouse remarked that one of the
English difficulties is inherent in an old-world, highly
developed country. After a nation bas worked pros­perously
for a long time, it opposes improvement or
suggestion, thinking: Success with the old, discour­ages
the introduction of the new. In America, how­ever,
the necessities have produced different results.
Lord Kelvin said that England sent many men to
America. Mr. Westinghouse acknowledged that, and
added that it had also sent many ideas. The American
patent records, patent decisions in infringement suits.
show that among the references many inventions are
of English origin, some of them containing ideas so
complete, the wonder is that the inventions disclosed
were not established fully and completely in your own
land. These records seem to show that Americans and
Englishmen have invented the same thing many times.
America has always been short-handed with regard
to labor. Manufacturers have been obliged to find
methods whereby one man may accomplish the work
of two or three men as compared with your practice
here. The works of the country have bad the best
men from Europe: Englishmen; Germans, French,
everybody—-skilled men, highly trained men, as well
as laboring men; their experience has been combined
with that of Americans, and thus there have been
achieved results unattainable in a country like Eng­land,
where there is more labor than can well be kept
employed.
As an illustration of what has been accomplished by
the use of electricity in a great industry, Mr. Westing­house
cited the Homestead Mills of tbe Carnegie Com-
.pany. "Mr. Schwab," said Mr. Westinghouse, "is a
genius in his way, particularly in the management of
men, Mr. Carnegie believed in him, and If Mr. Schwab
made a suggestion in regard to the use of new appli­ances,
even if it involved the tearing down of an old
mill and putting up a new one, the new one was
ordered. What Mr. Schwab thought should be done,
was done. As a result of such progressiVeness we may
see the splendid mills at Homestead where they pro­duce
with about 4,000 men three times as much steel
as the Krupp works produce with 15,000 men. The
results are simply wonderful. You can start there to­day,
in a building containing steel-melting furnaces,
and you will there see three men mounted on a car
with the charging apparatus which is moved and op­erated
by electricity. With a few movements of this
ingenious contrivance three men charge twenty fur­naces,
which prior to the use of electricity, would
have- required the labor of over 200 men.
"You may go into the yard of the Homestead Mills
where they pile the metal in stock. This yard is cov­ered
by a system of overhead cranes, and the result
is that not only here, but in the mill, and in every
other place, you may see great weights lifted and
many undertakings going on without a single man
exerting himself a bit."
Continuing, Mr. Westinghouse said: "I took some
English friends to Homestead. Mr. Schwab, after
guiding us through several departments, said: 'I
will now show you where we turn out 750 tons of
plate girders per day.' The mill was in the shape of
an 'L.' W e went into the short end of the 'L' where
the furnaces were fed by natural gas, of course re­quiring
no stokers. The end at which .we entered had
a rather low roof, and there was in sight a contrivance
like a battering ram in front of the furnaces; two
workmen were sitting down eating their dinners near
by; no one else was present. I thought: 'Mr. Schwab
has made a mistake, he has asked us to see a mill that
is not in operation.' But we went through the mill,
which was about 200 feet long; and suddenly we heard
a rattle and then saw a truck approaching loaded with
a big ingot. No one touched the truck or the ingot.
The load came to a platform, tbe crane overhead
dropped a pair of tongs and quickly put the ingot on
the roller table, and as it moved to the great rolls, it
was automatically kept in place. The adjusting screws
of the rolls were turned by little electric motors, and
not a m a n in that house did a bit of work. W e went
back to the furnaces. There was a fifteen-year-old
boy seated in a little place called the 'pulpit.' He
was able, merely by the movement of levers, to open
at will any of the furnace doors and move the car
along. And we saw this car come in front of a fur­nace
and the charging machine approach, and take out
of the open furnace a hot ingot which was dropped on
the car and moved off to its wont. There was this boy
doing absolutely no hard work, and his mill was turn­ing
out 750 tons of steel plate eacb day. My English
friends said: 'England has no chance in competition
with such methods.' "
All this came about in America because of our
necessities. There were not enough men to do the
work. There was a premium in favor of those who
could invent machines to work and thus supply the
deficiency.
"At tbe Carnegie Mills," Mr. Westinghouse narrated.
"we went to see three blast furnaces. They were
making 1,800 tons of pig-iron in twenty-four hours.
W e saw only two or three men on a truck, which was
moved automatically. These men were letting the
ore run from shoots and mixing it in the required
quantity, and when they had filled a truck, it was
carried up and its contents dumped into a furnace
whence it returned for another load. They were run­ning
the metal into an immense receptacle into which
the metal from all three furnaces was mixed. From
this place the metal was taken as required, put into a
special tank, mounted on a car and taken to Home­stead,
two or three miles away, to be poured into the
furnaces; one heating only was required."
LIGHTNING STRIKES THE NIAGAEA P O W E E PLANT.
BT OKEIN E. DFNLAP.
The Niagara Falls Power Company suffered from a
very remarkable disaster on the night of Thursday,
January 29, when lightning struck the cables in the
covered bridge that connects the generating station
with the transformer house. This bridge is a stone
structure having a slate roof, and crosses the inlet
canal. At one end of it stands power bouse No. 1, in
which 50,000 horse power is generated at a voltage of
2,200. The greater portion of this vast amount of
current is conducted by the cables of 1,000,000 cm.
capacity across the bridge to the transformer station.
The bolt of lightning that came out of the January
sky shortcircuited the cables on the bridge, and fire
started. Before it was extinguished tbe interior of
the bridge and transformer station, as well as the
roof of both, had been badly damaged, while the cable
connections across the bridge were totally destroyed.
Water thrown into the transformer station by the
firemen wet several of the huge transformers, and
these were useless until dried out.
Tbe destruction of the cables on the bridge caused
no end of trouble, for it made impossible the distribu­tion
of the 50,000 horse power of the station, with the
exception of the rotary service supply to the local
electric lines, the arc light station, and the Natural
Food Company. None of the generators were injured.
However, the electric power supply of several of the
tenants on the Power Company's lands, as well as that
of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Electric line, the
Lockport-Buffalo line, and of industrial establishments
in the Tonawandas, Lockport, and Buffalo, was wholly
cut off. All the Niagara power sent to Buffalo passed
across the cables on the burned bridge, in order that
its voltage might be raised in the transformer station,
and Buffalo was without Niagara power for its light­ing
and trolley service. It would have been hard to
find a more vital point at which to attack this great
and wonderful generating station. For a brief time the
machines in both of the big power houses were shut
down; but as soon as it was found to be possible,
which was within an hour or so, the local trolley and
lighting services were renewed.
While several of tbe industrial establishments at
Niagara Falls were forced to shut down, the Buffalo
and Lockport public fared much worse than Niagara
Falls, because in Buffalo Niagara power enters into
the lighting to a great extent, while the energy of
Niagara is also used for the operation of the Buffalo
and Lockport trolleys. All of the Buffalo manufactur­ing
establishments that have come to use Niagara
power remained idle on Friday, the day following the
Niagara fire, as did also several in the Tonawandas.
Lockport was also seriously inconvenienced. In Buf­falo
many of the papers use Niagara power in the
operation of their presses, and its absence forced
them to take their forms to other establishments that
had a source of power. In Buffalo the International
Traction Company greatly cut down the number of
cars operated. Its storage battery and steam1 plant
were brought into service.
The scene of the fire bad not bad time to cool ere
tbe repair work was in progress. Night and day the
men worked under the watchful inspection of Supt.
Barton. By noon Friday tbe company was prepared
to send 10,000 horse power to Buffalo, but as this was
about to be sent out a short circuit occurred, delaying
the transmission until about 4:30 P. M. Later an ad­ditional
5,000 horse power was furnished Buffalo. By
Saturday afternoon things were quite normal about
the big power plants, and all but one of the local ten­ants
of the Power Company were in the enjoyment of
a power supply. Of course, all the effects of the dis­aster
had not been eradicated, but the temporary cable
installation gave all desired service, and work went
on in the plants that had been idle.
While the extent of the disaster was severely felt, it
is probable that it could not have happened at a more
timely moment. It was approaching 11 P. M. on
Thursday, January 29, that the power service to Buf­falo
and other places was shut off, and at this hour
the necessity of light and power was small; and on
Friday before darkness fell, Buffalo was in receipt of
power for lighting, etc. The Niagara power plants are
protected by lightning arresters, but this January bolt
was unstopped by the apparatus, m a n had designed to
make it prisoner. Tbe electrical storm' broke over
Niagara Falls at noon Thursday, and at Echota, a sub­urb
of the city, the lightning struck a house. During
the evening there were many lightning flashes that
were very sharp, while tbe thunder was very heavy.
The damage to the cables alone was estimated at
$25,000, but this amount does not cover the loss that
was experienced.
It is now a theory of some of the electrical engi­neers
connected with tbe Niagara power development
that the lightning came in over what is known as the
Echota line. This line is an overhead construction
and runs along the poles under the transmission line,
branching off to go into tbe suburb of Echota. Its
purpose is to feed the lights in the village of Echota
and to supply power for the disposal works on the
lands of the Niagara Falls Power Company. Despite
the fact that it was midwinter, the lightning that
night was very sharp, and the idea is entertained that
after coming 'in over the line referred to, it started
a fire in the basement of the transformer station,
where probably it burned some few minutes, finally
causing a short circuit, which opened the circuit break­ers
at the south end of the power bouse No. 1. The
short circuit, it is supposed, set fire to the cable insu­lation,
the fire spreading to other cables located in the
vicinity. After the insulation of these had burned.
there was a general short circuit, which necessitated
using the emergency switch to open the fields of the
generators. It is thus believed that the fire originated
in the basement of the transformer station, and owing
to tbe draft or air currents the flames quickly spread
into and through the bridge over tbe inlet cable toward
the generating station.
The rapidity with which the necessary repairs were
made speaks well for the efficiency of the staff of the
power company. A less admirably equipped plant
might have been crippled for days.